John Grisham's head was full of movies when he wrote The Pelican Brief, which is such a brisk page-turner you could use it to dry your hair. He had Julia Roberts in mind for the heroine, Darby Shaw, a brilliant Tulane law student who comes up with an ingenious theory to explain the baffling assassinations of two Supreme Court justices in one day. They were shot and strangled by ace international terrorist Khamel, who loves the film Three Days of the Condor, but government gumshoes don't get what connects the deaths. Silly government guys! They died so the conservative president, who just wants to be left alone to play golf, will appoint new, conservative justices who will help out a case involving an industrialist who is the enemy of pelicans and other living things. It's all spelled out for them in Darby's brief. She likes to do legal feats to impress her boyfriend, her boyish law prof Thomas (who, like Grisham, prefers to shave at most once a week, and is cool, smart, and antiauthoritarian). The prof likes to paint her toes red, in homage to Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham. (Sarandon also starred in the film version of Grisham's The Client.)

But when Thomas gets splattered by a car bomb meant for Darby, she escapes the hospital and hooks up with a Washington Post reporter, Gray Grantham, who sleuths like the guys in All the President's Men.

Grisham wishes he hadn't written The Pelican Brief quite so quickly (his first novel, A Time to Kill, went through dozens of drafts), but Pelican's very breathlessness contributes to its dreamy, cinematic chase-o-rama atmosphere.


Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Anthony Heald gives an uncommonly compelling performance narrating this fast-paced legal thriller. The action begins with the fierce assassinations of two Supreme Court justices. Too unlikely to be coincidental, the murders have no identifiable connection until a young law student uncovers a hidden link, exposing herself and those around her to deadly consequences. Heald uses the flexibility of his voice to conjure up a large cast of diverse characters. He crafts his delivery expertly, heightening the already substantial suspense and carrying the story to its dramatic conclusion. (Running time: 6 hours, 4 cassettes) --George Laney


From Publishers Weekly
In this tale of the aftermath of the assassinations of two Supreme Court justices, Grisham delivers a suspenseful plot at a breakneck pace, although his characters are stereotypes. The hardcover was on the PW bestseller list 48 weeks and the mass market was No. 1 last week. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Grisham's story of the murder of two disparate Supreme Court Justices has a scope that could make abridgment difficult. Fortunately, all the plot threads are in place here: the sexual trysts, the murder investigation, and the political maneuverings which extend from the White House to the cloistered halls of the Supreme Court itself. A story this big has to be fun, and it is. While the reading seems tight at first, actor Anthony Heald soon warms to the material. Or perhaps the breakneck pace of the story takes over. The tapes are crisp and clear, and occasional music accentuates the suspense--adding to the fun. M.J.C. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Kirkus Reviews
Gripping legal suspenser by the author of last year's hallucinatory The Firm--and an even stronger performance than that still-current bestseller. Grisham also strikes gold with public awareness of the furor over the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Thomas. Where The Firm clamped into the reader's greed for the perks of a supersuccessful young lawyer in an almost fantasy law firm, Grisham's second is a tale that baits its own hooks with the lures of All the President's Men. That much of what happens here happens regularly in suspense novels (sudden stranglings and murders) in no way lessens the novel's intensity and feeling of freshness--a freshness that springs in both novels from Grisham's focus on top law students, cloistered brains who find themselves raw beginners in the real world but afloat on cash. Here, second-year law student at Tulane Darby Shaw sets out to solve the seemingly motiveless simultaneous murders of two largely liberal Supreme Court judges who were killed two hours apart on the same night. A lone assassin or a conspiracy? Clearly someone wants the conservative Republican president, a grandfatherly nerd mainly interested in his golf game, to pack the already conservative Court. Darby reviews hundreds of the Court's upcoming cases and sees only one that fulfills the breadth of evil needed to account for such desperate measures as double murder: a multibillion-dollar oil venture in Louisiana that will kill off the state's beloved but endangered brown pelican. Darby's brief on this ``fictional'' case finds its way to the White House, the FBI, and the CIA. Then Darby's lover, her constitutional-law professor, to whom she has shown the brief, is blown up in a car-bomb explosion meant also to have killed Darby. The story's vitality springs from Grisham's relentless enlivening of Darby's fears as she flees about the country in a closing web of killers while trying to help Washington Post reporter Gray Grantham get the goods on the baddies in a newsbreak bigger than Watergate. Must entertainment for legal folk. Should outsell The Firm. (Literary Guild Dual Selection for May) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Gripping... a genuine page-turner. Grisham  is a skillful craftsman." -- The New  York Times Book Review.

"Grisham  has done it again!" -- Chicago  Tribune.

"A fast-paced thriller...  it's got the unmistakable Grisham style --  conspiracy in high places, evil and innocent lawyers,  assassins and a plot that will keep you reading into  the small hours of the morning." --  The Cincinnati Post.


Review
"Gripping... a genuine page-turner. Grisham  is a skillful craftsman." -- The New  York Times Book Review.

"Grisham  has done it again!" -- Chicago  Tribune.

"A fast-paced thriller...  it's got the unmistakable Grisham style --  conspiracy in high places, evil and innocent lawyers,  assassins and a plot that will keep you reading into  the small hours of the morning." --  The Cincinnati Post.


Book Description
In suburban Georgetown a killer's Reeboks whisper on the front floor of a posh home... In a seedy D.C. porno house a patron is swiftly garroted to death... The next day America learns that two of its Supreme Court justices have been assassinated. And in New Orleans, a young law student prepares a legal brief... To Darby Shaw it was no more than a legal shot in the dark, a brilliant guess. To the Washington establishment it was political dynamite. Suddenly Darby is witness to a murder -- a murder intended for her. Going underground, she finds there is only one person she can trust -- an ambitious reporter after a newsbreak hotter than Watergate -- to help her piece together the deadly puzzle. Somewhere between the bayous of Louisiana and the White House's inner sanctums, a violent cover-up is being engineered. For somone has read Darby's brief. Someone who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable crime.


From the Publisher
In suburban Georgetown a killer's Reeboks whisper on the front floor of a posh home... In a seedy D.c. porno house a patron is swiftly garroted to death... The next day America learns that two of its Supreme Court justices have been assassinated. And in New Orleans, a young law student prepares a legal brief... To Darby Shaw it was no more than a legal shot in the dark, a brilliant guess. To the Washington establishment it was political dynamite. Suddenly Darby is witness to a murder -- a murder intended for her. Going underground, she finds there is only one person she can trust -- an ambitious reporter after a newsbreak hotter than Watergate -- to help her piece together the deadly puzzle. Somewhere between the bayous of Louisiana and the White House's inner sanctums, a violent cover-up is being engineered. For somone has read Darby's brief. Someone who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable crime.

"Gripping... a genuine page-turner. Grisham is a skillful craftsman." -- The New York Times Book Review.

"Grisham has done it again!" -- Chicago Tribune.

"A fast-paced thriller... it's got the unmistakable Grisham style -- conspiracy in high places, evil and innocent lawyers, assassins and a plot that will keep you reading into the small hours of the morning." -- The Cincinnati Post.


From the Inside Flap
In suburban Georgetown a killer's Reeboks whisper  on the front floor of a posh home... In a seedy  D.C. porno house a patron is swiftly  garroted to death... The next day America learns  that two of its Supreme Court justices have been  assassinated. And in New Orleans, a young law  student prepares a legal brief... To Darby Shaw it was  no more than a legal shot in the dark, a brilliant  guess. To the Washington establishment it was  political dynamite. Suddenly Darby is witness to a  murder -- a murder intended for her. Going  underground, she finds there is only one person she can  trust -- an ambitious reporter after a newsbreak  hotter than Watergate -- to help her piece together the  deadly puzzle. Somewhere between the bayous of  Louisiana and the White House's inner sanctums, a  violent cover-up is being engineered. For somone has  read Darby's brief. Someone who will stop at  nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable  crime.


From the Back Cover
"Gripping... a genuine page-turner. Grisham is a skillful craftsman." -- The New York Times Book Review. "Grisham has done it again!" -- Chicago Tribune. "A fast-paced thriller... it's got the unmistakable Grisham style -- conspiracy in high places, evil and innocent lawyers, assassins and a plot that will keep you reading into the small hours of the morning." -- The Cincinnati Post.

ANNOTATION

Published in March, 1991, The Firm was hailed by reviewers, booksellers, and readers alike, and soon became the number one bestseller across America. Now comes Grisham's equally gripping new novel: an unforgettable story that begins with the simultaneous assassinations of two Supreme Court justices. . . .

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In suburban Georgetown a killer's Reeboks whisper on the front floor of a posh home... In a seedy D.C. porno house a patron is swiftly garroted to death... The next day America learns that two of its Supreme Court justices have been assassinated. And in New Orleans, a young law student prepares a legal brief... To Darby Shaw it was no more than a legal shot in the dark, a brilliant guess. To the Washington establishment it was political dynamite. Suddenly Darby is witness to a murder -- a murder intended for her. Going underground, she finds there is only one person she can trust -- an ambitious reporter after a newsbreak hotter than Watergate -- to help her piece together the deadly puzzle. Somewhere between the bayous of Louisiana and the White House's inner sanctums, a violent cover-up is being engineered. For somone has read Darby's brief. Someone who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable crime.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In this tale of the aftermath of the assassinations of two Supreme Court justices, Grisham delivers a suspenseful plot at a breakneck pace, although his characters are stereotypes. The hardcover was on the PW bestseller list 48 weeks and the mass market was No. 1 last week. (Mar.)

AudioFile - Matthew J. Costello

Grisham￯﾿ﾽs story of the murder of two disparate Supreme Court Justices has a scope that could make abridgment difficult. Fortunately, all the plot threads are in place here: the sexual trysts, the murder investigation, and the political maneuverings which extend from the White House to the cloistered halls of the Supreme Court itself. A story this big has to be fun, and it is. While the reading seems tight at first, actor Anthony Heald soon warms to the material. Or perhaps the breakneck pace of the story takes over. The tapes are crisp and clear, and occasional music accentuates the suspense adding to the fun. M.J.C. ￯﾿ﾽAudioFile, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Gripping legal suspenser by the author of last year's hallucinatory The Firm—and an even stronger performance than that still-current bestseller. Grisham also strikes gold with public awareness of the furor over the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Thomas. Where The Firm clamped into the reader's greed for the perks of a supersuccessful young lawyer in an almost fantasy law firm, Grisham's second is a tale that baits its own hooks with the lures of All the President's Men. That much of what happens here happens regularly in suspense novels (sudden stranglings and murders) in no way lessens the novel's intensity and feeling of freshness—a freshness that springs in both novels from Grisham's focus on top law students, cloistered brains who find themselves raw beginners in the real world but afloat on cash. Here, second-year law student at Tulane Darby Shaw sets out to solve the seemingly motiveless simultaneous murders of two largely liberal Supreme Court judges who were killed two hours apart on the same night. A lone assassin or a conspiracy? Clearly someone wants the conservative Republican president, a grandfatherly nerd mainly interested in his golf game, to pack the already conservative Court. Darby reviews hundreds of the Court's upcoming cases and sees only one that fulfills the breadth of evil needed to account for such desperate measures as double murder: a multibillion-dollar oil venture in Louisiana that will kill off the state's beloved but endangered brown pelican. Darby's brief on this "fictional" case finds its way to the White House, the FBI, and the CIA. Then Darby's lover, her constitutional-law professor, to whom she has shown the brief, is blown up in acar-bomb explosion meant also to have killed Darby. The story's vitality springs from Grisham's relentless enlivening of Darby's fears as she flees about the country in a closing web of killers while trying to help Washington Post reporter Gray Grantham get the goods on the baddies in a newsbreak bigger than Watergate. Must entertainment for legal folk. Should outsell The Firm. (Literary Guild Dual Selection for May)