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Summary: The Pelican Brief
Review: John Grisham, who has written many best-sellers, authored The Pelican Brief. The book is about a legal brief written by the main character, Darby Shaw, who is a law student. Darby's document is her theory about who committed the double assassination of two Supreme Court justices. The book is fiction, set in present day Washington D.C. and New Orleans, Louisiana. Another main character is Gray Grantham, a news reporter for the Washington Post.During the course of the book, Darby Shaw witnesses a murder. She is the intended victim. Luckily, she survives by not being in the car when it explodes. At this point, she realizes that she is being followed. While she tries to get away from the killers, she desperately searches for someone she can trust. The person she turns to is Gray Grantham, who helps her find out who is trying to kill her and why. John Grisham weaves an intricate story as Shaw and Grantham attempt to solve the mystery. If I were to give this novel a rating from one to ten, it would be a seven. The book is very intriguing but lacks action. For those who like law stories, this would be a great book to read. For ones like me who like action books, I would recommend it, but not highly. There is a movie based on this novel which I think is more exciting than the book. I say that because the movie is easier to understand and it doesn't have statements meaningless to the story. The novel is written in the third person. I prefer a book written in the third person because it gives a broader perspective.
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Summary: Grisham In Fine Form
Review: Two Supreme Court Justices have been murdered. Many people suspect that the acts were by multiple assassains, and can't find any reason for the crimes, but out of nowhere comes a theory that shakes up the White House and a demented millionaire. Darby Shaw's theory, which is called the Pelican Brief, says that Victor Mattiece, a businessman who contributed heavily to the campaign of the current president, conspired to have the men killed so that he could drill for oil, even though it would kill the brown pelicans that inhabit that area. This book simply can't be put down once you start to read it. This is in the style of Grisham's masterful suspense thrillers, like The Firm, and is a very enjoyable reading experience. Its political plotting and pacing are immaculate, and if you liked any of Grisham's other novels, you will love this book.
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Summary: Thrilling read...
Review: The best John Grisham book I have read. Thriller with government and lawyer coverups. The book is much better than the movie. Grisham does a great job of getting you into Darby's situation and feelings. I enjoy his style of writing, not too heavy and not so predictable and simplistic as other writers.
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Summary: Quick Beach Read
Review: I've read most of Grisham's novels, and have to say 'The Pelican Brief' is not one of his best. Actually, he's never been able to surpass his first novel 'A Time to Kill', for characters and plot. The main character, Darby Shaw, is a law student who stumbles upon the conspirators of the assassinations of two Supreme Court Justices. Once this information is leaked she becomes their next target. Of course, she's smart enough not to get killed, but rather is able to escape the bad guys, and find a newspaper reporter who will run the story and blow the conspirators out of the water. Trouble is the reader doesn't know why Darby's running until two thirds into the book when Grisham finally reveals the contents of the brief. It's evident that this work of fiction was really meant to be a movie script and not a novel. A quick beach read for any Grisham enthusiast.
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Summary: a very intellectual review of the pelican brief
Review: John Grisham fans will not need to worry about being disappointed with this fast-paced thriller. The Pelican Brief, like many other novels that he has written is based on law. It has a thrilling plot and is suspenseful from the moment you lay your eyes on the first page. It will keep you reading into the small hours of the morning. Most of Grisham's characters are related to law or to the government. Thomas Callahan is a professor at law, while Darby Shaw is a student of law. The rest of the characters are government officials and such. The story begins with the murders of two supreme court justices. Supreme Court Justice Abe Rosenberg and Justice Glenn Jensen are both murdered on the same night by the same guy. Both murders where perfectly executed crimes. The murderer left no evidence and nothing for the government to pick up on. After hearing about the murders, Darby Shaw gets quite interested decides to do some investigating of her own. After a few days of skipping classes and thorough research Darby put together a theory on what she found. She discarded it later on facts she thought proved it false. Thomas Callahan, a professor at Tulane, is having an affair with Darby. He takes her theory to an old friend in D.C. thinking it was ingenious. His friend, Gavin, thought it was amazing and sent it to the White house. It got to the president and eventually made its way outside of the White house. When Thomas returned to Tulane, him and Darby went out to eat at a restaurant. Thomas got so drunk that Darby refused to ride with him. Thomas , being stubborn as he is, wouldn't let Darby drive and got in the car and when he started the engine a bomb went off. Darby hit her head on a bumper and got knocked out. While she was regaining consciousness a man dressed in a police uniform took her to a car asked her what her name was and then left her in the car. The police arrived soon after and found her lying there. The police deny that the man was part of the law enforcement. The police took Darby to a nearby hospital and told her to wait there for help. She leaves when they are out of sight and gets a room at a hotel. She calls the only person she can think of at the moment, Gavin. She then finds out that she is a suspect at the murder of Thomas and the only person she can trust is his best friend. This novel will take you through many twists and turns. It is gripping and will have you reading through to the very last word. Darby's theory has made someone very upset and they will go at all costs to have her executed. All Darby did was write down her best guess at the murders and now she is running for her life.
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Summary: 'The pelican became the hero'
Review: "The politicians from the governors down took the oil money and played along. All was well, and so what if some of the marshlands suffered." Years ago I would read every Grisham book that came out. John Grisham is a fellow southerner, born and raised in Mississippi, schooled at Ole Miss. His characters remind me so much of the people I grew up with, remind me of my home. The Firm is my least favorite of his books which is surprising since the setting for that story is in my hometown of Memphis, TN; the movie was even worse since whoever directed or produced it totally botched the ending. I read this book in one day in my backyard. I lay motionless in a lounge chair only moving the muscles in my thumb and forefinger; I've never read a book like that in my entire life!
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Summary: not grisham's best
Review: i don't regard this as grisham's best novel, as it is a bit weak both in content and in narration.
the pace is fast, but i won't consider them exciting enough... the usual stuff, like killers, sleazy reporters, innocent protagonists, dirty politicians etcetc. they are somewhat expected. and i'm espcially not happy with the ending, for the final romance is utterly unconvincing.
i am also disappointed at the characterisation. Darby Shaw lacks depth, and has the character of the average heroine.
if you want grisham's best in words (not movies), go for THE CLIENT, THE RAINMAKER or THE FIRM. they're all my favourite.
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Summary: Not your usual legal thriller.....
Review: The Pelican Brief by John Grisham is by far THE BEST JOHN GRISHAM novel I have read so far. The Pelican Brief starts out with the deaths of two Supreme Court judges, who get assassinated by a mysterious assassin named Khamel. Now law student Darby Shaw takes a shot in the dark and writes a brief on who killed the two Supreme Court judges. Now once she finishes it, she then gives it to her lover and professor to read it, then the FBI get their hands on it, and also the President who is intrigued by this little brief.
Now as the brief gets around, Darby's professor is killed by a car bomb which was intended for him and her! But she escapes thanks to his drunken state. Now she is on the run, and the killers want her dead at any cost. Then she runs into a Washington Post writer, and they get into contact. She tells him about the brief and joins the hunt for a mysterious man named "Garcia" who works for this huge firm in D.C.
Now escaping death many times, Darby then finds out who "Garcia" really is, they then discover the whole thing, and they report it in print, and now everyone is going down; including some of the President's men. Why did the huge firm want the Supreme Court judges dead? Simple. It was a case that involved a case involving the marshlands, and oil, the firm wanted to win the case, but they knew that they were going to lose if it went to the Supreme Court, so they hired a trained assassin to kill the two judges so if they can be replaced with two new judges. Interesting? I thought so.
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Summary: Pelican Brief
Review: Mysterious, eccentric and gripping are the words that could be used to describe the complicated plot that is hidden within this 436 pg long novel. It starts off with an intriguing beginning in which an elder Supreme Court Judge gets murdered in his own apartment building. The incognito assassin moves swiftly into the building and kills the Supreme Judge and leaves undetected by any of the FBI¡¦s forces that¡¦s planted there as protection. Not long after, the assassin strikes again and kills a second Supreme Court Judge in a Gay porn movie theater by strangling him to death, once again leaving no traces. The White House has no specific suspect and the investigation comes to a halt until a brief writer by a student comes along.
In the mean time, Darby Shaw is just living her life as a normal college student. Studying law, she is naturally attracted to the politics that are going on in the government, so it wasn¡¦t long before she heard about the murdering of the two Supreme Court judges. Driven by pure curiosity she took a long duration of time to write out a brief that pin point¡¦s possible suspect that would have benefited the most with these two judges dead. She shows her brief to her professor/ lover, Thomas Callahan who passes it to many other politicians that are investigating the very case. She has no clue of what devastation this action was about to inflict to her life.
Gray Grantham a reporter that worked for Washington post, also tires to single handedly figure out who is behind the murders of the Supreme Court Judges. He one day gets a phone call from a man that claims to be, ¡§Garcia¡¨ saying he has some information about the case. Yet, he soon loses this lead and finds himself cornered into a dead end until one day Darby Shaw calls him and informs him about some details in the brief she wrote. Soon after they both meet up in Washington to have a little talk. Shortly both of them decide to work as a team to try and solve the mystery, and their first step was to find this mystery man called, ¡§Garcia.¡¨
¡§The Pelican Brief¡¨ is an interesting book that I would recommend highly to other readers that enjoy a good twist in plots and realistically built characters. The story is very much plausible and everything is well explained down to the very last detail. I plan on reading more books by John Grisham, and I believe that all his books will have his own unique type of humor that I enjoyed so very much.
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Summary: Grisham's best
Review: Grisham's books have been progressively less good after A Time to Kill, The Firm and The Pelican Brief. The Pelican Brief, particularly as read by Anthony Heald, is quite good. Once the reader accepts that Grisham's plots are absurd, these early books are well written with clever characterizations and very enjoyable. Heald's work is especialy good. The book is better by far than the movie version.
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