Rating: 
Summary: Implausible but Entertaining, with Flashes of Brilliance
Review: As several other reviewers here have noted, the plot of this novel is based on numerous implausibilities. The biggest, to me, were - that somebody could predict years in advance that a court case would reach the Supreme Court. - that the bad guys would try to kill people connected to the brief when precisely that would only reinforce the credibility of an otherwise rather far-fetched theory. - that the protagonist is so reluctant about sharing her brief with the world, when disseminating it would be the easiest way of ensuring that killing her had no further value for the bad guys (and indeed, they run as soon as the story is finally published). To compound these issues, the novel ends with essentially the same escapist ending as _The Firm_, the Grisham novel I'd read prior to this one. However, despite all these weaknesses, this was an entertaining book that made for a fun 2 days of reading. As a further redeeming merit, Grisham had a surprising flash of brilliance when he equipped this novel (written in the early 1990s) with a dimwitted, hands-off, U.S. president, run by his handlers, whose interests were mainly playing golf, packing the Supreme Court with rabid right wingers, and doing favors to his cronies.
Rating: 
Summary: The Pelican Brief
Review: The Pelican Brief, by John Grisham, is a thriller guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. This book is about Darby Shaw, a Tulane law student, who uncovered a massive conspiracy involving a prestigious law firm and of all things, pelicans. Darby Shaw gets caught up in whirlwind of adventure because she wrote a brief that linked, Victor Mattiece, an important contributor to the President, to the murders of two Supreme Justices. The result was her being the subject of a manhunt and many left dead in her wake, including her lover and professor.
The story's action includes the rush to gather evidence for the biggest "newspaper story since Watergate." It leads to Gary Grantham meeting up with Darby Shaw and the two teaming up to bring down the White House. The subplots include a romance between the two protagonists. Another is Gray Grantham's own quest to gather evidence to get a big news story and to revive his career. The book is very exciting and makes you keep the book until you finish it.
The book is very suspenseful and leaves the reader wanting to learn more at the end of every chapter. The book starts out a little slowly with the exceptions of the assassinations, but it gradually picks up speed. The first part of the book describes the characters and sets up the rest of the book, but after that there is a good deal of action. This is also a romantic novel in which the main character deals with the loss of her lover to the romance of her with another. Another strength of the book is that there is a lot of detailed description of the characters. For example, when we are introduced to Victor Mattiece, we see him as "his skin was leathery and dark bronze. His bare feet were lined with ugly veins. His toenails were long and yellow." This provides a very vivid picture.
Although the book is suspenseful, the book's "puzzle pieces" do not fall together until the end. The book is very tricky and misleading. For example, at the beginning, the book makes you think that a certain person is a bad guy only to learn in the end that that he was working undercover for the CIA. Another weakness is that this book does not mention the main antagonist many times, and the ending leaves you hanging. The ending shows Darby Shaw and Gray Grantham, a reporter, getting together, but nothing about Victor Mattiece getting captured or anything.
The other main weakness is mostly the lack of development of the characters, especially the main character. What we know about Darby Shaw is mostly at a surface level. For example, we know that she feels sad for the death of her lover. However, we do not see it greatly or she does not make other people think that way. Another weakness is actually its strength. Although the book has a lot of details, the book focuses too much on them and does not really go deeply into the action. For example, when the car bomb killed her lover, we see a lot of Darby's emotion and shock, but we do not see description of how the car looked.
The book is a good read for people who like adventure with a little bit of law mixed in. I will give it 7 out of 10 stars, because it was very exciting with only a few minor weaknesses. The book has some very exciting scenes. I recommend this book for people who like thrillers, but do not mind a show start.
Rating:
Summary: The Pelican Brief¿s Suspension of the Unknown
Review: In The Pelican Brief by John Grisham, suspense is used to keep the reader's attention. Darby Shaw is an innocent student of law who comes up with a theory as to who committed murders, and she calls this the Pelican Brief. Unbenownced to her, she has uncovered the true murderers. When they get a hold of her brief, her world changes drastically. Grisham uses a tactic where he leads the reader in one direction and then suddenly the story goes a different direction. We come to realize that this type of device used by Grisham often makes us keep reading because we want to find out what is going to happen to the character in the next scene. At the beginning of the novel, Grisham lacks the use of suspension. This makes it hard for us to read when we have no real drastic change that quickly changes our point of view. As soon as Thomas Callahan dies from a car explosion we come to realize that Darby's life is at stake. When she is scared and is living in hotels where anyone can find her, we are left in suspense where we don't know what is going to happen to her. Later on in the novel, we follow Darby and Gray Grantham through the underground just waiting for them to be caught. In the end the device of suspense is what keeps the reader interested throughout the novel. It keeps us waiting to find out if the good or the evil of the world will win the battle. Any part of a novel without suspense, which we discover in the beginning, is not keeping our attention. Once our opinions keep changing we keep wanting to read more and more about how the character ends up. Suspension helps make us more open to new opinions and quick changes in our own world; although, Grisham uses this to make us more attentive to his story.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, Mr. Grisham!
Review: On one of my many British excursions, I faced one dilemma: a six-hour flight and nothing to read. Desperate, I set out to find something to keep me amused during the aforementioned hours -- and I stumbled upon John Grisham's The Pelican Brief. I admit that I am not a Grisham fan, for I've always thought his books are too commercial and trite, but I am rather impressed with this one. It is quite an entertaining thriller. After having witnessed a murder, Darby Shaw seeks the help of an ambitious reporter. After putting all the pieces together, Shaw discovers that she had been the intended mark. What follows is Grisham's signature twists and thrill rides. The Pelican Brief entertained me throughout the gruesome flight. I enjoyed it. From hereon in, I shall give Grisham the benefit of the doubt...
Rating: 
Summary: Best of Grisham
Review: This is my favorite book by Grisham. The plot is intriguing. The characters are well-developed. The ending of each chapter is a cliffhanger. I read this in one sitting. The book is far better than the movie.
Rating:
Summary: THE PELICAN BREIF
Review: John Grisham's 1991 novel THE FIRM drew unprecedented praise from reviewers, booksellers and readers across America, and it quickly became the top bestseller of the year. Now Grisham is back with The Pelican Brief, an irresistible story that begins with the simultaneous assassinations of two Supreme Court Justices... Late one October night Justice Abe Rosenberg, at ninety - one the Supreme Court's liberal legend, is shot in the head while sleeping in his Georgetown home. Two hours later Glenn Jensen, the Court's youngest and most conservative justice, is strangled, possibly by the same assassin. The country is stunned and baffled; the FBI has no clues. But Darby Shaw, a brilliant law student at Tulane, thinks she has the answer. Days of digging in the law libray's computers have led her to an obscure connection between the two justices. She fleshes out her beliefs in a meticulous though wildly speculative brief that builds a strong case against a most unlikely suspect. Her suspect has powerful friends. one evening, outside a New Orleans restaurant, she narrowly escapes an assassin's car bomb. Someone has read her brief. Someone who wants her dead. Alone and frightened, Darby disappears into the anonymous shadows of the French Quarter. After reading an alarming story about the assassinations in the Washington Post, she contacts investigative reporter Gray Grantham and convinces him that Washington's position the killings amounts to the biggest cover - up since Watergate. Together they go underground, on the run, trying to stay alive long enough to expose the real truth in The Pelican Brief. Featuring the unique mix of legal intrigue and page - turning suspense that drove The Firm to the top of the bestseller lists, The Pelican Brief is sure to be one of the most popular and satisfying novels of the year.
Rating:
Summary: Decent plot but ...
Review: ... watch the movie instead. This book revolves around law student Darby Shaw and the brief she wrote which turns out to explain precisely why two Supreme Court justices were murdered. Once the brief has been read by the wrong (right?) people, she then must run for her life, helped by Washington Post reporter Gray Grantham. If you like reading John Grisham novels, you'll most likely enjoy this book. His style is very well established, and you can almost feel like you are reading a movie script due to the pace he injects into his stories. But personally, this is a case where the movie seemed to me more compelling than the book. A decent book, a better movie.
Rating:
Summary: Grisham At His Finest
Review: This book was my first introduction to the amazing writing style of John Grisham. His legal expertise is obvious in any of his writings and it really comes through in this particular tale. Darby Shaw is the classic "all-American girl next door." (Fittingly depicted by Julia Roberts in the ensuing movie) Working on a legal brief at Tulane, Shaw stumbles upon "the brief." "The Brief" is the classic tale of power and corruption, placed, interestingly enough, in New Orleans. After her realization that possession of the brief, or the knowledge of the contents, is a stamp to certain death, Shaw looks to escape and get her story out. Her professor is killed in a tragic car bomb just minutes after Shaw left his side, and she knows she has to flee. At the same time, Gray Grantham (aptly portrayed by Denzel Washington) is a DC reporter who has been alerted to "the brief" by a mysterious Garcia. Eventually, Grantham and Shaw hook up, discover who Garcia was and how he was killed, and eventually uncover the mysteries of "the brief"--a web that streches to the very top of the Washington power structure. In the end, good always wins, and Grisham does a great job of pulling us through this one with style, suspense, and wholesome reading.
Rating:
Summary: POV WRITING LESSON
Review: I doubt the editorial comment that Grisham wrote Pelican Brief for the movie. The book allows the white Gray Grantham to end up in Darby Shaw's sack. The misogamist movie downplays any final romance between the interracial couple. Such is life in America in the '90's. In this story Grisham provides a primer for using the omniscient point of view. Out of a hundred scenes he gives Darby Shaw or Gray Grantham half of them and spreads the other fifty scenes rather equally amongst the minor characters. I think he had the reader hooked well enough that he could have thrown in more exposition. He drove along that fine line between keeping the reader in suspense and keeping them in the dark. He avoided the opportunity to educate so he could entertain.
Rating:
Summary: The Pelican Brief
Review: The pelican brief is a slow but exiting book which is the base of the book for the movie: The Pelican Brief. Most of my friends watch the hit series Law & Order and so do I. So when I asked my Librarian if there were any books like it, he told me books by John Grisham. I got hooked into the book really fast. Some people dont realize what happens in the complicated world of politics, internal affairs, and what hey do to get their job down. I suggest this book who is interested in the Law or what they do.
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