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A university student writes a story on the possibility of a connection between an oil tycoon and the White House in relations to the deaths of two supreme court justices. Although her brief is for a school subject, it hits close to home and the young student soon finds herself running for her life as assassins aim to gun her down and silence her brief. I found great pleasure in this book. Grisham wove an outstanding, well researched plot. His characters move forward into the plot with three dimensions shaping with each word and act. I couldn’t put the book down. Grisham blesses me, and gives me what I need, the way S. King does, in the sense of a mini-vacation from reality. The power of this book, for me, came through the characters, and the outstanding dialogue. 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 someone has read Darby’s brief. Someone who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable crime. Enter the labyrinthine world of internationally bestselling author Dan Brown with his first two spellbinding thrillers featuring Robert Langdon:
Pelican Brief by John Grisham | Goodreads The Pelican Brief by John Grisham | Goodreads
Masterful – when Grisham gets in the courtroom he lets rip, drawing scenes so real they're not just alive, they're pulsating’ – Mirror 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 someone has read Darby’s brief. Someone who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable crime. The Pelican Brief by John Grisham – eBook DetailsWhat follows is a classic cat and mouse thriller. The bad guys want Darby dead and Darby, alone and friendless, is running for her life. Being in the legal field myself, I always admired his ability to show the negative side of justice and the manipulative hand the politicians have over the justice system. To that end, the Pelican Brief is the best I have read. Grisham is a genius in creating such realistic characters in his books which make us readers so connected with them. His characters have always been felt so close to our hearts and Darby Shaw is no exception. The novel starts with the assassination of two U.S. Supreme Court Justices and moves into high gear when a legal brief, written by a Tulane University law student, Darby Shaw, sparks a rash of cover-up murders that has Darby running for her life. The story winds on, with our pair disappearing down rabbit holes and emerging with proof of who is behind the killings - despite denials from the President’s Chief-of-Staff, Fletcher Cole (an admiral villain). Various characters put in cameo appearances for no apparent reason – Eric East of the FBI and Edwin Sneller (presumably) CIA, but the shady ex-CIA/former marine in Cole’s pay, did not make it in the movie, nor the oil industrialist behind it all.
The Pelican Brief: A gripping crime thriller from the Sunday
When he's not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system. While the D.C. events are happening, Grisham switches to law school in New Orleans and focuses upon a law prof-- Callahan-- and his star student/lover Darby. Callahan loved the old liberal Justice that got offed and goes on a drunk. Darby, however, is curious. Why take out these two judges? Is there perhaps some case due to go the Supreme Court that someone wants different judges to sit on? Probing that, she comes up with the Pelican Brief; a hypothesis that concerns a long-term lawsuit whose principles may be just crazy enough to off some Justices. Through a rather circumventionist route, the Brief makes its way to D.C. and even the FBI. Well, long story short, Callahan shortly thereafter eats a car bomb and Darby goes on the run...
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Book Genre: Crime, Drama, Fiction, Law, Legal Thriller, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Novels, Suspense, Thriller Four crime-solving friends face off against a killer in San Francisco in the Women's Murder Club novel that started James Patterson's thrilling series. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
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Darby soon realised that her brief was a lot more than a hypothetical when people she loved and cared about start dying. Grisham pithy dialogue and fast pacing really moves this one along nicely, as any decent thriller should. Yes, he keeps you guessing for some time regarding the people behind the Brief, and also explores some nasty behind the door politics among the white house, the FBI and the CIA. Good stuff all around. While thrillers never tend to age well, the politics depicted here have-- money in politics, conservatives wanting to abolish abortion (yeah😢) and get rid of environmental standards-- sound familiar? What has not aged well are the characters. Callahan is a drunken buffoon and why Darby is attracted to him is rather inexplicable. Further, what is a law professor doing sleeping with his students? Via various dialogue by-play, this is an established pattern. Can you say Title IX?A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. The length of time it took to tell the story was unnecessary - this would have been more effective as a novella with less names.
Book review: “The Pelican Brief” by John Grisham | Patrick T Book review: “The Pelican Brief” by John Grisham | Patrick T
I was surprised by that because I’d seen the 1993 movie made from Grisham’s novel many times, and my memory was that it focused on the relationship of the two characters Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) and Gray Grantham (Denzell Washington). As I was finishing John Grisham’s 1992 gripping legal thriller The Pelican Brief, I found myself warmly enjoying its reminder of how wonderful newspapering used to be. The focus of the film version of The Pelican Brief is to get the viewer engrossed in the question of not just whether Darby and Gray will survive, but even more whether they will fall in love. Families can talk about the way that political thrillers dramatize events that could have happened in real life. Conversations on the role of the whistle-blower, and the responsibility of citizens to speak up when they see wrongdoing, might also be sparked by this movie. Come on, Director. In two hundred and twenty years, we've assassinated four Presidents, two or three candidates, a handful of civil rights leaders, couple of governors, but never a Supreme Court Justice. And now, in one night, within two hours, two are assassinated. And you're not convinced they're related? (PG 26)
For anyone who loves newspapers, that’s been a sad development. In small measure, Grisham’s book gives honor to the way it used to be. From the get-go, I was kind of bored. It went straight into politics which is possibly my least favourite subject ever to read about so it really got me on the wrong foot. Darby Shaw is a brilliant New Orleans legal student with a sharp political mind. For her own amusement, she draws up a legal brief showing how the judges might have been murdered for political reasons, and shows it to her professor. He shows it to his friend, an FBI lawyer.
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