CANR
WORK TITLE: The Whistler
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BIRTHDATE: 2/8/1955
WEBSITE: http://www.jgrisham.com/
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NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CANR 317
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PERSONAL
Born February 8, 1955, in Jonesboro, AR; son of John and Wanda Grisham; married Renee Jones, May 8, 1981; children: Ty (son), Shea (daughter).
EDUCATION:Attended Northwest Mississippi Community College and Delta State University; Mississippi State University, B.S., 1977; University of Mississippi, J.D., 1983.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and lawyer. Admitted to the Bar of the State of Mississippi, 1981; lawyer in private practice in Southaven, MS, 1981-90. Served in Mississippi House of Representatives, 1984-90. Member of board of directors, the Innocence Project. Has also taught pottery classes and worked as a gardener, contractor, and sales clerk.
AWARDS:Inducted into Academy of Achievement, 1993; Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, Tulsa Library Trust, 2005; Lifetime Achievement Prize, Galaxy British Book Awards, 2007.
RELIGION: Baptist.WRITINGS
Also author of screenplays The Gingerbread Man (under pseudonym Al Hayes), and Mickey.
SIDELIGHTS
The author of more thantwenty best-selling novels, many of which have been turned into blockbuster movies, John Grisham can count his revenues and copies sold of his legal thrillers in the hundreds of millions. With his works translated into more than forty languages, Grisham is one of the major success stories in publishing since the 1990s. As Malcolm Jones noted in Newsweek, Grisham was “the bestselling author” of the decade with his formula of “David and Goliath go to court,” and the success of his books has helped to make legal thrillers one of the most popular genres among U.S. readers. Jones further commented: “As part of an elite handful of mega-selling authors that includes Stephen King, Danielle Steele, Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy, Grisham has literally taken bookselling to places it’s never been before—not just to airport kiosks but to price clubs and … online bookselling.” Grisham’s best-sellerdom even extends to countries with a legal system completely different from that in the United States. “He sells to everyone,” Jones continued, “from teens to senior citizens, from lawyers in Biloxi to housewives in Hong Kong.”
When Grisham began writing his first novel, he never dreamed he would become one of America’s best-selling novelists. Yet the appeal of his legal thrillers such as The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Rainmaker, and The Summons, among others, has been so great that initial hardcover print runs number in the hundreds of thousands and the reading public regularly buys millions of copies. The one-time lawyer now enjoys a celebrity status that few writers will ever know. “We think of ourselves as regular people, I swear we do,” Grisham was quoted as saying of himself and his family by Keli Pryor in Entertainment Weekly. “But then someone will drive 200 miles and show up on my front porch with books for me to sign. Or an old friend will stop by and want to drink coffee for an hour. It drives me crazy.” He mused to Jones: “I’m a famous writer in a country where nobody reads.”
As a youth, Grisham had no dreams of becoming a writer, although he did like to read. Born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 1955, he was the son of a construction-worker father and a homemaker mother. His father traveled extensively in his job, and the Grisham family moved many times. Each time the family took up residence in a new town, Grisham would immediately go to the public library to get a library card. “I was never a bookworm,” he maintained in an interview in Bookreporter.com. “I remember reading Dr. Seuss, the ‘Hardy Boys,’ Emil and the Detectives, Chip Hilton, and lots of Mark Twain and Dickens.” Another constant for Grisham was his love of baseball, something he has retained in adulthood. One way he and his brothers gauged the quality of each new hometown was by inspecting its Little League ballpark.
In 1967 the family moved to a permanent home in Southaven, Mississippi, where Grisham enjoyed greater success in high school athletics than he did in English composition, a subject in which he earned a D grade. After graduation, he enrolled at Northwest Junior College in Senatobia, Mississippi, where he remained for a year, playing baseball for the school team. Transferring to Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi, he continued with his baseball career until he realized that he was not going to make it to the big leagues. Transferring to Mississippi State University, Grisham studied accounting with the ambition of eventually becoming a tax attorney. By the time he earned his law degree from the University of Mississippi, however, his interest had shifted to criminal law, and he returned to Southaven to establish a practice in that field.
Although his law practice was successful, Grisham grew restless in his new career. He switched to the more lucrative field of civil law and won many cases, but the sense of personal dissatisfaction remained. Hoping to somehow make a difference in the world, he entered politics with the aim of reforming his state’s educational system. Running as a Democrat, he won a post in the state legislature; four years later, he was reelected. After a total of seven years in public office, Grisham became convinced that he would never be able to cut through the red tape of government bureaucracy in his effort to improve Mississippi’s educational system, and he resigned his post in 1990.
While working in the legislature, Grisham continued to run his law office. His first book, A Time to Kill, was inspired by a scene he saw one day in court when a preadolescent girl testified against her rapist. “I felt everything in those moments,” Grisham recalled to Pryor. “Revulsion, total love for that child, hate for that defendant. Everyone in that courtroom wanted a gun to shoot him.” Unable to get the story out of his mind, be began to wonder what would happen if the girl’s father had killed his daughter’s assailant. Grisham disclosed to an interviewer with People: “I became obsessed wondering what it would be like if the girl’s father killed that rapist and was put on trial. I had to write it down.” Soon he had the core of a book dealing with a black father who shoots the white man who raped his daughter. “I never felt such emotion and human drama in my life,” he said in the interview.
Writing his first novel, let alone publishing it, was no easy task for Grisham. “Because I have this problem of starting projects and not completing them, my goal for this book was simply to finish it,” he revealed to Publishers Weekly interviewer Michelle Bearden. “Then I started thinking that it would be nice to have a novel sitting on my desk, something I could point to and say, ‘Yeah, I wrote that.’ But it didn’t consume me. I had way too much going on to make it a top priority. If it happened, it happened.” Working sixty- to seventy-hour weeks between his law practice and political duties, Grisham rose at five in the morning to write an hour a day on his first novel, thinking of the activity as a hobby rather than a serious effort at publication.
After finishing the manuscript in 1987, Grisham next had to look for an agent. He was turned down by several before finally receiving a positive response from Jay Garon. Agent and author encountered a similarly difficult time trying to find a publisher; 5,000 copies of the book were finally published by Wynwood Press, and Grisham received a check for 15,000 dollars. He purchased 1,000 copies of the book himself, peddling them at garden-club meetings and libraries and giving many of them away to family and friends. Ironically, A Time to Kill is now rated by some commentators as the finest of Grisham’s novels. Furthermore, according to Pryor, “those first editions are now worth 3,900 dollars each,” and after being republished, “the novel Grisham … couldn’t give away has 8.6 million copies in print and has spent eighty weeks on the best-seller lists.”
Despite the limited initial success of A Time to Kill, Grisham was not discouraged from trying his hand at another novel. The second time around, he decided to follow guidelines set forth in a Writer’s Digest article for plotting a suspense novel. The result was The Firm, the story of a corrupt Memphis-based law firm established by organized crime for purposes of shielding and falsifying crime-family earnings. Recruited to the practice is Mitchell McDeere, a promising Harvard law school graduate who is overwhelmed by the company’s apparent extravagance. When his criminal bosses discover that McDeere has been indulging his curiosity, he becomes an instant target of both the firm and the authorities monitoring the firm’s activities. When he runs afoul of the ostensible good guys, McDeere finds himself in seemingly endless danger.
Grisham was not as motivated when writing The Firm as he had been when composing A Time to Kill, but with his wife’s encouragement he finished the book. Before he even began trying to sell the manuscript, he learned that someone had acquired a bootlegged copy of it and was willing to give him 600,000 dollars to turn it into a movie script. Within two weeks, Doubleday, one of the many publishers that had previously rejected A Time to Kill, offered Grisham a contract.
Upon The Firm ‘s publication, several reviewers argued that Grisham had not attained a high art form, although it was generally conceded that he had put together a compelling thriller. Los Angeles Times Book Review critic Charles Champlin wrote that the “character penetration is not deep, but the accelerating tempo of paranoia-driven events is wonderful.” Chicago Tribune Books reviewer Bill Brashler offered similar praise, proclaiming that The Firm reads “like a whirlwind.” The novel was listed on the New York Times best-seller list for nearly a year and sold approximately ten times as many copies as its predecessor. By the time the film version was released, there were more than seven million copies of The Firm in print. This amazing success gave Grisham the means he needed to build his dream house, quit his law practice, and devote himself entirely to writing.
In a mere one hundred days, Grisham wrote another legal thriller, The Pelican Brief, which introduces readers to the brilliant, beautiful female law student Darby Shaw. When two U.S. Supreme Court justices are murdered, Shaw postulates a theory as to why the crimes were committed. Just telling people about her idea makes her gravely vulnerable to the corrupt law firm responsible for the killings.
Some critics complained that Grisham follows the premise of The Firm too closely, with John Skow writing in his review for Time that The Pelican Brief “is as close to its predecessor as you can get without running The Firm through the office copier.” However, Grisham also received praise for creating another exciting story. Frank J. Prial, writing in the New York Times Book Review, observed that, despite some flaws in The Pelican Brief, Grisham “has an ear for dialogue and is a skillful craftsman.” The book enjoyed success comparable to The Firm, selling millions of copies.
In just six months, Grisham put together yet another best seller, titled The Client. This legal thriller focuses on a young boy who, after learning a sinister secret, turns to a motherly lawyer for protection from both the mob and the FBI. Like The Firm and The Pelican Brief, the book drew lukewarm reviews but became a best seller and a major motion picture. During the spring of 1993, after The Client came out and A Time to Kill was republished, Grisham was in the rare and enviable position of having a book at the top of the hardcover best-seller list and books in the first, second, and third spots on the paperback best-seller list as well.
Grisham acknowledged to an Entertainment Weekly interviewer that his second, third, and fourth books are formula-driven. He described his recipe for a best seller in the following way: “You throw an innocent person in there and get ’em caught up in a conspiracy and you get ’em out.” He also admitted to rushing through the writing of The Pelican Brief and The Client, resulting in “some damage” to the books’ quality. Yet he also complained that the critical community treats popular writers harshly. “I’ve sold too many books to get good reviews anymore,” he told Pryor. “There’s a lot of jealousy, because [reviewers] think they can write a good novel or a best seller and get frustrated when they can’t. As a group, I’ve learned to despise them.”
With his fifth novel, Grisham departs from his proven formula and proceeds at a more leisurely pace. Not only did he take a full nine months to write The Chamber, a book in which the “good guys” and “bad guys” are not as clearly defined as in his previous efforts, but the book itself, at almost 500 pages, takes time to unravel its story line. The novel is a detailed study of a family’s history, an examination of the relationship between lawyer and client, and a description of life on death row. The Chamber is “a curiously rich milieu for a Grisham novel,” according to Entertainment Weekly critic Mark Harris, “and it allows the author to do some of his best writing since [ A Time to Kill ].” Skow credited Grisham with producing a thought-provoking treatise on the death penalty and noted in Time that The Chamber “has the pace and characters of a thriller, but little else to suggest that it was written by the glib and cheeky author of Grisham’s legal entertainments. … Grisham may not change opinions with this sane, civil book, and he may not even be trying to. What he does ask, very plainly, is an important question: Is this what you want?” A reviewer for the London Sunday Times stated that “Grisham may do without poetry, wit and style, and offer only the simplest characterisation. The young liberal lawyer may be colourless and the spooky old prisoner one-dimensional; but there is no doubt that this ex-lawyer knows how to tell a story.” While The Chamber was less obviously commercial than his previous three books, Grisham had little trouble selling the movie rights for a record fee.
The Rainmaker features a young lawyer, Rudy Baylor, recently graduated from law school, who finds himself desperate for a job when the small firm he had planned to work for is bought out by a large, prestigious Memphis firm that has no use for him. After going to work for Bruiser Stone, a shady lawyer with underworld clients, Baylor finds himself averting an FBI raid on Stone’s firm while also trying to pursue a lawsuit brought by a terminally ill leukemia patient against an insurance company that has refused to pay for her treatment. While some reviewers again directed harsh criticism at Grisham for his “pedestrian prose” and “ridiculously implausible” plot—in the words of New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani—others praised the novel. Garry Abrams, for instance, writing in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, commended the author’s “complex plotting,” noting: “In his loping, plain prose, Grisham handles all his themes with admirable dexterity and clarity.”
Grisham also garnered warm critical comments for The Runaway Jury, a novel that details the ability of a few individuals to manipulate a jury in the direction that will bring them the greatest financial reward. Writing in the New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt remarked that Grisham’s “prose continues to be clunky, the dialogue merely adequate and the characters as unsubtle as pushpins.” But the critic also felt that “the plot’s eventual outcome is far more entertainingly unpredictable” than Grisham’s previous novels, and he declared that Grisham “for once … is telling a story of genuine significance.”
Grisham continued his streak of phenomenally popular novels with The Partner, about a law-firm partner who fakes his own death and absconds with ninety million dollars. Discussing his less-than-virtuous protagonist, Grisham told Mel Gussow in the New York Times: “I wanted to show that with money you can really manipulate the system. You can buy your way out of trouble.” Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer Robert Drake called The Partner “a fine book, wholly satisfying, and a superb example of a masterful storyteller’s prowess captured at its peak.”
With The Street Lawyer, Grisham once again presents a young lawyer on the fast track who has a life-altering experience. The fast pace and moral stance of the novel attracted a chorus of praise. Reviewing the book in Entertainment Weekly, Tom De Haven noted that “success hasn’t spoiled John Grisham. Instead of churning out rote legal thrillers, his court reporting keeps getting better.” De Haven further noted that Grisham, while lacking the “literary genius” of John Steinbeck, “does share with him the conscience of a social critic and the soul of a preacher.”
People reviewer Cynthia Sanz similarly reported that Grisham “has forsaken some of his usual suspense and fireworks in favor of an unabashedly heart-tugging portrait of homelessness.” However, Sanz further noted that the author does not sacrifice his “zippy pacing” to do so. Praise not only appeared in the popular press: “In a powerful story,” wrote Jacalyn N. Kolk in the Florida Bar Journal, “John Grisham tells it like it is on both sides of the street.” Kolk felt that this “entertaining” novel “may stir some of us [lawyers] to pay more attention to the world around us.”
The Testament provides another departure from the usual Grisham formula. As a reviewer for Publishers Weekly noted, “Grisham confounds expectations by sweeping readers into adventure in the Brazilian wetlands and, more urgently, into a man’s search for spiritual renewal.” Grisham has firsthand experience of Brazil, having traveled there often and once even helping to build houses there for the poor. His novel eschews the legal wrangling and courtroom suspense his readers have come to expect. Instead, in this tale he proves he “can spin an adventure yarn every bit as well as he can craft a legal thriller,” according to Newsweek reviewer Jones. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly felt that while the storytelling is not “subtle,” Grisham’s use of the suspense novel format to “explore questions of being and faith puts him squarely in the footsteps of Dickens and Graham Greene.” The same reviewer concluded that The Testament is “sincere, exciting, and tinged with wonder.” Speaking with Jones, Grisham remarked: “The point I was trying to make … was that if you spend your life pursuing money and power, you’re going to have a pretty sad life.”
Lawyers and judges of a much different ilk populate Grisham’s eleventh novel, The Brethren. Noting that Grisham veers away from his usual David-and-Goliath scenario, a reviewer for Publishers Weekly still felt that “all will be captivated by this clever thriller that presents as crisp a cast as he’s yet devised, and as grippingly sardonic yet bitingly moral a scenario as he’s ever imagined.” Writing in Entertainment Weekly, De Haven also commented on the novel’s cast of ne’er do wells, noting that “if you can get past [Grisham’s] creepy misanthropy, he’s written a terrifically entertaining story.”
With A Painted House, initially serialized in The Oxford American—a small literary magazine Grisham co-owns—the author does the unpredictable: he presents readers with a book with no lawyers. “It’s a highly fictionalized childhood memoir of a month in the life of a seven-year-old kid, who is basically me,” Grisham explained to Entertainment Weekly writer Benjamin Svetkey. Book contributor Liz Seymour called the novel “genre-busting” and “the unsentimental story of a single harvest season in the Arkansas Delta as seen through the eyes of the seven-year-old son and grandson of cotton farmers.” Though the tale may be without lawyers, it is not without conflict and incident, including trouble between the migrant workers young Luke Chandler’s family brings in for the cotton harvest and a tornado that threatens to destroy the Chandler livelihood. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly noted that Grisham’s “writing has evolved with nearly every book,” and though the “mechanics” might still be visible in A Painted House, there are “characters that no reader will forget, prose as clean and strong as any Grisham has yet laid down and a drop-dead evocation of a time and place that mark this novel as a classic slice of Americana.”
Some critics differed with these opinions, however. Writing in Booklist, Stephanie Zvirin called into question the merits of Grisham’s coming-of-age novel: “The measured, descriptive prose is readable … and there are some truly tender moments, but this is surface without substance, simply an inadequate effort in a genre that has exploded with quality over the last several years.” As usual with a Grisham novel, however, there was a divergence among critical voices. What Zvirin found “inadequate,” Entertainment Weekly contributor Bruce Fretts described as a “gem of an autobiographical novel.” Fretts further commented: “Never let it be said this man doesn’t know how to spin a good yarn.” In Time, Jess Cagle criticized the book’s slow pace but concluded that Grisham’s “compassion for his characters is infectious, and the book is finally rewarding—a Sunday sermon from a Friday-night storyteller.”
With The Summons, Grisham returns to his lawyer roots, to thrillers, and also to Ford County, Mississippi, which was the setting for A Time to Kill. Reviewing the book in Entertainment Weekly, Svetkey found The Summons “not all that tough to put down,” and with “few shocking surprises.” Nonetheless, shortly after publication, The Summons topped the list of hardcover best sellers, selling well over 100,000 copies in its first week of publication alone.
Grisham’s next three books— The King of Torts, The Bleachers, and The Last Juror —all attained best-seller status despite mixed reviews. Of the first, a reviewer for the Yale Law Journal commented that, while Grisham’s approach is “badly hobbled … by a cliche-driven plot … [and] failure to support his argument with substantive, realistic criticisms,” the author’s talent for powerful storytelling and a simple thesis “may yet move millions of casual readers to support serious reform of American tort law.” Jennifer Reese in Entertainment Weekly was highly critical of The Bleachers, describing the story as “a sloppy gridiron mess, a thin and flimsy meditation on football and the dubious role it can play in the lives of young men.” “Never a terrific stylist,” Reese continued, “Grisham doesn’t show any flair for character here.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer called The Bleachers a “slight but likable novel,” stating: “Many readers will come away having enjoyed the time spent, but wishing there had been a more sympathetic lead character, more originality, more pages, more story and more depth.”
The Last Juror became Grisham’s seventeenth book and seventeenth best seller. Despite its popularity among readers, Rosemary Herbert of the Boston Herald warned: “If you expect to be on the edge of your seat while reading John Grisham’s latest, think again. The experience is bound to be more like sitting in a jury box. Occasionally, the presentation you’ll witness will be riveting. Then again, you’ve got to listen to a good deal of background material.” The story is set in Canton, Mississippi, in the 1970s, and follows the aftermath of the rape and murder of a widow that is witnessed by her two young children. Herbert called Grisham “the consummate legal eagle who knows how to pull heartstrings even when the suspense is not thrill-a-minute.” Praising The Last Juror as Grisham’s “best book in years,” Sean Daly noted in People that the novel quickly bounded to best-seller status.
In 2005, Grisham published The Broker, a novel about Joel Blackman, a former power broker who has been incarcerated for six years for his role in a billion-dollar deal involving software that controls spy satellite. The CIA sends Joel to Italy as bait to see who tries to kill him, thus making the determination as to which country has the greatest investment in the software.
Bob Minzesheimer, writing for USA Today, noted that the novel contains “a fresh approach and strong sense of place.” Minzesheimer further commented: “It’s Grisham living up to his reputation as a great storyteller.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer stated that “the novel reads like a contented afterthought to a memorable Italian vacation, with little action or tension.” However, Alan M. Dershowitz, writing in New York Times Book Review, concluded: “The spy-versus-spy intrigue is well constructed and fast-paced.”
Grisham again broke readers’ expectations when he began writing the middle-grade series “Theodore Boone.” The first installment, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, introduces the eponymous hero, a thirteen-year-old boy who is the son of two lawyers. His mother is a divorce attorney, and his father specializes in real estate. Theo is drawn to criminal law, and he plans to follow in his parents’ footsteps. He already knows so much about the law that he gives his classmates legal advice. A boy he is tutoring wants to protect his cousin, the star witness against accused murderer Peter Duffy, leading Theo to inadvertently become embroiled in the trial.
“The moral dilemma Grisham poses is interesting, but when Theo (logically) calls in the adults, it loses tension,” Ilene Cooper observed in her Booklist assessment. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found Theo “less a real kid than an adult’s projection of what an ideal kid might be.” According to School Librarian contributor Susan Elkin, “the very straightforward story rolls along although it isn’t exactly action-packed.” She went on to state that the book is “well enough written and not boring, but in places it feels like a thinly disguised law lesson.” However, Horn Book correspondent Betty Carter remarked: “Without intruding on the trajectory of the story, Grisham gives plenty of background about the legal process.” Stacey Hayman in Voice of Youth Advocates lauded the story as well, asserting that is offers “a pretty clever premise for creating a potentially long and beloved series.” As John Peters advised in his School Library Journal critique, Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer features “the lapidary prose and frank insider’s view of this country’s legal system that makes [Grisham’s] adult best sellers so absorbing.”
Sycamore Row, like A Time to Kill, is set in Clanton, Mississippi, and the novel features the same protagonist as well. Although Sycamore Row was written twenty-four years after A Time to Kill was published, it takes place only three years later. Lawyer Jake Brigance finds himself at the center of another town scandal when terminally ill timber tycoon Seth Huston hangs himself. Huston’s suicide note consists of a handwritten will that supersedes a prior, more official version. In the new will he leaves most of his fortune to his black maid, Lettie Lang. His children contest the will in court, and the story, which takes place in 1988, reignites racial tensions throughout Clanton. Commending the novel in USA Today, Dennis Moore commented: “Those who recall A Time to Kill will meet new characters. They also will become reacquainted with the endearing, infuriating and intriguing people they met twenty-four years ago.”
Another positive review of Sycamore Row was offered by London Guardian contributor John O’Connell. He announced that “Grisham’s decision to revive Brigance after almost twenty-five years and write what amounts to a historical novel is intriguing. He has produced a solid courtroom thriller with plenty to say about the long half-life of prejudice in the deep south.” In the New York Times Book Review, Janet Maslin declared: “As Sycamore Row finally reaches its trial phase, the author hits his full stride. He knows the courtroom inside out, and he helpfully describes each little step of these proceedings. Even if sharp-eyed readers already know how the book’s surprises may arise—has there ever been a long-lost relative who did not show up in a work of legal fiction?—they will still miss the final whammy that Mr. Grisham has in store.” Maslin also acknowledged the possibility that Brigance will return in future books, asserting: “Mr. Grisham leaves Jake ready and waiting to be seen again.” Patrick Anderson, writing in Washington Post Book World, remarked: “It has long been clear that the prolific Grisham is a great storyteller, but much depends on what story he comes up with. The novels I’ve read have always been entertaining, but their stories have often been fanciful and slight. This time Grisham has found a story that permits the full use of his powers. For all the novel’s humor and satire, its ending reflects the writer’s absolute understanding of Mississippi’s unspeakable history of racial violence.”
Gray Mountain, features young Ivy League graduate Samantha, who is furloughed from her job at Lehman Brothers in the wake of the recession. Her employers tell her to take a pro bono job in the interim, and Samantha heads to coal country to help local citizens fight the companies that have been poisoning their air and water, and killing anyone who protests. When she arrives in Brady, Virginia, a small town with little more than 2,000 residents, Samantha does her best to help, she falls in love and makes more enemies than friends. Her first case leads to an unwieldy body count as she faces off against the coal companies that have split Brady down the middle and turned the once idyllic town into a war zone.
Critiques of Gray Mountain were predominantly positive, though a Kirkus Reviews contributor stated that Grisham “has long proved himself to be a trustworthy provider of legal thrillers—formulaic, to be sure, and tossed-off, yes, but delivering the goods.” Moore, writing again in USA Today, was far more positive, asserting that the novel “is less a traditional Grisham legal thriller and more a defense of social advocacy.” He added: “Yes, Gray Mountain is fiction. But after reading the book, you’ll believe heroic action must be taken to save the real people of Appalachia and their homeland.” Washington Post correspondent Patrick Anderson offered similar applause, and he noted that “Grisham makes his characters all too real, but the heart of his story is his relentless case against Big Coal. We all know something about the plight of miners, but we are unlikely to have encountered the realities of their lives in the depth provided here. This is muckraking of a high order. If it’s possible for a major novelist to shame our increasingly shameless society, Gray Mountain might do it.” Based on this observation, Anderson went on to comment that the novel “shows Grisham’s work—always superior entertainment—evolving into something more serious, more powerful, more worthy of his exceptional talent.”
The following year, Grisham wrote Rogue Lawyer, a series of vignettes centered on defense attorney Sebastian Rudd. The idiosyncratic protagonist runs his own practice out of a converted van, and he travels the country searching for sensational cases. As such, he’s no stranger to television news reporter, or “creative” legal maneuvers. The novel portrays Rudd as he defends a man who shot a police officer during a raid on his home; he also takes on a case involving the murder of two girls, a prison break case, and another case involving the kidnapping of a pregnant woman. As the tale progresses, connections between each case are revealed, offering insight into Rudd’s life and career.
While reviews of Rogue Lawyer were predominantly positive, a Publishers Weekly critic warned that “some later plot developments, including the climactic jury trial, strain credibility.” A Kirkus Reviews columnist was also negative, advising that “the reader can see most of the mystery coming from a long way off, making the yarn less effective than most.” On the other hand, Booklist writer David Pitt felt that “Rudd is a complex, compelling character, who, we hope, will appear again and again.” New York Times Online contributor Maslin was equally laudatory, and she announced that “ Rogue Lawyer ushers in Rudd as a potential series star for Mr. Grisham. The man has a son he loves but barely knows; an ex-wife who left him for another woman; a shockingly good way of assailing important targets, like badly written laws; and a few wild-guy qualities that are balanced by his love of golf. Roguewise, he’s right up there with Robin Hood.” In the words of Library Journal reporter Jerry P. Miller, “Grisham devotees will enjoy a compelling and convincing plot propelled by a memorable protagonist.” As Charles Finch opined in USA Today, “each of Rudd’s clients, from the victim of a raid by an absurdly militarized police team to a death row inmate trying to beat the needle, showcases the author’s magical trait, which is his ability to find intense drama in the little skirmishes that play out across our legal system every day.” Offering further applause in her Washington Post assessment, Maureen Corrigan remarked: “Thirty novels into his nearly three-decade career, John Grisham still makes it look easy.” She added: “The biggest mystery that Rogue Lawyer poses is how Grisham, at this stage in his long writing career, can still devise all these distinctive characters, tricky legal predicaments and roguishly cheating ways to worm out of them. It’s one mystery we Grisham fans just want to appreciate, rather than solve.”
In Theodore Boone: The Fugitive, Theodore travels to Washington, DC, with a group from his school. There, he happens upon Pete Duffy, a man wanted for a murder committed in Theodore’s hometown of Strattenburg. Theodore helps his Uncle Ike with the investigation and the court case against Duffy. “Unrealistic, insufferable, precocious, weirdly law-abiding Theo is the crux of why this book quite wildly misses the mark,” suggested Annalise Murray on the Cuckoo Review Website. Conversely, Pamela Kramer, a critic on Examiner.com, remarked: “The narrative … effectively captures a kid’s way of thinking about school, parents, and other important matters.” A reviewer on the Common Sense Media Website commented: “This one is hard to put down. The suspense will keep all ages engaged. As is typical of the ‘Theodore Boone’ series, there are a lot of good insights about the law in The Fugitive. ” “The courtroom drama, which is played out dramatically and with intelligence, feels very realistic,” asserted Vincent Ripley on the Mr. Ripley’s Enchanted Books Website. Ripley added: “This is a great book to get young people engaged in reading and to inspire them in becoming a lawyer.”
In an interview with Michael S. Rosenwald, Grisham discussed The Tumor: A Non-Legal Thriller, which was published by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. He told Rosenwald: “I write escapist popular fiction that entertains. … It’s entertainment. It doesn’t pretend to be literature or anything else. But The Tumor has the potential to one day save or prolong millions of lives.” The volume is available online for free. It tells the story of a thirty-something husband and father named Paul, who discovers he has a brain tumor. He dies nine months after having surgery on the mass. Grisham later offers an alternative ending to the story. Paul received focused ultrasound treatment and is about to live for many years.
Grisham has realized greater success than most writers enjoy in a lifetime. Despite such success, the former lawyer and politician has remained realistic about his limitations and maintained that a time might come when he would walk away from writing just as he previously abandoned both law and politics. In his interview with Bearden in Publishers Weekly, he compared writers to athletes and concluded: “There’s nothing sadder than a sports figure who continues to play past his prime.” However, Grisham seems far from that point. Book ideas “drop in from all directions,” he told Svetkey in Entertainment Weekly. “Some gestate for years and some happen in a split second. They’ll rattle around in my head for a while, and I’ll catch myself mentally piecing it together. How do I suck the reader in, how do I maintain the narrative tension, how do I build up to some kind of exciting end? … Some of those will work, some won’t.”
Set in Florida, The Whistler follows judicial investigator Lacy Stoltz. The protagonist is assigned to investigate a well-respected judge when a disgraced lawyer accuses the judge of racketeering. Stoltz would normally disregard the accusation given its source, but the case encompasses much of the Gulf Coast, all of Tallahassee, and parts of the Catfish Mafia. As Stoltz falls deeper and deeper into her investigation, she discovers that the Catfish Mafia has disbanded and been reborn as the Coast Mafia. The judge under Stoltz’s scrutiny may be behind the change; if not, Stoltz nevertheless has enough damning evidence to remove him from office.
Reviews of The Whistler were largely positive, and Florida Bar Journal correspondent David Mandell announced: “Grisham has been writing legal thrillers for more than a quarter century and still manages to come up with stories that are difficult to put down. . . . The book only takes a few hours to read and is well worth the trip.” As a Kirkus Reviews critic noted, “yes, it’s formula. . . . But, like eating a junk burger, even though you probably shouldn’t, it’s plenty satisfying.” Maslin, writing in the New York Times Online, was also mostly positive, and she advised: “Despite the bits of leaden language, Lacy does manage to come to life on the page. The Whistler also has a strong and frightening sense of place, painting part of the Panhandle as a lawless region where terrible things might happen, and do. And Mr. Grisham deserves credit for dependability: He is at heart an optimist who believes that wrongs can be ferreted out and righted. We could use a little of that these days.”
With Camino Island, Grisham eschews legal themes in favor of a literary thriller. The protagonist, Mercer Mann, is a novelist who is hired to track down a crooked rare-books book dealer. The dealer in question is suspected of trying to sell F. Scott Fitzgerald’s handwritten manuscripts, which were stolen from the library at Princeton University. Mercer’s search takes her to Camino Island, a resort-town with a growing literary community. When she finally finds book dealer Bruce Cable, Mercer is so attracted to him that she struggles to keep her focus.
What follows is a steamy affair and suspenseful caper that was well-received by critics, and Booklist correspondent Pitt stated that the novel “offers a fascinating take on people who write novels for a living. And it has a genuinely suspenseful plot, too.” Commending the plot’s many in and outs in Kirkus Reviews, a contributor commented: “How all these little threads join up is a pleasure for Grisham fans to behold: there’s nothing particularly surprising about it, but he’s a skillful spinner of mayhem and payback.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 84, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1995, pp. 189-201.
PERIODICALS
Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, March 15, 2004, Ruel S. De Vera, review of The Last Juror.
Book, January, 2001, Liz Seymour, “Grisham Gets Serious,” pp. 34-36.
Booklist, February 1, 2001, Stephanie Zvirin, review of A Painted House, p. 1020; June 1, 2010, Ilene Cooper, review of Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, p. 80; March 15, 2012, Wes Lukowsky, review of Calico Joe, p. 18; September 15, 2015, David Pitt, review of Rogue Lawyer, p. 34; June, 2017, David Pitt, review of Camino Island.
Boston Herald, March 2, 2004, Rosemary Herbert, review of The Last Juror, p. 40.
Entertainment Weekly, April 1, 1994, Keli Pryor, interview with Grisham, pp. 15-20; June 3, 1994, Mark Harris, “Southern Discomfort,” p. 48; February 13, 1998, Tom De Haven, review of The Street Lawyer, pp. 64-65; February 4, 2000, Tom De Haven, “Law of Desire,” p 63; February 11, 2000, Benjamin Svetkey, “Making His Case,” interview, pp. 63-64; February 9, 2001, Bruce Fretts, “Above the Law,” pp. 68-69; February 15, 2002, Benjamin Svetkey, “Trial and Errors,” pp. 60-61; September 12, 2003, Jennifer Reese, review of The Bleachers p. 155.
Florida Bar Journal, June, 1998, Jacalyn N. Kolk, review of The Street Lawyer, p. 115; November, 2008, David Mandell, review of The Appeal, p. 64; April, 2017, David Mandell, review of The Whistler.
Guardian (London, England), October 30, 2013, John O’Connell, review of Sycamore Row.
Horn Book, September-October, 2010, Betty Carter, review of Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, p. 78.
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2012, review of The Litigators; April 1, 2012, review of Calico Joe; December 15, 2012, review of The Racketeer; November 15, 2013, review of Sycamore Row; October 1, 2014, review of Gray Mountain; August 15, 2015, review of Rogue Lawyer; November 1, 2016, review of The Whistler; June 1, 2017, review of Camino Island.
Library Journal, August, 2000, p. 179; March 1, 2001, p. 131; September 1, 2001, p. 258; December, 2001, Samantha J. Gust, review of Skipping Christmas, pp. 170-171; September 1, 2015, Jerry P. Miller, “Legal Thrills,” p. 96.
Los Angeles Times Book Review, March 10, 1991, Charles Champlin, “Criminal Pursuits,” p. 7; April 5, 1992, p. 6; April 4, 1993, p. 6; May 14, 1995, Garry Abrams, review of The Rainmaker, p. 8.
Mississippi Business Journal, November 2, 2012, Lynn Lofton, “Grisham Does It Again with Tale of Disbarred Lawyer,” p. 25.
Newsweek, February 19, 1999, Malcolm Jones, “Grisham’s Gospel,” p. 65.
New York Times, April 19, 1995, Michiko Kakutani, review of The Rainmaker, pp. B1, B9; April 28, 1995, p. C33; May 23, 1996, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of The Runaway Jury, p. C20; March 31, 1997, Mel Gussow, review of The Partner, p. B1; February 4, 2002, p. B1; February 5, 2002, p. B7.
New York Times Book Review, March 15, 1992, Frank J. Prial, “Too Liberal to Live,” p. 9; October 18, 1992, p. 33; March 7, 1993, p. 18; December 23, 2001, p. 17; February 24, 2002, p. 13; January 9, 2005, Alan M. Dershowitz, “Pardon Me,” p. 18; October 30, 2013, Janet Maslin, review of Sycamore Row.
People, March 2, 1998, Cynthia Sanz, review of The Street Lawyer, p. 37; February 12, 2001, p. 41; February 18, 2002, p. 41; February 23, 2004, Sean Daly, review of The Last Juror, p. 45.
Philadelphia Inquirer, March 23, 1997, Robert Drake, review of The Partner.
Publishers Weekly, February 22, 1993, Michelle Bearden, “PW Interviews: John Grisham,” pp. 70-71; May 30, 1994, p. 37; May 6, 1996, p. 71; February 10, 1997; February 1, 1999, review of The Testament, p. 78; January 10, 2000, p. 18; January 31, 2000, review of The Brethren, p. 84; January 22, 2001, review of A Painted House, p. 302; October 29, 2001, p. 20; November 5, 2001, review of Skipping Christmas, p. 43; February 18, 2002, p. 22; August 18, 2003, review of The Bleachers, p. 56; January 10, 2005, review of The Broker, p. 39; May 31, 2010, review of Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, p. 48; August 17, 2015, review of Rogue Lawyer, p. 52.
School Librarian, fall, 2010, Susan Elkin, review of Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, p. 176; winter, 2011, Sophie Smiley, review of Theodore Boone: The Abduction, p. 244; winter, 2012, Elizabeth Finlayson and George Balfour, review of Theodore Boone: The Accused, p. 226.
School Library Journal, June, 2010, John Peters, review of Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, p. 102.
Sunday Times (London, England), June 12, 1994, review of The Chamber, p. 1.
Time, March 9, 1992, John Skow, “Legal Eagle,” p. 70; March 8, 1993, p. 73; June 20, 1994, John Skow, review of The Chamber, p. 67; August 1, 1994; February 26, 2001, Jess Cagle, review of A Painted House, p. 72.
Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), February 24, 1991, Bill Brashler, review of The Firm, p. 6.
USA Today, January 13, 2005, Bob Minzesheimer, “Grisham Takes a Detour to Italy,” p. 7D; October 21, 2013, Dennis Moore, review of Sycamore Row; October 20, 2014, Dennis Moore, review of Gray Mountain; October 19, 2015, Charles Finch, review of Rogue Lawyer.
Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 2010, Stacey Hayman, review of Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, p. 348; December, 2013, Stacey Hayman, review of Theodore Boone: The Activist, p. 60.
Washington Post, October 19, 2014, Patrick Anderson, review of Gray Mountain; October 18, 2015, Maureen Corrigan, review of Rogue Lawyer.
Washington Post Book World, October 20, 2013, Patrick Anderson, review of Sycamore Row.
Yale Law Journal, June, 2003, review of The King of Torts, p. 2600.
ONLINE
Bookreporter.com, http://www.bookreporter.com/ (April 8, 2004), “Author Profile: John Grisham.”
Common Sense Media, https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ (August 4, 2016), review of Theodore Boone: The Fugitive.
Cuckoo Review, http://review.cuckoowriters.com/ (April 9, 2016), Annalise Murray, review of Theodore Boone: The Fugitive.
Examiner.com, http://www.examiner.com/ (May 31, 2015), Pamela Kramer, review of Theodore Boone: The Fugitive.
Guardian Online, https://www.theguardian.com/ (June 18, 2015), review of Theodore Boone: The Fugitive.
John Grisham Website, http://www.jgrisham.com (August 4, 2016).
Mr. Ripley’s Enchanted Books, http://www.mrripleysenchantedbooks.com/ (June 9, 2015), Vincent Ripley, review of Theodore Boone: The Fugitive.
New York Times Online, http://www.nytimes.com/ (October 27, 2015), Janet Maslin, review of Rogue Lawyer; (September 13, 2017), Janet Maslin, review of The Whistler.
University of Mississippi Website, http://www.olemiss.edu/ (April 8, 2004), “John Grisham.”
Washington Post Book World Online, https://www.washingtonpost.com/ (February 22, 2016), Michael S. Rosenwald, author interview.*
John Grisham
John Grisham 2009.jpg
John Grisham in 2009
Born John Ray Grisham, Jr.
February 8, 1955 (age 62)
Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States
Occupation Writer
Nationality American
Alma mater Mississippi State University B.S.
University of Mississippi School of Law J.D.
Period 1989–present
Genre Legal thriller
Crime fiction
Baseball
Football
Spouse Renee Grisham (1981–present)
Children Shea Grisham (born 1986)[1]
Ty Grisham (born 1983)[1]
Website
www.jgrisham.com
John Grisham
State Representative
Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives
from the 7 district
In office
1984–1990
Personal details
Political party Democratic
John Ray Grisham Jr. (/ˈɡrɪʃəm/; born February 8, 1955)[2][3] is an American bestselling writer, attorney, politician, and activist best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide.
John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practiced criminal law for about a decade and served in the House of Representatives in Mississippi from January 1984 to September 1990.[4]
His first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. As of 2012, his books have sold over 275 million copies worldwide.[5] A Galaxy British Book Awards winner, Grisham is one of only three authors to sell 2 million copies on a first printing.[6]
Grisham's first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies.[2] The book was adapted into a 1993 feature film of the same name, starring Tom Cruise, and a 2012 TV series which "continues the story of attorney Mitchell McDeere and his family 10 years after the events of the film and novel."[7] Eight of his other novels have also been adapted into films: The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, Skipping Christmas, and A Time to Kill. [8]
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Career
2.1 Law and politics
2.2 Writing career
2.2.1 Southern settings
3 Personal life
4 Political activism
5 Awards and honors
6 Recurring characters
6.1 Jake Brigance
6.2 Lucien Wilbanks
6.3 Harry Rex Vonner
6.4 Teddy Maynard
6.5 F. Denton Voyles
6.6 Theodore Boone
7 Bibliography
7.1 Novels
7.2 Short stories
7.3 Non-fiction
8 Adaptations
8.1 Feature films
8.2 Television
9 See also
10 References
11 External links
Early life[edit]
Grisham, the second of five siblings, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Wanda Skidmore Grisham and John Grisham.[4] His father worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer, while his mother was a homemaker.[9] When Grisham was four years old, his family settled in Southaven, DeSoto County, Mississippi.[4] As a child, Grisham wanted to be a baseball player.[8] Grisham has been a Christian since he was eight years old, and he describes his conversion to Christianity as "the most important event" in his life. After leaving law school, he participated in some missionary work in Brazil, under the First Baptist Church of Oxford.[10]
Although Grisham's parents lacked formal education, his mother encouraged him to read and prepare for college.[2] He drew on his childhood experiences for his novel A Painted House.[4] Grisham started working for a nursery as a teenager, watering bushes for US$1.00 an hour. He was soon promoted to a fence crew for US$1.50 an hour. He wrote about the job: "there was no future in it". At 16, Grisham took a job with a plumbing contractor but says he "never drew inspiration from that miserable work". Through a contact of his father's, he managed to find work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi at age 17. It was during this time that an unfortunate incident got him "serious" about college. A fight with gunfire broke out among the crew causing Grisham to run to a nearby restroom to find safety. He did not come out until after the police had detained the perpetrators. He hitchhiked home and started thinking about college. His next work was in retail, as a salesclerk in a department store men's underwear section, which he described as "humiliating". He decided to quit but stayed when he was offered a raise. He was given another raise after asking to be transferred to toys and then to appliances. A confrontation with a company spy posing as a customer convinced him to leave the store. By this time, Grisham was halfway through college. Planning to become a tax lawyer, he was soon overcome by "the complexity and lunacy" of it. He decided to return to his hometown as a trial lawyer.[11]
He went to the Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, Mississippi and later attended Delta State University in Cleveland.[4] Grisham drifted so much that he changed colleges three times before completing a degree.[2] He graduated from Mississippi State University in 1977, receiving a BS degree in accounting. He later enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law to become a tax lawyer, but his interest shifted to general civil litigation. He graduated in 1981 with a JD degree.[4]
Career[edit]
Law and politics[edit]
Grisham practiced law for about a decade and won election as a Democrat in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990, at an annual salary of US$8,000.[4][12] Grisham represented the seventh district, which included DeSoto County.[13] By his second term at the Mississippi state legislature, he was the vice-chairman of the Apportionment and Elections Committee and a member of several other committees.[2]
Grisham's writing career blossomed with the success of his second book, The Firm, and he gave up practicing law, except for returning briefly in 1996 to fight for the family of a railroad worker who was killed on the job.[2] His official site states: "He was honoring a commitment made before he had retired from the law to become a full-time writer. Grisham successfully argued his clients' case, earning them a jury award of US$683,500 — the biggest verdict of his career."[9]
Writing career[edit]
This house in Lepanto, Arkansas was the house used in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie A Painted House
Grisham said the big case came in 1984, but it was not his case. As he was hanging around the court, he overheard a 12-year-old girl telling the jury what had happened to her. Her story intrigued Grisham, and he began watching the trial. He saw how the members of the jury cried as she told them about having been raped and beaten. It was then, Grisham later wrote in The New York Times, that a story was born.[11] Musing over "what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants",[9] Grisham took three years to complete his first book, A Time to Kill.
Finding a publisher was not easy. The book was rejected by 28 publishers before Wynwood Press, an unknown publisher, agreed to give it a modest 5,000-copy printing. It was published in June 1989.[2][14] The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on his second novel, The Firm, the story of an ambitious young attorney "lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared."[9] The Firm remained on The New York Times' bestseller list for 47 weeks,[2] and became the bestselling novel of 1991.[15]
Beginning with A Painted House in 2001, Grisham broadened his focus from law to the more general rural South but continued to write legal thrillers. He has also written sports fiction and comedy fiction.
He wrote the original screenplay for and produced the 2004 baseball movie Mickey, which starred Harry Connick, Jr.
In 2005, Grisham received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, which is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust.
In 2010, Grisham started writing a series of legal thrillers for children aged 9 to 12 years. It features Theodore Boone, a 13-year-old who gives his classmates legal advice ranging from rescuing impounded dogs to helping their parents prevent their house from being repossessed. He said, "I'm hoping primarily to entertain and interest kids, but at the same time I'm quietly hoping that the books will inform them, in a subtle way, about law."[16] He also stated that it was his daughter, Shea, who inspired him to write the Theodore Boone series. "My daughter Shea is a teacher in North Carolina and when she got her fifth grade students to read the book, three or four of them came up afterwards and said they'd like to go into the legal profession."[17]
In an October 2006 interview on the Charlie Rose Show, Grisham stated that he usually takes only six months to write a book, and his favorite author is John le Carré.[18]
Southern settings[edit]
Several of Grisham's legal thrillers are set in the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi, in the equally fictional Ford County, a town still deeply divided by racism. The town and county are located in Northwest Mississippi. The first novel set in Clanton, Mississippi was A Time to Kill. Other stories to be set there include The Last Juror, The Summons, The Chamber, and Sycamore Row. The stories in the collection Ford County are also set in and around Clanton.
Other Grisham novels have non-fictional Southern settings, for example The Runaway Jury and The Partner are both set in Biloxi, and big portions of The Pelican Brief in New Orleans.
Personal life[edit]
Grisham married Renee Jones on May 8, 1981. The couple have two children together: Shea and Ty.[4] The family splits their time between their Victorian home on a farm outside Oxford, Mississippi, and a home near Charlottesville, Virginia.[9] They own a home in Destin, Florida.[19]
In 2008, he and his wife bought a condominium at McCorkle Place in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.[20]
As a Baptist, he advocates the separation of church and state.[21] He has said, "I have some very deep religious convictions that I keep to myself, and when I see people using them for political gain it really irritates me."[22]
Grisham has a lifelong passion for baseball demonstrated partly by his support of Little League activities in both Oxford, Mississippi, and Charlottesville, Virginia. In 1996, Grisham built a $3.8 million youth baseball complex.[23] He remains a fan of Mississippi State University's baseball team and wrote about his ties to the university and the Left Field Lounge in the introduction for the book Dudy Noble Field: A Celebration of MSU Baseball. As part of his passion for sports, Grisham is a supporter of Virginia Cavaliers athletics. He has been spotted at various sporting events on-campus and it is believed he gave a $2 million donation to help renovate the Cavaliers' baseball stadium, Davenport Field. His son Ty played baseball at UVA.
Political activism[edit]
Grisham is a member of the Board of Directors of the Innocence Project, which campaigns to free and exonerate unjustly convicted people on the basis of DNA evidence.[24] The Innocence Project argues that wrongful convictions are not isolated or rare events but instead arise from systemic defects. Grisham has testified before Congress on behalf of the Innocence Project.[25] He also has appeared on Dateline NBC,[26] Bill Moyers Journal on PBS,[27] and other programs. He wrote for the New York Times in 2013 about an unjustly held prisoner at Guantanamo.[28] Grisham opposes the death penalty – an opposition very strongly manifested in the plot of The Confession.[29][30][31][32]
Grisham believes that prison rates in the United States are excessive, and the justice system is "locking up far too many people". Citing examples including "black teenagers on minor drugs charges" to "those who had viewed child porn online", he controversially added that be believed not all viewers of child pornography are necessarily pedophiles. After hearing from numerous people against this position, he later recanted this statement in a Facebook post.[33][34][35]
The Mississippi State University Libraries, Manuscript Division, maintains the John Grisham Room,[36] an archive containing materials generated during the author's tenure as Mississippi State Representative and relating to his writings.[37]
In 2012, the Law Library was renamed in his honor. It had been named for more than a decade after the late Senator James Eastland.
In 2015, Grisham, along with about 60 others, signed a letter published in the Clarion-Ledger urging that an inset within the flag of Mississippi containing a Confederate flag be removed.[38] He co-authored the letter with author Greg Iles; the pair contacted various public figures from Mississippi for support.[39]
Awards and honors[edit]
2005 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award
2007 Galaxy British Lifetime Achievement Award
2009 Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction
2011 The inaugural Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for The Confession[40]
2014 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for Sycamore Row[41]
Recurring characters[edit]
Jake Brigance[edit]
A lawyer and the main protagonist of A Time to Kill and its sequel Sycamore Row. In the film adaptation of A Time to Kill, Brigance is played by Matthew McConaughey.
Appears in:
A Time to Kill (1989)
Sycamore Row (2013)
Lucien Wilbanks[edit]
A close friend of Jake Brigance and an important supporting character in A Time to Kill, Wilbanks also appears alongside Harry Rex Vonner in The Last Juror and opposite both Brigance and Vonner in Sycamore Row. In the A Time to Kill film Wilbanks is played by Donald Sutherland.
Appears in:
A Time to Kill (1989)
The Last Juror (2004)
Sycamore Row (2013)
Harry Rex Vonner[edit]
A key supporting character in A Time to Kill and a close friend of Jake Brigance, also appearing opposite Brigance and Lucien Wilbanks in Sycamore Row. He also earlier appears alongside Wilbanks alone in The Last Juror and by himself as a minor character in The Summons and in the short story Fish Files. In the film version of A Time to Kill Vonner is played by Oliver Platt.
Appears in:
A Time to Kill (1989)
The Summons (2002)
The Last Juror (2004)
Fish Files (2009)
Sycamore Row (2013)
Teddy Maynard[edit]
Head of the CIA in The Broker and The Brethren, portrayed as a physically frail but mentally alert manipulator who resorts to extralegal means to protect what he considers to be the national interest.
Appears in:
The Brethren (2000)
The Broker (2005)
F. Denton Voyles[edit]
Head of the FBI. Played by Steven Hill in the 1993 film The Firm based on the novel of the same name.
Appears in:
The Client (1993)
The Firm (1991)
The Pelican Brief (1992)
Theodore Boone[edit]
Appears in:
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer (2010)
Theodore Boone: The Abduction (2011)
Theodore Boone: The Accused (2012)
Theodore Boone: The Activist (2013)
Theodore Boone: The Fugitive (2015)
Theodore Boone: The Scandal (2016)
Bibliography[edit]
A selection of John Grisham book covers.
A complete listing of the works by John Grisham[42]
Novels[edit]
A Time to Kill (1989)
The Firm (1991)
The Pelican Brief (1992)
The Client (1993)
The Chamber (1994)
The Rainmaker (1995)
The Runaway Jury (1996)
The Partner (1997)
The Street Lawyer (1998)
The Testament (1999)
The Brethren (2000)
A Painted House† (2001)
Skipping Christmas† (2001)
The Summons (2002)
The King of Torts (2003)
Bleachers† (2003)
The Last Juror (2004)
The Broker (2005)
Playing for Pizza† (2007)
The Appeal (2008)
The Associate (2009)
The Confession (2010)
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer (2010)
The Litigators (2011)
Theodore Boone: The Abduction (2011)
Calico Joe† (2012)
The Racketeer (2012)
Theodore Boone: The Accused (2012)
Sycamore Row (2013)
Theodore Boone: The Activist (2013)
Gray Mountain (2014)
Theodore Boone: The Fugitive (2015)
Rogue Lawyer (2015)
Theodore Boone: The Scandal (2016)
The Whistler (2016)
Camino Island† (June 2017)
The Rooster Bar (2017)
Short stories[edit]
Ford County (2009)
The Tumor† (2016)
Partners (2016)
Witness to a Trial (2016)
† Denotes books not in the legal genre
Non-fiction[edit]
The Wavedancer Benefit: A tribute to Frank Muller (2002)
- with Pat Conroy, Stephen King and Peter Straub
The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (2006)
- story of Ronald 'Ron' Keith Williamson
Don't Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs they Quit (2010)
- with various authors
Adaptations[edit]
Feature films[edit]
The Firm (1993)[43]
The Pelican Brief (1993)[43]
The Client (1994)[43]
A Time to Kill (1996)[43]
The Chamber (1996)[43]
The Rainmaker (1997)[43]
The Gingerbread Man (1998)
A Painted House (2003) television film
Runaway Jury (2003)[43]
Mickey (2004)
Christmas with the Kranks (2004)[43]
The Associate (2015 film) (TBA) to be directed by Adrian Lyne.
The Testament (TBA) to be directed by Stuart Blumberg.
Calico Joe (film) (TBA) to be directed by Jake Kasdan.
Television[edit]
The Client (1995–1996) 1 season, 20 episodes
The Street Lawyer (2003) TV pilot
The Firm (2011–2012) 1 season, 22 episodes
Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi, law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby—writing his first novel.
Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn’t have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990.
One day at the DeSoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl’s father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, who gave it a modest 5,000 copy printing and published it in June 1988.
That might have put an end to Grisham’s hobby. However, he had already begun his next book, and it would quickly turn that hobby into a new full-time career—and spark one of publishing’s greatest success stories. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel, the story of a hotshot young attorney lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared. When he sold the film rights to The Firm to Paramount Pictures for $600,000, Grisham suddenly became a hot property among publishers, and book rights were bought by Doubleday. Spending 47 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, The Firm became the bestselling novel of 1991.
The successes of The Pelican Brief, which hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and The Client, which debuted at number one, confirmed Grisham’s reputation as the master of the legal thriller. Grisham’s success even renewed interest in A Time to Kill, which was republished in hardcover by Doubleday and then in paperback by Dell. This time around, it was a bestseller.
Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, The Broker, Playing for Pizza, The Appeal, The Associate, The Confession, The Litigators, Calico Joe, The Racketeer, Sycamore Row, and Gray Mountain) and all of them have become international bestsellers. There are currently over 300 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 40 languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, A Painted House, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas), as was an original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man. The Innocent Man (October 2006) marked his first foray into non-fiction, and Ford County (November 2009) was his first short story collection.
Grisham took time off from writing for several months in 1996 to return, after a five-year hiatus, to the courtroom. He was honoring a commitment made before he had retired from the law to become a full-time writer: representing the family of a railroad brakeman killed when he was pinned between two cars. Preparing his case with the same passion and dedication as his books’ protagonists, Grisham successfully argued his clients’ case, earning them a jury award of $683,500—the biggest verdict of his career.
When he’s not writing, Grisham devotes time to charitable causes, including most recently his Rebuild The Coast Fund, which raised 8.8 million dollars for Gulf Coast relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He also keeps up with his greatest passion: baseball. The man who dreamed of being a professional baseball player now serves as the local Little League commissioner. The six ballfields he built on his property have played host to over 350 kids on 26 Little League teams.
Plot Twist! John Grisham’s New Thriller
Is Positively Lawyerless
By JANET MASLIN MAY 31, 2017
John Grisham’s publisher, Doubleday, got a nice surprise last January. Grisham,
whose yearly delivery of a legal thriller is as reliable as the sunrise, had written a
little something extra on the sly: a lawyerless caper. It had a picturesque Florida
setting, a fun-filled story about book lovers of many stripes (from those who write
them to those who steal them) and a heroine who spent time in a bikini and sandals.
Mr. Courtroom had written a beach book. His first.
“Camino Island,” his 30th novel, is out June 6, but in mid-May he was already
getting a huge kick out of what a surprise it would be to his fans. As he sat in the
lobby of the Mercer Hotel in SoHo, backed by a wall of books too fashionably
designed to be his and dressed in non-black (two plaids, glasses hanging from his
neck), the 62-year-old guy who has sold nearly 300 million books went completely
unspotted as he talked about his career’s latest plot twist. Does anybody ever
recognize him in New York? “Never!,” and he likes it that way.
Grisham and his wife, Renee, dreamed up the idea for “Camino Island” on a
drive from their home outside Charlottesville, Va., to their beach house in Florida.
Its working title was the name of the place where they have a vacation home, but he
eventually changed it for reasons of privacy. Its cover still looks just like the view
from the Grishams’ boardwalk to the beach.
It was Renee who suggested working literary treasures into the plot, which
involves the theft from Princeton University of the original manuscripts of the five
novels written by F. Scott Fitzgerald — or “FITZ-gerald,” as the Arkansas-born,
longtime Mississippian Grisham pronounces it. The book features two not-quiteadversaries:
Bruce Cable, a rare-books dealer on Camino Island, and Mercer Mann, a
stymied young writer hired to get close to him.
Grisham briefly thought the novel might include parts written by his wife. He wanted
her to write the chapters involving Mercer, the female lead. “By the time we got to
Florida 10 hours later she had made up her mind: She’s not writing a word of this,”
Grisham said. Nor has she written a word of any of her husband’s other books either.
Grisham collects rare books by Fitzgerald (“I do not have ‘The Great Gatsby’
because it’s very rare and very expensive. I can’t bite the bullet”), Hemingway,
Steinbeck and Faulkner, all of whom were candidates to star in the story. But
Faulkner wrote too many books to steal. The locations of Steinbeck’s and
Hemingway’s manuscripts are too scattered. Only Fitzgerald had a conveniently
portable five-book collection stored in a single place, Princeton’s Firestone Library.
As a point of principle, Grisham never set foot in there as he worked out the
totally credible unfolding of the fictional theft. For anyone who wonders where he
gets the precise details on which his books’ suspense depends, the answer isn’t shoe
leather. It’s often Google. “I faked every bit of it,” he boasted. He wants as little real
information as possible in order to avoid inspiring copycat crime. And he enjoys the
challenge. “l love piecing together intricate thoughts that people find compulsively
readable and they can’t put down,” he volunteered, and he will never need a better
blurb than that. Literary status is not what he cares about. Selling books is.
Grisham is garrulous and funny when talking about himself, much more so than
the tone of rectitude in some of his books might suggest. But another unexpected
side of him also stands out: the accountant. (He has written books called “The
Abduction,” “The Accused,” “The Activist,” “The Appeal” and “The Associate.” “The
Accountant” was a movie that had nothing to do with him.) Much is made of the fact
that Grisham, whose father was a construction worker and cotton farmer, went to
law school at Ole Miss and served from 1983-90 in the Mississippi House of
Representatives. Not much is made of the fact that he also has a bachelor’s degree in
accounting. He still has that old fiscal pragmatism when it comes to the state of the
Grishamverse after nearly 30 years.
His breakout hit wasn’t his first book, “A Time to Kill” (1989). It was “The
Firm,” which came out two years later. He has very happy memories of 1991, and
mentions that year a lot. It was the first year friends sent him pictures of many
people reading his books in the wild.
But it was also the year he made what was arguably his biggest financial
blunder. A small publisher, Wynwood Press, had printed 5,000 copies of “A Time to
Kill,” many of which wound up stacked unsold in Grisham’s office. He got rid of
them. Bad idea, especially for a guy who now collects first editions. Doubleday
bought the rights to republish the debut novel in 1991, after Grisham’s reputation
had been established and after the author had passed on the opportunity to secure
the rights himself.
“My agent at the time advised me against it,” he said. “I got a $15,000 advance
for ‘A Time to Kill,’ and he did not want to cough up his 15 percent of $15,000! I was
too dumb to know it and too naïve, and no one knew what was coming.” And where
does “A Time to Kill” stand now? “It’s pushing 20,” he said, as in 20 million copies
sold. “ ‘S a lot of books.”
Sure is. But one of Grisham’s conversational habits is to say, “I don’t spend
much time worrying about it,” after showing just how thoroughly he’s thought
something through. At the beginning of his career, Grisham thought about movie
sales all the time. “If you look at the first four, five movies” — “The Firm,” “The
Pelican Brief,” “The Client,” “A Time to Kill” — “they made them quickly, they paid
top dollar.” Those were the days when he and Michael Crichton were one-upping
each other with best-selling books and lucrative movie adaptations. Grisham and
Crichton hadn’t met but “we had the biggest racket in the world. He would sell a
book for one dollar more than I got, and I would come back the next year, back and
forth. And they’re throwing money at us. They would take the manuscripts before
they were even published.”
The movies worked, too, on a global scale. “They’re on cable TV somewhere
tonight, being recycled, and they still sell books — that’s the amazing part. That
model doesn’t work anymore.” That model’s enemy, he believes, is the superhero
blockbuster that might make $1 billion in China. It just so happens that “Camino
Island,” with its female lead, inviting location and huge plot whammy, is his most
Hollywood-friendly book in years.
He doesn’t worry much about book sales either, except he’s very alert to the
numbers. “The biggest change for me has been that I’m selling about half the books I
sold before the Great Recession,” he said. “Maybe a little bit more than half. This is
discretionary spending, and people are not spending.”
Whatever else Grisham does — and he has branched out into sports (“Calico
Joe”), boyhood memories (“A Painted House”), a kid lawyer (the Theodore Boone
series) and miscellaneous (“Skipping Christmas”) — he absolutely has to write his
October legal book. The financial terms for those are bigger, and so are the sales.
“My readers have some patience when I step outside the thriller,” he said. “But they
really want the thriller. They want it every year.”
The next traditional thriller, as yet untitled, will be about student debt, a subject
that has lit a fire under him. It will be topical, like “The Confession” (2010), which
was about the death penalty and mostly set in Texas — with a preening, ambitious
governor who bore an amazing resemblance to Rick Perry. “Ah, well, no,” Grisham
jokily insisted. “Fictional character. Rick is a very devout Christian who doesn’t
drink, and the governor in ‘The Confession’ was drinking some very good bourbon
every afternoon.”
I asked Grisham why alcohol issues come up in so many of his books. Does he
have an agenda, points he wants to make about drinking or recovery? “Nah. I’ve
never been close to the edge of the cliff,” he said. “I’ve been very careful. We have a
wine collection. My wife is a very light drinker. We’ve all had friends who got in
trouble. I have writer friends who battled it a long time, and it’s not a pretty sight.
But I really enjoy it so much that I don’t want to quit.”
This was an interesting moment for Renee Grisham to appear. She’d been out
shopping, and she was a little taken aback when she heard her husband explain what
he’d been discussing. “We’re talking about drinkin’ and what,” he said, the Southern
accent suddenly strong. “You’re lookin’ worried.” Well, yeah, she was, but she
seemed used to his loose cannon side. They have been married for 36 years.
As for why drinking and sobriety turn up in the books, including “Camino
Island,” he picked up the thread: “I write about a lot of writers and lawyers. Those
two professions have produced a lot of world-class drunks. The legal profession’s
filled with guys and ladies who’ve abused it because of a bunch of factors. I’m not
really tolerant with excuses. Somebody says ‘Well, he or she was driven to drink
because of this, this and this.’ Their problems were too much, and that’s their excuse.
I don’t really buy that. I think it’s a matter of self-control and being able to take care
of yourself.”
This is the old-school side of him. It’s tough, but it suits stories of characters
skating around the law. The part of him that advocates personal responsibility also
has no patience for self-pity. “I tell my friends, ‘Just stop whining. You’re lucky to be
where you are in life, you’re lucky to be here, shut up. I don’t want to hear it. Nobody
wants to hear your gripes.’ ”
Grisham’s friends, family, publisher and close associates are the only people
who can reach him. He lives nearly off the grid outside Charlottesville and has an
office in town, where he says he’s seldom bothered. If there’s an emergency he can be
found, but he long ago decided he liked lying low. Watching Tom Cruise get
screamed at by fans during the filming of “The Firm” was one learning experience.
So were stories he heard at Square Books in Oxford, Miss. — the readers’ and writers’
shrine that he relocates to Camino Island in exact detail — from the writers Larry
Brown, Willie Morris and Barry Hannah, who told him a book tour was a horrible
thing.
But 25 years since he last toured, Grisham is going out into the world again. He
will visit 12 cities to promote “Camino Island,” doing Q. and A.s with local writers
and meeting up to 200 fans at each stop. He still signs 2,000 copies of anything he
publishes for Square Books; that’s how much he loves the place, as well as a few
other independent stores that get similar treatment. But he’s needed his arm
massaged after some marathon signings, so this time he’s setting limits.
And looking forward to it enormously. What does he have to lose? He’s someone
who candidly says, “It’s all about selling books,” and the tour will certainly do that.
Readers of “Camino Island” will learn a lot about how Grisham sees the rest of
the writing world. He has described in it everything from what it feels like to sit
down and type “Chapter 1” (probably not bad, for him) to how a box of brand-new
books smells.
In the novel, we mingle with several writers who gather at the fictional island,
and together they present a Grisham’s-eye view of what fellow authors look like to a
superstar. The popular ones want literary credibility. The literary ones want to be
more widely read. There’s one “literary snob who can’t sell and hates everybody who
can,” and a “Vampire Girl” who “hit pay dirt with a series about vampires and ghosts
and some such junk.” Most popular stereotypes are represented. E .L. James must
vacation in another state.
Where’s the John Grisham type? Maybe there’s no such thing. There’s only one
of him, and that one was beginning to sound tired a couple of books ago. He
mentioned how closely his books are tracked by his publisher, and that “The
Whistler” (2016) has been a bigger success than “Rogue Lawyer” (2015). I murmured
that that’s because “Rogue Lawyer” wasn’t as good. He shot me a “What?” and a
momentary sidelong look. But then: “O.K. Doesn’t hurt my feelings.” And he’s fine.
He’s not going to spend much time worrying about it.
Janet Maslin, a longtime film and book critic for The Times, is a frequent contributor to
the paper.
A version of this article appears in print on June 4, 2017, on Page BR30 of the Sunday Book Review with
the headline: John Grisham.
June 6, 2017, 1:21 PM
John Grisham hates prologues and says his new novel "Camino Island" is a beach read
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John Grisham's books have sold more than 300 million copies and each of his 29 previous novels landed at the top of the New York Times fiction bestsellers list.
His latest book, "Camino Island," centers on a bookstore owner, a young novelist suffering from prolonged writer's block and a heist of the original manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels.
Grisham joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss his new novel and share some of his writing tips.
30-camino-island.jpg
"Camino Island"
"I wanted to write a beach book. For years, my novels have been criticized as being, you know, nothing more than beach books so I thought, 'OK, I'll show you a beach book,'" Grisham said.
The book is somewhat of a departure from his usual fare, still a mystery, but without the legal component. Grisham's love of rare books was another inspiration for the tale.
The story begins with a detailed account of a theft. Despite the detail, Grisham says he actually has no idea how such a crime would be pulled off.
"I faked it all. It's all fake. It's all -- I got it from Google," he said.
What is real, however, is the location of the rare manuscripts, which can indeed be found at Princeton University. Grisham even offered an apology to Princeton in his author's note for writing about their collection.
"The fear is you may inspire someone to try this," he said.
It's been a long time since Grisham has gone on a tour to bookstores but he is doing just that for "Camino Island."
Why? "I'm bored," Grisham joked.
"Best-selling writers should go to bookstores to say thanks to the booksellers, to meet fans, sign autographs, sign books, talk, whatever. And I'm going to do that for the first time in 25 years," he explained more seriously.
One of "Camino Island's" main characters is a man named Bruce Cable.
Grisham said Cable, whom he swears is entirely made up, "loves women, loves to drink and party, but he's also a very serious bookseller. He has a great bookstore, he makes a lot of money with rare books. Unknown to most folks, he dabbles in stolen, rare books and that's where he makes a lot of money and that's how he gets involved in this plot."
Despite the richness of Cable's character, Grisham insists that writing is as much about planning as it is about character development.
John Grisham on "The Whistler," casinos and corruption
Play VIDEO
John Grisham on "The Whistler," casinos and corruption
"Most writers will tell you they have no idea when they start. They create a great character and that character takes over the action and they follow that character wherever he or she wants to go. That's total BS," according to Grisham.
Instead he says, you need to carefully plot your story before it starts. "I spend a lot of time outlining before I write the first word," he said.
Grisham also revealed one of his least favorite elements of a book: the prologue. "I hate prologues because they're kind of gimmicks to suck you in."
The author, whose books have been translated into nearly 50 languages, says that to be a successful writer, routine is important, too. "Until you're doing one page a day, every day, nothing's going to happen."
And one more piece of advice for writers: "There are three types of words. Words we all know, words we should know and words nobody knows. Don't use the third category."
"Camino Island" is out June 6.
For more of Grisham's writing tips, watch the above video
Camino Island
Carolyn Juris
264.25 (June 19, 2017): p16.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
#1 Hardcover Fiction, #1 overall
Our review said that "the opening chapters detailing an elaborate scheme to steal five F Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts from Princeton are the best part of this thriller"; after the setup, "the plot follows predictable lines to a conclusion that genre fans have seen before."
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Juris, Carolyn. "Camino Island." Publishers Weekly, 19 June 2017, p. 16. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA496643817&it=r&asid=33810d197b5597c99b60a486ec463197. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A496643817
Camino Island
David Pitt
113.19-20 (June 2017): p57.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Camino Island. By John Grisham. June 2017.304p. Doubleday, $28.95 (9780385543026).
Novelists who write novels about novelists often produce fine work, from literary fiction like Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys through thrillers (Donald E. Westlake's The Hook) and horror (Stephen King's Misery). And now John Grisham, who continues the quality run with this thoroughly entertaining thriller about a novelist who's recruited by a shadowy organization to infiltrate the inner circle of a rare-books dealer and find proof that he's in possession of F. Scott Fitzgerald's handwritten manuscripts, which, in the story, were recently stolen from Princeton University. As Mercer Mann, our hero, gets to know the captivating book dealer Bruce Cable, she runs the risk of falling under his spell and forgetting what she's supposed to be doing. Filled with lively supporting characters (most of whom are writers) and with insider knowledge of the book business, this offers a fascinating take on people who write novels for a living. And it has a genuinely suspenseful plot, too.--David Pitt
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Approximate number of John Grisham books sold: 300 million.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Pitt, David. "Camino Island." Booklist, June 2017, p. 57. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA498582717&it=r&asid=5d71104d755583d81c10464432e24c23. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498582717
Grisham, John: CAMINO ISLAND
(June 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Grisham, John CAMINO ISLAND Doubleday (Adult Fiction) $28.95 6, 6 ISBN: 978-0-385-54302-6
A light caper turns into a multilayered game of cat and mouse in a story that, as with most of Grisham's (The Whistler, 2016, etc.) crime yarns, never gets too complex or deep but is entertaining all the same.Bruce Cable is a bon vivant-ish owner of a bookstore specializing in rarities, which ought to mean he's covered in dust instead of Florida sunshine. But he's an aging golden boy, the perfect draw for young aspiring novelist and cute thing Mercer Mann, who's attracted to books and Bruce and the literary scene he's created on formerly sleepy Camino Island. It takes us a while to get to the smooth-operating Bruce, though, because Grisham's first got to set up, with all due diligence, the misdeed to be attended to: the theft of F. Scott Fitzgerald's manuscripts from the Princeton library. Now, who wouldn't want the mojo associated with holding a piece of paper out of Fitzgerald's typewriter? Suspicion falls on Bruce, whereupon Mercer enters the picture, for a novel way has been presented to her to pay off some crushing student loans. (Always timely, Grisham is.) Eventually, Bruce and Mercer are reading between the lines and searching for clues between the sheets ("We're not talking about love; we're talking about sex," Grisham writes, with a perfectly correct semicolon). But was it Bruce who pulled off the literary crime of the century? Maybe, and maybe not; Grisham leaves us guessing even as he makes clear that literary criminals don't have to be nice guys in order to be good at their work: "He died a horrible death, Oscar, it was awful," one particularly menacing bookworm tells a quarry once the stolen manuscripts go missing a second time. "But before he died he gave me what I wanted. You." How all these little threads join up is a pleasure for Grisham fans to behold: there's nothing particularly surprising about it, but he's a skillful spinner of mayhem and payback.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Grisham, John: CAMINO ISLAND." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA493329352&it=r&asid=ba6d8ad04b40324a200f9f1d0de864b4. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A493329352
Grisham, John: THE WHISTLER
(Nov. 1, 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Grisham, John THE WHISTLER Doubleday (Adult Fiction) $28.95 10, 25 ISBN: 978-0-385-54119-0
"I started dreaming of getting rich, which, in Florida anyway, can lead to serious trouble": another blockbuster in the making from Grisham (Rogue Lawyer, 2015, etc.), the ascended master of the legal procedural.If justice is blind, it is also served, in theory, by incorruptible servants. Emphasize "in theory," for as Grisham's latest opens, judicial investigator Lacy Stoltz is confronted with the unpleasant possibility that a highly regarded judge may be on the take. The charge comes, discreetly, from a former lawyer-turned-jailbird-turned-lawyer again, who spins out a seemingly improbable tale of racketeering that weds the best elements of Gulf Coast society with the worst, from the brilliant legal minds of Tallahassee to some very unpleasant lads once styled as the Catfish Mafia, now reborn in an alt-version, the Coast Mafia. Lacy's brief is to find out just how rotten the rotten judge is--and the answer is plenty. Naturally, this knowledge is not acquired without cost; the body count rises, bad things happen to good people, and for a time, at least, the villains get away with murder and more. Grisham has never been strong on characterization: Lacy, we learn, is content to be single, "to live alone, to sleep in the center of the bed, to clean up only after herself," and so forth, but beyond that the reader doesn't get much sense of what drives her to put herself in the way of flying bullets and sneering counsel: "His associate was Ian Archer, an unsmiling sort who refused to shake hands with anyone and reeked of surliness." In laid-back Florida? Indeed, and in Grisham's busy hands, a lot of players come and go, some fated to sleep with the manatees. Yes, it's formula. Yes, it's not as gritty an exercise in swamp mayhem as Hiaasen, Buchanan, or Crews might turn in. But, like eating a junk burger, even though you probably shouldn't, it's plenty satisfying.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Grisham, John: THE WHISTLER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Nov. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA468389167&it=r&asid=e8878aef2127287f1e8a026e1a4b3df8. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A468389167
The Whistler
David Mandell
91.4 (Apr. 2017): p60.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Florida Bar
http://www.floridabar.org
The Whistler
by John Grisham
John Grisham visits Florida in The Whistler. The book takes readers on a wild ride through the state, and it starts fast. Two lawyers for the Florida Bureau of Judicial Conduct, Lacy Stoltz and Hugo Hatch, leave Tallahassee to meet a mysterious complainant who boasts that he has explosive information. Unlike typical complaints from bitter litigants, this may shake the judiciary. He brings Stoltz aboard his boat in St. Augustine and starts. Once a Pensacola lawyer, he invested in questionable deals, becoming ensnared in a RICO case ending in a prison term. Reinstated as a lawyer with a new name, Greg Myers, he has a remarkable story. A gang has manipulated a small Native tribe, the Tappacola, into building a lucrative casino. The casino's opponents met a gruesome fate. Son Razko was murdered. His ally, Junior Mace, sits on death row, convicted of murder. Every legal challenge to the casino failed and eminent domain cases seizing land for an access road were all decided against the owners.
Myers tells Stoltz that the cases have one common element--presiding judge, Claudia F. McDover. Myers says that in return for siding with casino proponents and putting Junior Mace on death row, McDover has become rich. Myers claims that he has a reliable source but cannot provide a name. Their motive is not pure. They seek a reward under the whistle blower statute. Stoltz and Hatch return to Tallahassee and start to investigate. Under strict time limits, two lawyers with no training as criminal detectives must solve several mysteries. Is an innocent man on death row? Has a sitting judge been corrupted by casino wealth? Are they being used in an enrichment scam by a disbarred lawyer?
The action never stops. Stoltz and Hatch travel through Florida's underworld. The villain, secretive Vonn Dubose, is on the chase. He aims to end the investigation, regardless of what it takes. Stoltz and Hatch are hunted down through a rural road, homes ransacked, and witnesses hidden in cheap motels. Bureaucracy leaves them on their own. The FBI says the bureau has more important things to do. The director of the gaming commission says his hands are tied. Meanwhile, Myers disappears, leaving Stoltz and her overbearing brother to rescue his girlfriend, and protect his source before Dubose's gang finds them. Along the way, Grisham creates several memorable characters. When confronted with the ethics complaint, Judge McDover hires a famous trial lawyer, Pensacola's Edgar Killebrew, who reminds Stoltz that he lives in the courtroom. His associate, Ian Archer, refuses to shake hands.
Grisham has been writing legal thrillers for more than a quarter century and still manages to come up with stories that are difficult to put down. For Florida lawyers, The Whistler will be especially fun reading as so many of its sites are real and familiar. The book only takes a few hours to read and is well worth the trip.
David Mandell is a member of The Florida Bar.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Mandell, David. "The Whistler." Florida Bar Journal, Apr. 2017, p. 60. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA495208808&it=r&asid=ccaf1d0edd9329716699d1ab20f55607. Accessed 6 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495208808
Review: In John Grisham’s ‘The
Whistler,
’ a Serious Woman and Serious
Crime
Books of The Times
By JANET MASLIN OCT. 26, 2016
John Grisham has now written 29 legal thrillers and fought harder for truth, justice
and the American way than anyone this side of Superman. His values don’t change,
and neither do his tactics, but the Grisham formula hasn’t gotten old. Or older.
When he’s on his game, as he is with his latest, “The Whistler,” it really works.
His novels for adults, as likely to appear in October as falling leaves, involve
some form of injustice. They reveal things about the law that many readers probably
don’t know. And they do not make it difficult to tell good from evil. Bad equals the
death penalty. Good equals those of whom it can be said, “they were smart and
unpretentious, didn’t make a lot of money but were dedicated to their work.”
“The Whistler” is a huge improvement on the book that preceded it, last
October’s “Rogue Lawyer.” That one was so reminiscent of Michael Connelly’s
“Lincoln Lawyer” that there was reason to fear that Mr. Grisham might be running
out of inspiration. Maybe he just needed a break from his long string of male
protagonists, because the main character in “The Whistler” is a seriously appealing
woman: Lacy Stoltz, an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct.
Through a long string of amazing coincidences, this book winds up pitting Lacy
against the Honorable Claudia McDover, “a Florida gal who just happens to be the
most corrupt judge in the history of America.”
The issue of overseeing judicial ethics might be enough of a hook on its own. But
Mr. Grisham involves all of this book’s characters with a tract of Native American
land that has welcomed gambling and the way it exists outside Florida law. The
small Tappacola tribe has welcomed a group of mobsters, known as the Coast Mafia,
to indulge in unlimited development in tribal land (despoiling nature equals terrible)
in exchange for a share of the casino’s profits. None of this would have been possible
without the help of the aforementioned judge, who had been contentedly accepting
monthly cash bribes at the start of Mr. Grisham’s story.
“The Whistler” refers to a whistle-blower who secretly calls attention to corruption.
If the corruption involves the kinds of crimes being committed by the Coast Mafia
(including skimming and laundering the casino’s cash and hiding money offshore),
not to mention the judge’s transgressions, the whistle-blower may receive a cash
reward. But we don’t know this person’s motives — throughout most of the book we
don’t even know who he or she is. We just know that Lacy has been contacted by an
intermediary: an ex-con who lives on a nice boat, uses a fake name, drinks beer to
Jimmy Buffett music and turns up to play the informant now and then.
The book starts innocently enough, with the formerly married Lacy living alone
and enjoying it while Hugo Hatch, her fellow investigator, struggles to make ends
meet with a wife and four children. Their home base is Tallahassee. The casino
development is also in the Florida Panhandle, though closer to Pensacola. The book’s
ubervillain, a mob kingpin calling himself Vonn Dubose, has named one of his many
golf communities there “Rabbit Run.” If this is a reference to John Updike, it’s a
strange one.
Lacy and Hugo are close enough for Hugo’s stressed-out wife, Verna, sometimes
to enlist Lacy as a babysitter. But the mundane disappears after Lacy and Hugo get a
mysterious summons from a source. He would like to meet them in a remote spot
near the Tappacola reservation late at night. For safety reasons, they should never
have agreed to this. For the book’s purposes, it’s a major shot of adrenaline.
The stakes suddenly become much higher, and the suspense tightens after a
relatively slow start. Lacy soon realizes what a dangerous situation she has gotten
into — and like any Grisham hero, she is anything but cowed. She is more
determined than ever to get to the heart of this realm of corruption, and the rest of
the book digs deeper and deeper into an elaborate crime scheme. It is much worse
than anything Lacy has ever imagined, let alone encountered.
Events and revelations are what keep Mr. Grisham’s books moving. It’s unlikely
that anyone looks to him for sheer style. Without exactly being repetitious, he makes
this story longer than it has to be; he’s terrific with short fiction, as his collection,
“Ford County,” made so clear. And the dialogue can be generic, to put it mildly. As
in: “It’s a complicated story and it only gets better”; “You seem to know more than
you’re willing to tell”; and the classic “That’s not enough time,” followed by, “That’s
all we have.”
Despite the bits of leaden language, Lacy does manage to come to life on the
page. “The Whistler” also has a strong and frightening sense of place, painting part
of the Panhandle as a lawless region where terrible things might happen, and do.
And Mr. Grisham deserves credit for dependability: He is at heart an optimist who
believes that wrongs can be ferreted out and righted. We could use a little of that
these days.
The Whistler
By John Grisham
374 pages. Doubleday. $28.95.
A version of this review appears in print on October 27, 2016, on Page C2 of the New York edition with
the headline: Greed and Corruption in the Sunshine State.
In ‘Camino Island,
’ John Grisham Takes a
Vacation From Writing John Grisham
Novels
By KEN TUCKER JUNE 12, 2017
CAMINO ISLAND
By John Grisham
290 pp. Doubleday. $28.95.
Mercer Mann, a young novelist struggling to come up with an idea for her next
book, is recruited by a shadowy company to locate five priceless F. Scott Fitzgerald
manuscripts that have been stolen from the Firestone Library at Princeton. In John
Grisham’s latest thriller, the inspiration-starved Mercer spends a lot of time
moaning about her lack of juicy subject matter, even as she runs down clues to the
Fitzgerald theft and befriends a cunning rare-book dealer she suspects may be the
crime’s mastermind. About midway through, you may feel like tapping Grisham’s
heroine on the shoulder: “What do you mean, you can’t think of a plot? Look around
you! You’re living in a dandy one!”
The veteran suspense novelist is off on a happy lark with “Camino Island,” a
resort-town tale that reads as if Grisham is taking a vacation from writing John
Grisham novels. Instead of hurtling readers down the dark corridors of the
courthouses that dot his 20-plus legal thrillers, here he gently ushers us onto an
island off the coast of Florida, a sleepy place whose town’s social life is enlivened by a
busy independent bookstore run by a garrulous peacock who has a different-colored
seersucker suit for every day of the week.
At Bay Books, Bruce Cable presides over book signings with authors on tour and
regular dinners with local writers. But since his real money comes from trading in
rare first editions, this makes him a suspect as a possible fence for the Fitzgerald
manuscripts, the clever theft of which gets “Camino Island” off to its suspenseful
start. Law enforcement goes after the thieves, but so does a mysterious private
company that specializes in “security and investigations.” Enter Mercer Mann and
her thwarted second novel. A representative from the unnamed company taps her to
get close to Bruce. Why does she agree? The company will write off her college-loan
debt as well as hand her a hefty paycheck. (As with so many thriller plots, it’s best
not to get bogged down in the plausibility of this setup.)
Grisham is crafty in his construction. “Camino” begins with the theft, and the
quick, precise portraits of the perpetrators lead you to assume this is going to be a
caper novel. Then the focus switches to Mercer, and you start wondering how this
innocent with writer’s block is going to connect to the criminals. Cable, the colorful
bookseller, is the glue that holds Grisham’s plotting together. He’s also a way for
Grisham to have more fun than usual. “Camino Island” contains leisurely passages in
which Cable gasses on entertainingly about collecting first editions by writers
ranging from Virginia Woolf to J. D. Salinger to John D. MacDonald. Sometimes,
though, Grisham gets a bit too relaxed, letting his dialogue become both simplistic
and florid, as when Mercer, pondering Woolf, sighs sadly: “She killed herself. Why
do writers suffer so much, Bruce? So much destructive behavior, even suicide.”
There are also repetitions: In these pages we encounter “seasoned thieves” and a
“seasoned raconteur,” and find Cable described as a “seasoned professional” when it
comes to sex. That’s a lot of seasoning.
Yet these flaws don’t impede the jolly appeal of the novel’s storytelling. Grisham
has said that he and his wife dreamed up “Camino Island” during a long car ride to
Florida, and the book provides the pleasure of a leisurely jaunt periodically jolted
into high gear, just for the fun and speed of it.
Ken Tucker is critic at large for Yahoo, and a music critic for NPR’s “Fresh Air With
Terry Gross.”
A version of this review appears in print on June 18, 2017, on Page BR18 of the Sunday Book Review
with the headline: First Editions.
Review: John Grisham's 'Camino Island' is fine beach read
JONATHAN ELDERFIELD, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 06.19.2017
"Camino Island: a Novel" (Doubleday), by John Grisham
The tale opens with a robbery and closes with a reconciliation. In between these bookends, "Camino Island" by John Grisham is populated with ruthless thieves, witty writers and enough intrigue to fill a bookstore's mystery aisle. At the heart of the story is the theft of five priceless, yet heavily insured, original manuscripts by F. Scott Fitzgerald, including "The Great Gatsby" and "Tender Is the Night," from Princeton University's library.
After the successful caper turns sour — a few of the crew are quickly nabbed by the feds — the story moves south with an abrupt turn. The reader is introduced to Bruce Cable, an outgoing and popular bookstore owner in the town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island, Florida, who just happens to make the occasional black market deal for stolen books — and who has a penchant for seersucker suits. Could he somehow be involved in the Princeton theft?
Next we meet Mercer Mann, a novelist who cannot get her new book going and has recently lost her teaching job at the University of North Carolina. She's soon recruited by an outfit working for the insurance company as the perfect sleuth to suss out the fate of the manuscripts — she spent much of her youth on Camino Island with her grandmother, who died tragically. As Mann looks for the books and comes to terms with her grandmother's passing, she discovers a town filled with successful and failed writers, from romance novelists to struggling literary fiction authors, some with drinking problems, others brimming with the latest gossip.
As the fate of the lost manuscripts is revealed page by page, the action pivots among Mann, Cable and the thieves until all is revealed.
"Camino Island" makes a fine beach read no matter what island you end up on this summer. However, I'm not sure if this novel's Camino Island, filled as it is with writers, is Grisham's idea of "This Side of Paradise" or if he considers the writers to be "The Beautiful and Damned."
Review: 'The Whistler' by John Grisham
FRANCIS MOUL For the Lincoln Journal Star Nov 22, 2016
“The Whistler” by John Grisham, Doubleday, 374 pages, $28.95
Dirty rotten judge.
That is what Lacy Stoltz, an investigator for the Florida Board of Judicial Conduct, found as well as a job that was suddenly becoming increasingly dangerous.
Lacy’s agency has been hit by budget cuts, staff reduced and more cases piling up. So she was disgruntled at having to drive, with her large black partner Hugo, to check on a vague anonymous tip about a corrupt judge. Meeting on a slightly opulent boat, she finds a curious case.
It all involves a mysterious southern clan of cons and crooks, even murderers, known as the Coast Mafia, who have taken over the profitable casino off a small Indian tribe. Bad things have been done, including a couple of killings and an unjust criminal trial.
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At the forefront is a judge who makes it all legitimate, for a price.
Subplots, legal complexities and fast-moving action make this book another John Grisham magnum opus, with new and interesting characters, idiosyncratic evil-doers and an excellent layman’s view of legalese.
For a lawyer with a very select law practice, John Grisham sure can write. His books are not profound, don’t solve any world problems and are as easy to read as drinking a Yoo Hoo. They are entertaining, easily read in a day or two and prove quite satisfying, although not altogether didactic.
Just read it.
Francis Moul, Ph.D., Lincoln, sometimes fall asleep while reading a book.
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