David and Goliath in the courtroom (The Rainmaker - John Grisham)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	The Rainmaker - John Grisham
Date:	08/05/08 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great novel

Disadvantages: None really

The Rainmaker is the 6th novel from award winning legal thriller author John Grisham. It has been made into a blockbusting film, as have his previous 5 books.

The Plot

Rudy Baylor is in his final year of law school. As part of his course, he is required to give free legal advice to a number of senior citizens. He meets Dot and Buddy Black, whose son Donny Ray is dying of leukamia, and their insurance company won't pay for any legal fees. Rudy investigates the case, and finds that the company, a nationally hugely successful insurance company, may have been negligent in their refusal to mistreat Donny Ray, and it may have led to his worsened condition. As Rudy juggles finishing law school with finding his feet and surviving with no money, he finds himself embroiled in the case and enlists the help of the shifty paralegal Deck Shifflet, whose heart appears to be in the right place even if his dodgy goings on have restricted him to paralegal and no further. The combination of the two men will have to be enough against such a big insurance company, and as the case proceeds, the rpessures mount and a chain of events starts to occur.

My Opinion

Grisham returns to the courtroom in this, his 6th novel. His first novel, A Time To Kill, featured the courtroom a lot, and his following four novels did not. Here, it is a welcome return and very well crafted, with the character of Rudy Baylor very well treated in terms of innocence and knowledge. Youth and naivety work against him, which is where the character of Deck comes in. He doesn't so much have the innocence and youth and access to the courtroom, but he has common sense and a will to survive, and the combination of the two men is marvellous.

The clever thing Grisham does here is to examine the whole span of the legal profession in the States. Not only does he examine the noble side of characters such as Rudy and the heart of Deck, he also touches on characters such as Bruiser, sa former legal heavyweight who has succumbed to the sleazy side of the legal profession and solves matters outside the courtroom quite often. In examining the defense for the insurance company, we are shown by Grisham the mind games often employed by lawyers in throwing a load of big gun hotshot lawyers at the one law student Rudy Baylor trying to make a difference. It shows the lack of balance and justice we sometimes see in the courtroom, not just in America, but the whole world over, and that nothing is ever just plain and simple.

Overall, Grisham has done very well here. It is not his best novel, indeed, he would do well do scratch the surface of his excellent debut novel A Time To Kill, but this is still a very good foray into the legal world, with some intense courtroom scenes and some snappy dialogue sequences.

Conclusion

A snappy read, very hard to put down, and a pleasure once again to experience the skill of the pen of John Grisham.

I rate this book at 4 stars out of 5.

The book is available from amazon.co.uk for £4.49.

This review may also be posted on ciao.co.uk.

Thanks for reading.

Summary: The Rainmaker - John Grisham's 6th novel