Product Description

Rudy Baylor is a newly-qualified lawyer: he has one case, and one case alone, to save himself from his mounting debts. His case is against a giant insurance company which could have saved a young man's life, but instead refused to pay the claim until it was too late. The settlement could be worth millions of dollars, but there is one problem: Rudy has never argued a case in court before, and he's up against the most expensive lawyers that money can buy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10087 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

From the Publisher
John Grisham's bestselling backlist repackaged with fantastic new covers

From the Back Cover
Rudy Baylor is a newly-qualified lawyer: he has one case, and one case alone, to save himself from his mounting debts. His case is against a giant insurance company which could have saved a young man’s life, but instead refused to pay the claim until it was too late.

The settlement could be worth millions of dollars, but there is one problem: Rudy has never argued a case in court before, and he’s up against the most expensive lawyers that money can buy.

‘The best thriller writer alive’Ken Follett, Evening Standard

‘The suspense does not let up for a minute’ Daily Telegraph

‘He keeps us turning the pages until well after bedtime… as exciting as a car chase with a load of dynamite thrown in’ Daily Mail

‘The book stays in the hands as if super-glued… compelling’ Sunday Express

About the Author
John Grisham is the author of eighteen bestselling novels. He lives with his family in Virginia and Mississippi.

Customer Reviews

One of my favourite Grisham books
Rudy Baylor is just like a lot of other law students, he's worked hard through law school, and he dreams of the day he'll make it as a high paid attorney at a big law firm. He's been lucky, he has found a firm willing to take him on providing he passes the bar exam. However disaster strikes and the firm he is about to join is taken over and he now faces unemployment and a huge amount of student debt.

His only chance is a bad faith case that involves an insurance company who failed to pay out on a boy dying of leukaemia despite his mother making all the necessary payments. Worse still the boy may actually have been saved if the company had paid out when it was supposed to.

Ironically, the firm involved is the very one who cost Rudy his job and when similar cases begin arising throughout the country a trial that will be one of the biggest in U.S. history looks inevitable.

For me this was one of, if not my favourite John Grisham book. I read it in a few days finding the story addictive, the characters empathetic and the plot gripping and twisting from start to finish. I've never seen the film version, but i would highly recommend this book, 5 stars!

great combination of fun and excitement
This was the 4th or 5th Grisham book I read. I got a bit concerned when I noted it was written in 'I' mode (or whatever you call that in English). That concern was quickly forgotten (the brief introduction to Rudy's dad in the beginning had me laugh right away and suggested good reading coming) and I almost read it non-stop and it was very difficult to put down. Seldom do I laugh aloud reading a book alone at home but this book had me doing it a couple of times. And I wouldn't have expected that from a Grisham book. My best reading experience for a long time. I'm halfway through the 'Pelican Brief' at the moment and its great too. But not as entertaining as Rudy Baylor's story. I have learned a lot about the American legal system reading Grisham. I think most civilized people are dreaded by that crazy system and hopefully Grisham's writing makes a small contribution towards, eventually, changing that madness. When I find a new, favourite author I always get very concerned when I realize that there aren't that many more books to be read by that author. This feeling is particularly pronounced with Grisham.

Another Grisham page-turner
Grisham writes in the first person present which feels like a screenplay but apart from my difficulties with Rudy's voice I thought the story was solid Grisham. I did want to know more about the young lady in the hospital: I felt that perhaps he'd only created her midway through writing and I wasn't quite sure that the ending didn't feel a tad contrived and slightly too staring-down-a-gun-barrel-I'm-wrapping-it-all-up-now, which still makes for gripping reading but can leave you wanting a little bit more, sitting there, gasping but not quite sated.