The Pelican Brief

Two Supreme Court Justices are dead, and nobody can say who killed them or why. In New Orleans, Darby Shaw, a law student with a keen political mind, works up a theory for her own amusement: a legal brief arguing that the judges were murdered for political reasons. She shows it to her professor, who passes it to a friend, an FBI lawyer. Soon afterwards the professor dies in a car bombing.

What follows is Grisham in full flight, as Darby realises her idle paper may have uncovered a conspiracy reaching all the way to the presidency, and that someone wants her silenced. The story moves between the Louisiana bayou country and the corridors of Washington with real momentum. It is a sharp, propulsive legal thriller for anyone who likes their suspense clever and steeped in the law.