Cheap The Pelican Brief (Book) (John Grisham) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Pelican Brief

Excellent Book!
The book begins by discussing the members of the Supreme Court <
>and their security measures.Abraham Rosenberg,the 91 year old senior member of the Supreme Court,is killed in his home as well as his FBI bodyguard and a nurse.Glenn Jensen is killed in <
>a homosexual porno house.Both of these murders took place on the same night The justices were killed by Khamel the master <
> terrorist and assassin.He has been hired to do the job.The question is why? <
> Darby Shaw,a law school student at Tulane does her own research and does a brief on the matter.In the brief she point a finger and names a suspect.Her boyfriend Thomas Caldwell gives <
>the brief to an FBI agent that he went to lawschool with.The <
>brief then becomes widely distributed.After an argument with <
>her boyfriend Caldwell she decides to walk home.Caldwell starts the car and it explodes killing him.Shortly after that his FBI <
>friend is killed by Khalel.Several attempts are made to kill and <
>apprehend Darby.She leaves Bew Orleans and goes to New York <
>where she contacts Gray Grantham,a reporter for the Washington <
>Post.She then has the opportunity to give him the brief and tell <
>him her story.He begins the pursuit for the truth. <
> The individual named in the brief is one Victor Mattiece.He is an oil man who has ulterior motives for wanting the Supreme <
>Court Justices dead.Mr. Mattiece also has ties to the White House. <
> All of these factors combine to make an incredible story.

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This novel deserves a chance!
I enjoyed reading almost the whole novel. I skipped a few irrelevant dialogues and it didn't affect my understanding. However, the novel does have some obscure parts as some other American reviewers stated. For example, John Grisham interrupts sometimes the readers with his personal commentaries. He must've wanted to express what many readers would be thinking or feeling, however it can be annoying sometimes. <
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>Back to the good points: the characters are very human, one reviewer from TN said he could relate to the novel's characters. John did a superb job in describing the tense working situation that arouse many times between bosses and subordinates (especially between the president and Voyles, the FBI director) and all the political games involved, especially the media and public manipulation. Sometimes it seems that there are only two good guys in the novel: the Washington Post's reported Gary Grantham (and even he himself is a bit tricky) and Darby Shaw (who finds the real bad guy). All other don't care much about justice being done: <
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>-One of the assassinated Supreme Cout memebers, Abraham Rosenberg, was one of those judges who are lenient with criminals. For example, he supported a guy (Nash) who was found to posses an AK-47 assault rifle and he had charges of drug trafficking. It is so wimpy to try to justify AR. <
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>-Voyles negotiates with the president to stop investigating some murder suspects if the president stops blaming the FBI for mistakes in protecting the two Supreme Courts judges assassinated (who didn't want to be protected in first place). The president himself starts the negotiation. The president's top assistant, Coal Fletcher, is merciless with all the employees. <
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>-The heroine's professor, Tom Callahan is only interested in pleasures, especially sex and if it wasn't enough he admires Rosenberg. His friend at the FBi is much like him (otherwise they wouldn't be friends). I never liked that character, Tom, and I actually liked when he's bombed when he was about to drive a Porsche while drunk; thanks for that part John. <
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>-The bad guys are....bay guys. Some of them were not clearly identified as other reviewer said, but it's well understood those ones were small fishes. It looks unbelievable that a normal student -Darby- could run away from experienced murders, but you'll find who was helping her almost at the end of the book. This was right what Agatha Christie and many other writers used to do. You can found this action (explanations at the story's end) even in Scooby-Doo cartoons and movies! <
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>Perhaps John strained the readers from knowing who the one behind all the murders was, but that's a standard tool of writers. It wasn't so bad of him, except for the fact that Fletcher Coal becomes the bad guy for most of the book when it was him who advised the president not to interfere with FBI's investigations. Meanwhile, the real murder does whatever he wants...which is what happens in real life all too often. Meanwhile John shows us how authorities behave. This novel was not so much about the typical cat-after-the-mouse chase, but how people behave in their jobs in the government and the media. It was also interesting to read how John described the way Gray, Darby and the Washington Post's staff (all imaginary of course) organized the publication of the final article where they denounced the murderers. Of course all of these descriptions are only clues about how things work in real world. <
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>Yes, give this novel a chance and read it with all your imagination.

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Exciting but Implausible
When two Supreme Court justices are assassinated on the same night, there is plenty of speculation as to who the assassin or assassins are and why the judges were murdered. Like many others, law student Darby Shaw thinks she knows the motive. She writes a brief, soon to be known as The Pelican Brief, and shows it to her law professor/lover, Thomas Callahan. Unfortunately, he shows it to a friend of his who works for the FBI, who passes it along, and it falls into the wrong hands. When Callahan is killed by a car bomb, Darby realizes someone wants her dead and she goes on the run. She hooks up with Washington Post reporter Gray Grantham and the two of them try to stay alive long enough to expose the truth. <
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>This was an exciting but implausible thriller. Darby is a well-written character and it's nice to read a book with a strong, intelligent heroine. Unfortunately, it's not clear until well into the book what Darby's feelings for Callahan really were, it should have been clear earlier that she loved him and was not a student having an affair with a professor in order to get an A. She conveniently has plenty of money, so she can use cash on the run, rather than leave a trail by using plastic. And it strains readers credibility that a law student can outwit trained assassins. Some of the other characters in the book blend into each other and I wasn't always clear as to who some of them were. Grisham does clear up some loose ends, but at the last minute, as if he suddenly remembered them. <
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>Despite these flaws, the story is exciting enough to keep the reader turning pages and worth reading as long as you don't think too much about it. <
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