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The Client

by John Grisham

Wow, wow, wow, and double wow. First published in 1993, and later made into a movie for the big screen, The Client has all the impact of John Grisham's most famous novel, The Firm. The combination of a pre-teenage boy and his female lawyer working with (or against) the FBI, a black judge, politicians and the Mafia allows some insight into the fantastic creativity of the writer. The Client isn't a skinny book, but I couldn't leave it until I read through to the end (at one o'clock in the morning). John Grisham not only writes well, he's compelling – and describes people in such a way that you instantly know them from the inside out. The Client tells a spellbinding tale, using the most unusual protagonist – who is caught in a web between telling the truth and mortal danger to himself and his family.

Mark Sway is only eleven, but mentally older than his years, even though he reverts to simply being a kid at times. Divorced from a brutal father, his mother uses Mark as her confidant. Mark is now the man of the house and his eight-year-old brother's mentor. As the lesser of the evils of booze or drugs, Mark's agreed to teach his brother Ricky to smoke. They repair to a woodsy hideaway for the lesson. Just as they're getting into it, however, they see a big Lincoln come to a stop near them. Hiding in the weeds and undergrowth, the boys see a man get out, open the trunk, take out a hose, put one end in the tailpipe and one through the window, get back in the car, and start the motor.

Mark wriggles through the weeds behind the car and pulls out the hose, trying to keep the man from committing suicide – then he's caught and dragged into the car. The man tells him he's a lawyer: Jerome Clifford (call him Romey) and he's been representing a member of the Mafia, Barry Muldanno. Barry the Blade (as he's called) has killed a number of people, the last one being Senator Boyd Boyette. Now Romey is afraid Barry wants to kill him because Jerome knows where the senator's body is. Then Romey tells Mark where Boyd's remains are buried.

Jerome has decided to kill himself first instead, and take Mark along with him. Ricky meanwhile has pulled out the hose again to save his older brother. The whiskey and pills get to Romey and he falls asleep, allowing Mark to escape. When Romey eventually wakes up and finds the hose disconnected once more, he puts his gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger while the boys watch from a safe distance. The resultant death throws Ricky into shock.

Mark calls 911, attempting to disguise his voice, then crawls back to the scene of the suicide to watch while the cops and ambulance arrive. Discovered by one of the policemen, Mark begins to lie. The FBI appear on the scene, drawn to Jerome Clifford because they know he knew where the senator's body was buried. The FBI needs the body to convict Barry the Blade. Without a body, they have no proof of the murder.
And they suspect that Romey told Mark.

Mark is scared, and his memories of TV programs indicate it's wiser to keep his mouth shut about what he knows. Realizing he needs a lawyer, Mark goes to find one, but has no money. Rebuffed in the outer office of the first lawyer he tries to see, Mark stumbles onto Reggie Love in the same building. Reggie is a fiftyish female who usually represents abused children, but when she hears Mark's story, it marks the beginning of a close relationship.

The Client swivels back and forth between Mark, Reggie, Barry the Blade, the FBI agents, politicians and police. When Mark's fingerprints are discovered inside Romey's car, everyone is sure that Romey told Mark where the senator's body could be found. But if Mark tells what he knows, Barry or his henchmen will certainly come after him and his family. And in spite of the fact that the Sways have all been promised full protection, Mark can only visualize a TV program where the
Mafia found such a protected individual after two years and killed him.

Suspense builds when Mark and Reggie avoid a court order – and instead of leaving the country, go to where Senator Boyette is buried, only to find the Mafia there before them.
The ultimate result of the entire affair is resolved only when the Sway family is placed on a plane as part of the witness protection program and flown away – then – and only then Reggie tells the waiting FBI and officials where they can find the senator's body for the proof they need.

It doesn't sound like much, does it? Yet The Client is a powerful story, and one that will pull you into rooting for young Mark and his lady lawyer. The eleven-year-old Mark is by no means the perfect little boy – he swaggers, he lies, and sometimes his ego gets the better of him as his fame grows – but John Grisham writes about Mark and Reggie so well that you feel you know these people, you sympathize with every move they make, and recognize their needs and loyalties. The Client is most assuredly a novel you shouldn't miss.

Alan Paul Curtis

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