So, after finishing the novel, I watched the movie again, and, sure enough, the newspaper stuff is there at the end, but it’s overshadowed by the dance the two characters are enacting. That’s particularly interesting because the movie’s director is the same guy who directed All the President’s Men, Pakula.

Book review: “The Pelican Brief” by John Grisham | Patrick T Book review: “The Pelican Brief” by John Grisham | Patrick T

Taut thriller about a young law student whose legal brief about the assassination of two Supreme Court justices causes her to be targeted by killers. A master at the art of deft characterisation and the skilful delivery of hair-raising crescendos' – Irish Independent Grisham pithy dialogue and fast pacing really moves this one along nicely, as any decent thriller should. Yes, he keeps you guessing for some time regarding the people behind the Brief, and also explores some nasty behind the door politics among the white house, the FBI and the CIA. Good stuff all around. While thrillers never tend to age well, the politics depicted here have-- money in politics, conservatives wanting to abolish abortion (yeah😢) and get rid of environmental standards-- sound familiar? What has not aged well are the characters. Callahan is a drunken buffoon and why Darby is attracted to him is rather inexplicable. Further, what is a law professor doing sleeping with his students? Via various dialogue by-play, this is an established pattern. Can you say Title IX? While the D.C. events are happening, Grisham switches to law school in New Orleans and focuses upon a law prof-- Callahan-- and his star student/lover Darby. Callahan loved the old liberal Justice that got offed and goes on a drunk. Darby, however, is curious. Why take out these two judges? Is there perhaps some case due to go the Supreme Court that someone wants different judges to sit on? Probing that, she comes up with the Pelican Brief; a hypothesis that concerns a long-term lawsuit whose principles may be just crazy enough to off some Justices. Through a rather circumventionist route, the Brief makes its way to D.C. and even the FBI. Well, long story short, Callahan shortly thereafter eats a car bomb and Darby goes on the run...A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. To Darby Shaw it was no more than a legal shot in the dark, a brilliant guess. To the Washington establishment it was political dynamite. Suddenly Darby is witness to a murder—a murder intended for her. Going underground, she finds there is only one person she can trust—an ambitious reporter after a newsbreak hotter than Watergate—to help her piece together the deadly puzzle. Somewhere between the bayous of Louisiana and the White House’s inner sanctums, a violent cover-up is being engineered. For someone has read Darby’s brief. Someone who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable crime. Being in the legal field myself, I always admired his ability to show the negative side of justice and the manipulative hand the politicians have over the justice system. To that end, the Pelican Brief is the best I have read. Grisham is a genius in creating such realistic characters in his books which make us readers so connected with them. His characters have always been felt so close to our hearts and Darby Shaw is no exception.

The Pelican Brief by John Grisham | Goodreads

The novel starts with the assassination of two U.S. Supreme Court Justices and moves into high gear when a legal brief, written by a Tulane University law student, Darby Shaw, sparks a rash of cover-up murders that has Darby running for her life. The story winds on, with our pair disappearing down rabbit holes and emerging with proof of who is behind the killings - despite denials from the President’s Chief-of-Staff, Fletcher Cole (an admiral villain). Various characters put in cameo appearances for no apparent reason – Eric East of the FBI and Edwin Sneller (presumably) CIA, but the shady ex-CIA/former marine in Cole’s pay, did not make it in the movie, nor the oil industrialist behind it all. Darby decided to test herself by putting her considerable intellect to the task of finding an answer. What she comes up with is considered interesting but implausible. What Darby didn’t know was that she had just scratched a pimple that is now turning septic.

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The focus of the film version of The Pelican Brief is to get the viewer engrossed in the question of not just whether Darby and Gray will survive, but even more whether they will fall in love.