The Pelican Brief

Title: The Pelican Brief
Author: John Grisham
My rating: ***

This was the first time I read John Grisham and was thoroughly impressed by his 360 degree coverage. Well almost. The murder mystery was paced fast enough to keep me hooked and detailed enough to be believable. The plot revolves around the murder of two high profile supreme court judges. A law student based on her investigation writes up a case that later gets the 'Pelican brief' moniker. The revelations in the document seemingly a long-shot turn out be accurate. The document moves along and passes under the wrong eyeballs. What follows is a cat and mouse chase and more cold blood killings. The build up of the characters is admirable and the attention to details perfect. This is with the exception of the antagonist though who surprisingly gets only a couple of chapters worth. The legal jargon was a bit over-the-head in the initial few chapters and almost put me off. Keep reading though and it soon transforms into a thriller that it truly is.

~Ashish.