SOURCE: "Topical Legal Thriller Spins an Intriguing but Improbable Tale," in The Christian Science Monitor, March 5, 1993, p. 10.

In the following review of The Client, Goodrich praises Grisham's treatment of the juvenile justice system and compelling plot, commenting: "If you can suspend disbelief long enough to accept an 11-year-old leading the adult world around by the nose for 422 pages, the rewards in The Client are worth it."

John Grisham is on a roll: He's had three No. 1 bestsellers in the two years since The Firm was published. His latest legal thriller, The Client, contains all the ingredients of a fourth consecutive winner.

The plot revolves around an unlikely hero: Mark Sway, an 11-year-old Memphis, Tenn., boy who, with his younger brother, witnesses the suicide of New Orleans lawyer Jerome Clifford. Mark and his brother are living with their young mother in a trailer park after her divorce from a...