SOURCE: "How Do You Fight the Mob? Get a Lawyer," The New York Times, March 5, 1993, p. C29.

Lehmann-Haupt is a prominent American critic. In the following review, he faults Grisham for frustrating readers with likeable characters and an undeveloped, implausible, but gripping plot, advising the reader to "settle into The Client for the captivating read it promises. Just don't look for any surprises. What you expect is more than what you get."

The opening of John Grisham's latest legal thriller, The Client, is irresistible. Eleven-year-old Mark Sway is leading his 8-year-old brother, Ricky, into the woods near their trailer-park home in Memphis, Tenn., to give him his first cigarette. While the boys are lighting up behind some bushes, a long, black, shiny Lincoln comes rolling up a dirt road close by and pulls to a stop. A chubby man in a black suit climbs out, removes a water...