After a shadowy killer assassinates two Supreme Court justices, the nation is stumped for suspects and motive. Working in the nether reaches of the Tulane law library-far from the lecherous glances of male law students or the boozy reach of her law-professor lover-Darby Shaw solves the crime. She explains her theory in a memo that becomes known as the pelican brief; the title refers to the endangered species at the heart of the lawsuit that sets off the killings. She thinks it’s all pretty farfetched (she’s right, of course) but her mentor passes it on to high-placed friends in Washington and the next thing the reader hears is bombs going off and body parts crashing to the pavement.
The setup is swell, and the chase is daring, but there’s no brain food here. Why would anyone, even the richest scoundrel in Louisiana, want to kill two justices of the Supreme Court four years before his case might, might, be heard? Why, indeed, when one is 91 and barely alive, and the other is described as erratic at best? Grisham doesn’t tell except to lay the idea off on some legal wizard who doesn’t shed a clue either. Who leaked Darby’s brief to the bad guys? Nobody knows and nobody much cares including the FBI director, even though the tip led to the death of the FBIs counsel. What’s in the brief.? Hard to say, since we never get to read the whole thing. The one chapter seemingly devoted to it is nifty but it doesn’t match the early descriptions. And, by the way, how did Darby crack the case? As she says when she emerges from the law library, she didn’t. All she had was a surmise, suggesting perhaps that where legal research fears to tread, legal fiction rushes in. Caveat emtor.
title: “A Breach Of Contract” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-08” author: “Norma Barnes”
After a shadowy killer assassinates two Supreme Court justices, the nation is stumped for suspects and motive. Working in the nether reaches of the Tulane law library-far from the lecherous glances of male law students or the boozy reach of her law-professor lover-Darby Shaw solves the crime. She explains her theory in a memo that becomes known as the pelican brief; the title refers to the endangered species at the heart of the lawsuit that sets off the killings. She thinks it’s all pretty farfetched (she’s right, of course) but her mentor passes it on to high-placed friends in Washington and the next thing the reader hears is bombs going off and body parts crashing to the pavement.
The setup is swell, and the chase is daring, but there’s no brain food here. Why would anyone, even the richest scoundrel in Louisiana, want to kill two justices of the Supreme Court four years before his case might, might, be heard? Why, indeed, when one is 91 and barely alive, and the other is described as erratic at best? Grisham doesn’t tell except to lay the idea off on some legal wizard who doesn’t shed a clue either. Who leaked Darby’s brief to the bad guys? Nobody knows and nobody much cares including the FBI director, even though the tip led to the death of the FBIs counsel. What’s in the brief.? Hard to say, since we never get to read the whole thing. The one chapter seemingly devoted to it is nifty but it doesn’t match the early descriptions. And, by the way, how did Darby crack the case? As she says when she emerges from the law library, she didn’t. All she had was a surmise, suggesting perhaps that where legal research fears to tread, legal fiction rushes in. Caveat emtor.
