The Client

John Grisham’s 1993 legal thriller The Client opens in Memphis, Tennessee, where eleven-year-old Mark Sway and his younger brother Ricky witness the suicide of a mob lawyer, Jerome Clifford, in a parked car. Before shooting himself, Clifford tells Mark where the body of a murdered Louisiana senator, Boyd Boyette, is buried—a secret that makes the boy a target of the New Orleans Mafia and the focus of a federal investigation. The novel’s distinctive structure follows two parallel tracks: the cat-and-mouse pursuit by U.S. Attorney Roy Foltrigg, a publicity-hungry prosecutor determined to force testimony from the child, and Mark’s search for a lawyer willing to protect him. He finds one in Reggie Love, a brilliant, unconventional attorney who takes the case for a modest fee and becomes his guardian and advocate. Grisham’s legal framework centers on juvenile representation and the ethical duty of confidentiality, exploring whether a child can invoke attorney-client privilege against the government. The book’s tension arises from Mark’s refusal to reveal the burial site, since speaking would endanger his family, and from Reggie’s efforts to negotiate immunity while shielding him from a grand jury. Set largely in Memphis and New Orleans, the narrative contrasts the vulnerability of a poor, working-class family with the resources of federal law enforcement and organized crime. The Client became a bestseller and was adapted into a 1994 film starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones.