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The Rainmaker

by John Grisham (Goodreads Author)

3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 · rating details · 75,888 ratings · 847 reviews

John Grisham's five novels -- A Time To Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, and The Chamber -- have been number one best-sellers, and have a combined total of 47 million copies in print. Now, inThe Rainmaker, Grisham returns to the courtroom for the first time since A Time To Kill, and weaves a riveting tale of legal intrigue and corporate greed. Combining suspe...more

Paperback, 576 pages

Published September 27th 2005 by Delta (first published 1995)

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Community Reviews

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Feb 18, 2012 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, legal, 1990-1999, popcorn

“I'm alone and outgunned, scared and inexperienced, but I'm right.”

Smooth, savvy, satisfying…I think this is my new favorite John Grisham novel. While not heavy on scholarly nuance, it has some depth and is crisp, right-hearted, expertly paced and reads like ice-cold lemonade on the porch in summertime.*

*Please feel free to mentally substitute the simile ‘hot toddy curled up in front of a fire in winter’ if you prefer.

While this page-turner is a very easy read, I wouldn’t call this light as G...more

51 likes · like · see review

Apr 25, 2009 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Why did I like this book so much? Because it showed the "other" side of lawyering - the side that isn't romanticized in Grisham's other novels. For once, there were no mobsters, no politicians with hidden agendas, no paranoid millionaires with money to burn, no fresh-out-of-college rookies who land in hot water because they accidentally stumbled upon a secret that their storied firms had been keeping for years.

Rudy struggles from the outset. He's handed one opportunity after another, only to see...more

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Nov 07, 2008 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

“Like a snake creeping through the undergrowth, I sneak into the law school well past noon and hours after both of my scheduled classes have broken up.” I like this quote for a couple of reasons; one is because it’s so well described and descriptive. John Grisham left me wondering what was about to happen every time I was about to turn the page. I couldn’t really predict the book there were constant twists and turns throughout the book, as was curiosity and excitement. I didn’t have a least favo...more

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Aug 20, 2007 Chelsea Colleen rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: someone with a dream

im just a highskooler, so i couldnt really understand what the book was saying, but i got a general idea. this book is about a young man named rudy that is a struggling lawyer, but his life turns 360 degrees after he wins this case or something. its about a quiet adventure to the road of success. whoever reads this should feel touched at his will and drive. the fact that he neva gave up at the hardest times, and his determination to make it. i could go on and on, but i guess i got the general id...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Harv Griffin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, reviewed

This is one of my 2 favorite Grisham novels—don’t bother with the movie, it’s a campy mess of bad acting and awful direction IMHO (actually, the movie is so bad that it is occasionally amusing).

pic of my copy of Rainmaker

I love courtroom drama. RAINMAKER pits the law student who hasn’t even passed the bar yet and his “paralawyer” against the Big Bad Insurance Company that routinely denies EVERY claim made it against—initially.

Grisham is at the top of his game here; most of his novels are great first-reads (then give it a...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Dave marked it as to-read

Shelves: calibre, fiction

EDITORIAL REVIEW: John Grisham's five novels -- *A Time To Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client*, and *The Chamber* -- have been number one best-sellers, and have a combined total of 47 million copies in print. Now, in*The Rainmaker*, Grisham returns to the courtroom for the first time since *A Time To Kill*, and weaves a riveting tale of legal intrigue and corporate greed. Combining suspense, narrative momentum, and humor as only John Grisham can, this is another spellbinding read from...more

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May 03, 2012 Ashley Romine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ashley Romine
"The Rainmaker" by John Grisham
“My decision to become a lawyer was irrevocably sealed when I found out my father hated the profession.” Young law student, Rudy Baylor, is in his last year of law school, and is looking for his first big case to start his career. John Grisham’s The Rainmaker intrigues the reader as it takes the reader on Rudy’s journey through his beginning stages of his career.
"The Rainmaker" begins with Rudy Baylor getting ready to graduate law school in Memphis,...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Max Ostrovsky rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, pop

A very sloppy beginning and an even worse sloppy ending.
The beginning I found meandering. There were just too many plot lines that contained no suspense or anything that grabbed me. I couldn't even feel anything for the main character until close to the middle of the book.
The middle of the book, however, was fantastic. It was engaging and fast paced. I found myself not wanting to put the book down. The centerpiece of the book, the main trial, was handled absolutely fantastically. There were so...more

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Feb 14, 2012 Beverly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rudy Baylor is a 3rd Yr. Law student at Memphis State. As a 3rd Yr., he is scrambling to find employment, recovering from a broken heart, and taking the easiest classes he can until the Bar Exam. One of these classes is Legal Problems of the Elderly, "Geezer Law," in which Prof. Smoot takes them to Nursing Homes to do pro bono work. Here, Rudy meets Dot and Buddy Black and Mz Birdsong. Mz Birdy agrees to let Rudy live in her garage apt. for yardwork and Dot and Buddy want his advice on a denied...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Sabrina rated it 5 of 5 stars

I’ve read a few Grisham novels and I have found them all to be entertaining (except Bleachers – Couldn’t get on board with that one. In fact after Bleachers I stopped reading Grisham, thinking he had lost his touch).

I saw “The Rainmaker” described as his best novel, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Bought it on Kindle. Glad I did, for I don’t feel any great need to have it taking up space in my library.

Don’t misunderstand me, though. I did enjoy the book and I had no trouble getting through it....more I’ve read a few Grisham novels and I have found them all to be entertaining (except Bleachers – Couldn’t get on board with that one. In fact after Bleachers I stopped reading Grisham, thinking he had lost his touch).

I saw “The Rainmaker” described as his best novel, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Bought it on Kindle. Glad I did, for I don’t feel any great need to have it taking up space in my library.

Don’t misunderstand me, though. I did enjoy the book and I had no trouble getting through it. I just say that to say that it was pretty typical of Grisham. Fun but not a collector’s item.

Some reviews are disparaging the book saying that the characters are rather one dimensional and therefore, unbelievable as real people. To them, I say: If you want believable, don’t read fiction.

I thought the characters were developed well enough so that the reader wanted the main characters to fair well and the bad guys to be punished and this is where the story fell short for me.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!

Rudy wins the case, but doesn’t get paid. I guess we’re supposed to feel sorry for Drummond because he and his crew get spanked in court by a biased judge (whom I LOVED!!!) and lose the case but in the end don’t get paid by the faceless corporate insurance monster. Decker, the misfit with the heart of gold barely escapes with his life. The good guy gets the girl and they go off into the sunset.

In the end we are left to assume that Decker made the drop without incident and is living high on the hog after his great pay off. Rudy and Kelly go make a life for themselves in suburbia. Rudy become a history teacher and Kelly goes to school and completes a bachelor’s degree but in the end becomes the doting wife and mom and lives the rest of her days blissfully happy, loved by a good man who would never dream of raising a hand to her. I guess Cliff’s brothers and red-neck friends stop trying to find them and give up the idea of trying to kill her once they drive into the sunset. Drummond goes on to continue being a high-powered attorney and a power house in the court room. Booker, bless his heart, becomes partner in a few years and his wife ‘s social life is fulfilling and busy as she raises money for those in need and is of course the perfect lawyer’s wife and they live happily ever after in a Victorian-style two-story house with 2 beautiful, college bound kids. Miss Birdie goes back home and lives the rest of her life alone I guess and never hears from her kids again. Buddy never gets out of bed and dies in his sleep one night and Mrs. Black (sorry, her name escapes me right now) smokes herself into emphysema. She eventually dies in agony but with the peace that she made those sumbitches pay!

An easy story to read and certainly entertaining enough but the end fell off for me a little bit because we were left to make a LOT of assumptions about how everyone faired and I guess like to have everything neatly wrapped up at the end of a story. No loose ends. But that’s OK. I’ll still give it full marks because it did hit all my pleasure centers. For a soap-opera-type novel, it wasn’t at all vulgar so I didn’t have to compromise myself in anyway and what it was lacking in closure, I am more than capable to wrapping up in my own imagination.

This is book is not going to change your life or expand your vocabulary and you won’t be better for having read it but if you’re doing any International flying for if you’re laid up recovering from surgery, this is a fine book to keep you reasonably entertained.
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Sep 22, 2011 Amanda Spake rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries-cops-detectives

Ubelieveably, this is the first John Grisham book I have ever read. I picked it up primarily because everythng I wanted to read was not yet into the library, or checked out. I figured, because he is a regular best-seller and a darling of Hollywood, Grisham would be a crappy writer.

Boy, was I wrong! This book was great. Grisham is, first and foremost, a Southern novelist. An Arkansas native, who was educated (undoubtedly in every way) in Mississppi in the '70s, Grisham is a member of a dwindling...more

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Feb 23, 2011 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars

An inside look at the legal profession from the perspective of a law student who takes the bar exam during the first 1/3 of the book; the insurance industry; and clients. Theatrics, manipulation, withholding of critical documents, contempt of court, are just a few words to describe the defendents' lawyer and the defendents themselves. The story begins with a law student going to a senior center to offer free legal advice (with his instructor of course) to senior citizens-all part of his law scho...more

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Jan 13, 2011 Trennon Leavitt rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is a welcome break from the normal lawyer writing of John Grisham. It opens on a law student at Memphis State Law School named Rudy Baylor. Instead of Rudy being aimed at success from the beginning, he is struggling to pass the final bar exam and just get a job. Most of his classmates have promising jobs somewhere, but Rudy has no such luck. His opportunities are very limited and when it seems like his future is brightening, the rug is quickly pulled out from under him. It shows the op...more

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Sep 10, 2010 Jane Stewart rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: legal-suspense, 5-star-other

4 ½ stars. Wow what a great story teller! A number of events surprised me. I found myself smiling several times.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
I love the unexpected which this novel has. His characters might be stereotypes, but they were well done, fun, and had me chuckling. The theme is David vs. Goliath. The ending is happy with a bitter component. The evil, greedy, large corporation leaves a bad taste. The story took a while to get going which was fine. But the last third of the book had me on the edge o...more

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Jan 21, 2010 Tony Taylor rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Michael Beck (The Golden Seal, Xanadu), who seems to be making a career out of reading books on audio (A Time to Kill, The Runaway Jury), has returned with John Grisham's The Rainmaker, bringing the backwoods of Tennessee's legal world to life. His sultry, southern drawl animates the world of Rudy Baylor, an out-of-luck, budding lawyer who has more things going against him than bedraggled, disaster-magnet Joe from Lil' Abner. The law firm that hired Baylor was gobbled up by a larger firm just th...more

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Jul 23, 2011 David rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an unusual reading experience for a Grisham novel. First, although it is classified as one of his legal thrillers, it does have a lot of "legal" but most of the book I was waiting for the "thriller" part. Grisham adds the tension in the last 10 percent of the book, completely twisting the expected direction of the story...the biggest plus here. Mostly, the court room drama is supposed to sustain this book, since there is no danger to the protagonist, no chase scenes, nothing outside the...more

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Nov 16, 2010 Mighelon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: personali

Un giovane avvocato, ancor prima di ottenere l'abilitazione, si trova nelle mani un grosso caso, in cui è evidente la malafede di un'assicurazione che non ha pagato il trapianto di midollo osseo che avrebbe potuto salvare un giovane ragazzo malato di leucemia. Nel frattempo perde il posto ancor prima di iniziare a lavorare, si deve preparare all'esame e continua a servire in un bar per raccimolare ciò che gli serve per vivere... È così che inizia la sua avventura nel mondo delle cause, dei proce...more

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Mar 11, 2010 Patrick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book tells of a down-on-his-luck law student who stumbles on an interesting non-payment of insurance case while doing pro-bono work for a retirement home. The case involves a lower-middle class couple who bought health insurance for a low premium when suddenly their child gets acute leukemia. The insurance company subsequently refuses to pay because they claim the child had a pre-existing condition that was totally unrelated to leukemia.

I enjoyed this book tremendously not only because the...more The book tells of a down-on-his-luck law student who stumbles on an interesting non-payment of insurance case while doing pro-bono work for a retirement home. The case involves a lower-middle class couple who bought health insurance for a low premium when suddenly their child gets acute leukemia. The insurance company subsequently refuses to pay because they claim the child had a pre-existing condition that was totally unrelated to leukemia.

I enjoyed this book tremendously not only because the good guys win in the end against the unethical and illegal bad guys but also for the fact that the good guys got the justice they deserved. And the good guys were happy with this justice. In the ideal world, this is what the law should be about namely, JUSTICE.

This book screams for health care reform especially getting rid of the pre-existing condition and rescissions (people who were loyal to the insurance and paid their premiums on time but the claim was not honored). The book introduces to the reader the idea of post-claim underwriting, the practice of insurance companies have in finding a loop-hole in their responsibility for a claim based on non-disclosure of an illness that maybe totally unrelated to the current illness and the resulting effect of rescissions. Because of this unrelated illness, the insurance company can rescind the policy. In the book, Great Benefits insurance company based its denial of claims due to the fact the family forgot to add the flu as one of the illness that Donny Ray had. But, the truly unfortunate thing is this loop-hole allowed them the pretense of not paying the claim and thus condemning Donny Ray to death. More than anything this comprehensive health care reform seeks to end practices of insurance companies of pre-existing conditions and rescissions and finally insure all the uninsured.

It also showcases the need for consumer protection from shady insurance companies by having some sort of agreed upon minimum standard of care in their policy. The consumer protection by the law against insurance companies are necessary because in the book Great Benefit insurance sells cheap policies to poor UNEDUCATED people and are counting that if they have a claim that they won't fight back if the insurance company does not pay the claim because they are poor and UNEDUCATED. This book also underscores that American medical establishment is the best in the world as long as you can afford access to it.

Another component of the reform is regulation. I really have my doubts about government regulation and insurance companies because as in the book sometimes they are in cahoots. The insurance company gets the premium rates raise that they want while government gets the PR victory for "moderating" insurance premium rates. If they really want to decrease the rate increases of insurance companies, it would be via the threat of the government option. Insurance companies do not want the government option because they know they really cannot raise their premiums if there is a government option even if the government option plays by market rules. I think the government option should be the nuclear option to control increases in premium rates if the current legislation does not do the job.

Reading this book, I realize that trial lawyers are really entrepreneurial in their thinking so how can Republicans who espouse the virtue of free enterprise and cap something that is entrepreneurial at its core. I think the answer to this is that the justice system should primarily be about justice just like health care should primarily be about a person's health not about business. Without comprehensive health care reform which emphasize health in health care system, I seriously cannot think of capping the trial lawyers awards. Besides without comprehensive health care reform, the trial lawyers are for better or worse the last defense for people who are wronged by insurance companies.

The only way to get the industry to notice that they have wronged a client is either through government action or through their checkbook by being sued by trial lawyers. Bottom line, I think people should be more consistent about their political principles. If one thinks that free market should go unfettered then this should include the entrepreneurial inklings of trial lawyers without tort reform but if one thinks free market should be used to better humanity then there should be a system that encourages that. If health care once again be primarily about health care, then I can rule that justice system should primarily be about justice and thus tort reform should occur.

Like I said, the goal of the justice system should be about justice. On the one hand, this means tort-reform so trial lawyers cannot use court cases as entrepreneurial ventures but instead focus on the justice part of it. On the other hand, the goal of justice should be to force the guilty defendant to change their ways. If the defendant is a big corporation, there is two ways of doing that: 1) Through enacting a law that punishes such behavior 2) Through their pocketbook where it hurts. Thus if there is no comprehensive reform that bans the legal but abhorrent practice rescissions (people pay their premiums but the insurance company has a loop-hole of dumping them because they forgot to declare some unrelated illness), the only justice this people have is to change the companies abhorrent behavior through suing them and either hit them hard in their pocket books or public admittance of guilt which will eventually hit their bottom line because of the bad publicity that it will cause. The book beautifully highlights this debate in the lawyers closing arguments. Whereas Rudy is asking for 10% of their cash reserves so the company bottom line hurts, Drummond beautifully points out that the son is dead and no amount of money will bring him back and so the company is willing to pay actual damages but the punitive damages should not be too much (ie: trial lawyer greed check vs finding justice to a powerful company through heavy punitive damages).

Having said that trial lawyers are entrepreneurial, I also can see how people can claim that they are scavengers because they seem to want something bad to happen so they can enlist the aggrieved party and sue the pants off the defendants.

In the book, judges seem to be biased towards or against the insurance company. I hope this is not the case in real life where the judges should be impartial towards the law. The Rudy character gets a great break for having the judge on his side but in the end the scales are balanced because the jury is the one who will decide if the defendant is guilty or innocent and the defendant has a top defense team that has years of trial experience between the 5 lawyers that represents the defense whereas this is Rudy's first trial experience.

I love how the book ended with the unethical and illegal corporation going bankrupt and the company not only looking at numerous civil suits but also criminal suits as well. The clients are ecstatic with this news because in the end it was not about the money anyway.(less)

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Aug 03, 2012 Katehannah rated it 5 of 5 stars

There are spoilers in this review.

I actually give this 4 and a half but that's not an option.

A few minor details stopped this from getting the top score:

The implausibility of the very final few chapters- he kills a guy, tries to cover it up, gets away with it, and rides off into the sunset with a woman he hardly knows, abandoning a successful legal career he's invested a lot of time and money in (having just made legal history no less), with absolutely no explanation. This ending sucked.

But it...more There are spoilers in this review.

I actually give this 4 and a half but that's not an option.

A few minor details stopped this from getting the top score:

The implausibility of the very final few chapters- he kills a guy, tries to cover it up, gets away with it, and rides off into the sunset with a woman he hardly knows, abandoning a successful legal career he's invested a lot of time and money in (having just made legal history no less), with absolutely no explanation. This ending sucked.

But it was really only about 5 chapters worth after the trial.

Another annoying flaw is that this book had some pretty tired and rehearsed characters: the dotty old lady playing her money grabbing sons, the likeable token black friend (actually Grisham really makes an issue of race at points), the smarmy pompous lawyer you love to loath- I would have liked it if some of these side characters had been a bit more complex. I also found Kelly fairly unbelievable. The whole sponge bath scene was pretty far fetched, I doubt seriously that a battered wife would so causally allow a stranger (even one she fancies) to give her a sponge bath.

Having said all that, the trial was amazing- an absolute page turner. I loved the whole bugging episode, I never saw it coming and loved how Rudy (the main character) used it to his advantage.

I liked Rudy a lot. He was the best thing about this- I identified with him and I liked his inner monologue especially about the experience of law school. it was pretty amusing at times. His descriptions of losing and gaining employment, and the competition that exists between the graduating law students to get a job was absolutely spot on, especially in this current economic climate.

As someone only weeks away from beginning their legal career, I found this book exhilarating and it got me excited about the practice of law. It even made the procedural hearings seem really interesting. I would have like more legal background, but I appreciate that a lot of readers would be confused or bored by this.

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Nov 18, 2011 Peter Meredith rated it 3 of 5 stars

John Grisham gives me hope that someday my writing will become noticed and that I will be able to make a living as a novelist. I say this because The Rainmaker made it to number one on the New York Times best seller list despite the fact that it is only an average book.
The writing was good enough to keep me turning the pages, but the story lacked and the characters were painfully stereotypical, except oddly enough for the main character. For a good guy, Rudy Baylor was unlikable, not in an anti...more John Grisham gives me hope that someday my writing will become noticed and that I will be able to make a living as a novelist. I say this because The Rainmaker made it to number one on the New York Times best seller list despite the fact that it is only an average book.
The writing was good enough to keep me turning the pages, but the story lacked and the characters were painfully stereotypical, except oddly enough for the main character. For a good guy, Rudy Baylor was unlikable, not in an anti-hero fashion, but in a the-guy-is- kinda-nothing-special- fashion. I just didn't care for him, but as the book unfurled he became surrounded by people who were even more unpleasant so it began to seem he was changing, but not so much that I began to care.
Now the main problem with the book was with the story itself. It's a court case drama, but there is a definite lack of drama. You expect that there is going to be some sort of obstacle to Rudy winning this case and it helps to keep you interested, but after like three hundred pages,nothing. He wins and you know it long before it happens. Every fact, every witness, everything goes his way so that you know the evil insurance company is going to lose and it won't be close. But surely, when the defense has their chance there will be fireworks...no. Nothing on cross examination, no surprise witnesses. The bad guy are still bad and they still lose.
Oh, did I tell you the bad guys are evil? Yes evil corporate suit types just like you see in every movie and yes they have evil lawyers who are rich and powerful, but for some reason in this case they seem not to know which way up is, dazzled by this complete rookie. Yeah Rudy has never tried a case before. It's not believable.
Now two more bad parts. Sorry. The side stories are a complete waste of time and could be cut altogether. Lastly, the anti-climatic trial ends and then stuff happens that I don't really care about. Rudy kills some guy who's been domestically violent and for some reason, he decides to quit being a lawyer. Did you read that? Sort of out of the blue especially after sticking it to all the evil. I mean he just kicked evil's ass and then he quits lawering to become... you guessed it, a teacher. I had to shake my head and wonder if I missed a chapter somewhere.
My review might suggest that I hated the book, but that isn't true. It started slow, but picked up steam with good writing and the possibility of a court room brawl and for that I give it two and a half stars. (less)

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Nov 21, 2010 Jason "Book Sniper" rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

I loved this book. I kept reading about how funny it was, so I decided to give it a shot. I didnt think that the book was "that" funny :) If it was it would have gotten my full 5 star review... I only gave it 4. A five from me is very hard to get.

The book started out really slow for my liking. But I'm used to it because I'm a big fan of John Grisham and he usually starts his book pretty slow to paint the picture in your mind of what he wants you to see. JG does a great job in this book. He take...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Alexander Maxwell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Overall it was a fantastic book, Rudy Baylor won over 50 million dollars in court, and forced the insurance company to declare bankruptcy the next day. Knowing that he will not get anything from the bankruptcy, he stops being a lawyer and escapes with his love interest to become a history teacher. This is the very uplifting story of a young lawyer straight out of law school catching the case of his life, and after having his skills turned down by many different firms, he goes to every length in...more

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Apr 24, 2011 Natasha rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm not a huge Popular Fiction person, but I do enjoy these books when I travel; I don't have to think about what's going on and I can leave the book behind on a plane or airport for someone else to enjoy. The Rainmaker is definitely one of these books.

I was surprised I liked the book as much as I did -- the story was fast-paced and engaging, the characters fairly realistic, and, like a television show, I didn't have to think much about the plot. The main premise of the story was very strong and...more

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Jan 02, 2009 Antof9 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2005-read

About 20 pages into the book, I was dismayed by two things: 1. I'd already read it, and 2. it was the only thing I'd brought on the plane to read.

A typical Grisham, although this lawyer is young and when we meet him, not even finished with law school. But it's in the South, there are shady dealings, a big company is brought before a bunch of people who don't like big companies, etc., etc. Since I had already read this, I was disappointed to get so far into it on the plane that I had to finish it...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Adam K. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sigh. I wanted to give this one more stars. What I love about Grisham is you never feel bad for having met his characters and experienced his stories. The majority of his books are set in the field of law and justice, but they are far from cold, impersonal, or methodical. The procedural aspects of his stories are window-dressing, very interesting and education, but merely a backdrop to experience heart-felt characters in stories and situations we care about and identify with, and The Rainmaker i...more Sigh. I wanted to give this one more stars. What I love about Grisham is you never feel bad for having met his characters and experienced his stories. The majority of his books are set in the field of law and justice, but they are far from cold, impersonal, or methodical. The procedural aspects of his stories are window-dressing, very interesting and education, but merely a backdrop to experience heart-felt characters in stories and situations we care about and identify with, and The Rainmaker is no exception. It's truly a David and Goliath story, the young, inexperienced lawyer Rudy, fresh from the bar exam, taking on a gigantic insurance company who treacherously denied coverage for an operation that could have saved a man's life. They offer to settle for the cost of the operation, but he's going for the throat.

SPOILER WARNING!

He wins, and for much, much more than he was asking, but by the time you get to that point, it's almost a foregone conclusion, and that's where Grisham errs here. The judge favors Rudy to the point where you would think he is actually in cahoots with him, and it seems as if Rudy experiences virtually no opposition as he pursues his case. He has the world at his fingertips and gets far too many breaks. One could argue that the novel's suspense actually takes place in all the drama leading up to the case--Rudy's final year of law school, his scrimping and scrapping just to make it to and through the bar exam, his heavy discouragement pursuing employment and the guy he finally works for, his run-ins with the law, etc., but I think Grisham missed a huge opportunity here. I seems to remember Coppola milking the potential for great intrigue and drama in the courtroom for the film, which Diana and I might watch tonight. I'm looking forward to that. Also, there's the problem of the ending. I won't go into it, but Grisham has a tendency to snap his fingers and make it all go away, say "to hell with it", so to speak, when his characters are up against impossible or at the very least extremely difficult odds. I think he could have pursued the subplot with Kelly and the cops and perhaps another trial for another 100 pages, which would have made for extremely riveting reading. As it is, The Rainmaker is a beach book at best, a great one, very entertaining, but it won't make your top ten the way that it could have, and that's too bad.(less)

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Apr 10, 2013 J.L. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: grisham-books

No surprises or spoilers here... I'm a big fan of John Grisham's novels. The Rainmaker was one of the first Grisham books I ever read. And what stands out in my mind is how quickly I felt a connection to his main character, Rudy Baylor. Although it isn't one of my favorite plot lines (lawyer sues big bad company, yawn) I think it's amazing that he could tell such a...well, kind of depressing story and yet cause me to stay up till all hours reading to find out what happens next. That's why I've r...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Alison rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-2012

Discovery, depositions, and other trial prep are fundamentally boring. I avoided litigation in law school as much as possible because it's boring. Even when your rookie lawyer protagonist makes marvellous finds and produces stunning evidence, it's still boring, John Grisham, especially when it goes on and on, and isn't even slightly believable.

Also, first person present tense is an exhausting read for a novel. It doesn't help that Rudy is frequently unlikable, so being rightthere inhishead is, l...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Sarah Lu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It was pretty good, though took a little while to pick up. I thought that the whole Kelly arch was a bit... unneeded. To me, there was plenty going on without Kelly and her situation, and it just added to some already heaped on circumstances for the main character, Rudy.

In the beginning of the book, the firm that he was supposed to be joining merged with another firm, which made it so that he no longer had a job. After trying to work with the Lake firm and finding out that he was swindled by th...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Nikole rated it 4 of 5 stars

A newly minted layer, Rudy Baylor has already faced a long string of bad luck. Bankrupt and already laid off from two law firms, Rudy is in dire need of a boost, which comes in the form of a lawsuit against a health insurance company.

After ready several Grisham novels, I've found that they usually fall under one of two categories, cheap court room thrillers that fade from memory as soon as you close the book...and court room thrillers that you want to last forever. As I read the first chapter, I...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rudy Baylor is just about to graduate from Law School, has a simple job lined up, and is feeling pretty good about himself. He soon learns that the job will fall through has a difficult time finding another job and is evicted from his residence. Things are not going according to plan.

While giving some free legal service to a group of senior citizens, he meets the Blacks. Their son was denied access to lifesaving treatment for leukemia. At first he is unsure but soon realizes the Blacks' have bee...more

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About John Grisham

"Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby—writing his first novel.

Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of...more "Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby—writing his first novel.

Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn't have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990.

One day at the DeSoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, who gave it a modest 5,000 copy printing and published it in June 1988.

That might have put an end to Grisham's hobby. However, he had already begun his next book, and it would quickly turn that hobby into a new full-time career—and spark one of publishing's greatest success stories. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel, the story of a hotshot young attorney lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared. When he sold the film rights to The Firm to Paramount Pictures for $600,000, Grisham suddenly became a hot property among publishers, and book rights were bought by Doubleday. Spending 47 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, The Firm became the bestselling novel of 1991.

The successes of The Pelican Brief, which hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and The Client, which debuted at number one, confirmed Grisham's reputation as the master of the legal thriller. Grisham's success even renewed interest in A Time to Kill, which was republished in hardcover by Doubleday and then in paperback by Dell. This time around, it was a bestseller.

Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, and The Broker) and all of them have become international bestsellers. There are currently over 225 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 29 languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, A Painted House, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas), as was an original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man. The Innocent Man (October 2006) marks his first foray into non-fiction.

Grisham lives with his wife Renee and their two children Ty and Shea. The family splits their time between their Victorian home on a farm in Mississippi and a plantation near Charlottesville, VA.

Grisham took time off from writing for several months in 1996 to return, after a five-year hiatus, to the courtroom. He was honoring a commitment made before he had retired from the law to become a full-time writer: representing the family of a railroad brakeman killed when he was pinned between two cars. Preparing his case with the same passion and dedication as his books' protagonists, Grisham successfully argued his clients' case, earning them a jur(less)

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