The Pelican Brief-- A re-read as good as the first time around.

The Pelican Brief by John Grisham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of Grisham's earlier books and one of my favorites. Two Supreme Court justices, seeminly different in every way, are murdered within hours of each other. A Tulane law student decides to do some background on them to see if there are connections not immediately evident. She and her law school professor and lover think there may be a reason someone might want the President, now up for reelection though not a shoo-in, to be the one to add two new justices to the court. After four days of obsessive research Darcy Shaw comes up with a brief that she shows her lover, Callahan. He is so taken with the premise she proposes that he shares the brief with his old college buddy, now an FBI lawyer. He in turn shares it around Washington and it reaches the President and his advisor and almost president, Coal. Within days, Callahan is blown up in his Porche, after a drunken dinner with Darcy. She doesn't die with him because they had an arguement and she refused to get in the car that he intends to drive, though quite drunk.
And so begins her new life, one in which she doesn't know who to trust but knows that Callahan's death is connected to what is now known as the Pelican Brief. She also knows she was intended to die with him and that there are people actively searching for her to complete the task. Her methods of avoidance and the people who are chasing her keep the action going and the heart racing. Right until the very end of the book the tension never lets up.
As is often the case, the book is so much better than the movie. Especially since Darcy and her rescuer are allowed to at least begin a relationship, unlike the let down of Julia Roberts kissing Denzel Washington and the cheek and flying off into the sunset.

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