I’d always admired John Grisham as a person, a humanitarian steeped in the pursuit of justice for the wrongly accused through works of nonfiction as well as fiction, and as a board member of The Innocence Project and Centurion Ministries.

But, despite my authorship of two novels dealing with unjust convictions, one based on a real event, the sum total of my exposure to the Grisham oeuvre was one novel, The Chamber. It was actually an absorbing, empathetic study of a man facing execution – but a key part of it remained unresolved, and I was a bit disappointed.

Nonetheless, I felt the need to delve further into this author’s works, driven by two Amazon reviews of my own novels, the roman à clef Murder In Palm Beach: The Homicide That Never Died, and the legal thriller Blood On Their Hands. Each likened my writing to Grisham’s, the one for Blood recommending: “If you’re a fan of Grisham, you’ll love this book.” That swelled my head larger than did my encounter with a steel pipe a couple weekends ago when I fell hard on a sidewalk and cracked my skull against a railing. (It happened while I was selling my books at an art festival in Palm Beach County, as I tripped on a sheet covering my display table.)

I figured the quickest way to explore the essence of Grisham’s idiom was through his second novel, way back in 1991, which made him famous. I refer, of course, to The Firm. It became a worldwide best-seller. According to Google, Grisham’s books have sold 300 million copies, while James Patterson’s thrillers have reached 425 million sales.

Grisham’s tales are more refined than, say, those of James Patterson, whose books, in my opinion, are strictly for entertainment. They’re steeped in violence and, often, gore, designed to shock and scare. For many years, he hasn’t even written them, composing a 2,500-word outline which he turns over to a secondary writer for developing, churning them out as many as one a month, for a total of about 300. But Patterson is similarly humanitarian, a likable person. (I know, having interviewed him in his Palm Beach home 20 or so years ago for a story in Palm Beach Illustrated magazine.)

The plots of Grisham’s legal thrillers are more complex, and based closer on reality, his having been a lawyer. And I can’t imagine anything more complex than The Firm. The dialogue seems authentic, and the characters, too, are believable, except that Mitch McDeere, the hero, possesses an intellect and stamina that challenge the imagination. As with The Chamber, I kept expecting a resolution to one aspect of the plot that never occurred. Perhaps the author was saving it for a sequel, which arrived in 2023 as The Exchange; I’ll have to read it to find out.

The Firm is 421 pages, and chock-full of characters, a few of whom are not easy to remember. The book is best read in a short time period. Other facets requiring close attention are the intricacies involved in auxiliary characters’ copying of incriminating documents without being caught, and the puzzle with which the relevant characters elude hordes of both FBI agents and members of the law firm. Pulling it all together is a work of genius. If Grisham wanted to, he probably could commit crimes and never be caught.

Many thanks to readers who have put me in the camp of Grisham. For my part, I can only be envious.