City News

“The Client,” a novel written by John Grisham, depicts the struggles of a young and clever boy named Mark, whose life is on the line. Roaming the woods one day with his little brother Ricky, Mark comes across a nice car randomly parked. Mark also notices the owner next to it, appearing disgruntled. Letting his curiosity get the best of him, Mark crouches down to watch what happens. The owner of the car holds a water hose, sticking one end into the exhaust pipe, and the other end through the car window. Understanding that he is trying to take his own life, Mark attempts to stop this from occurring multiple times. When the owner goes into his car, Mark slides through the weeds and pulls the water hose out of the exhaust pipe. As Mark continues to do this, the owner becomes upset and confused as to how the hose keeps slipping out, and continues to put the hose back into the pipe. Mark pushes his luck one more time as he tries to stop this traumatic incident, and unfortunately gets caught by the owner of the car. Mark gets thrown onto the trunk of the car, then grabbed by the disgruntled man and forced into the car. Now in the car, Mark is trapped, causing him to be subjected to the wrath of this upset man who smells of booze. While in the car, Mark notices a bottle of alcohol and a gun. The drunken man introduces himself as Jerome, and begins talking nonsense. Mark, panicking, attempts to talk to the man, hoping this will distract Jerome from causing any more harm. Jerome begins to ramble about his client, Barry Muldanno, a dangerous man in the mafia. He explains that he is taking his own life because he thinks that Barry will kill him due to information about the location of the body of Senator Boyd Boyette that Jerome has. He reveals that Barry did in fact kill him. Realizing that he can now reveal confidential information, Jerome tells Mark the exact location of the body. This information becomes a burden for Mark, putting himself and everyone he loves in danger. He now must face the dangerous games of the mafia.

          Ricky, Mark’s younger brother, was watching Mark as he interacted with Jerome. This event scared Ricky so much that it caused him to go into traumatic shock. This is one of the many challenges Mark and his family, only consisting of him, his mother, and Ricky, must face.

          Mark decides to call the police to report Jerome's body. However, the phone call made him seem very suspicious. Mark was later caught by a police officer at the location of Jerome’s car. The officer interrogated Mark, figuring out that he was the one who called the police. Mark decides to keep quiet about the information that Jerome revealed to him. The policeman becomes suspicious of Mark, feeling as though he knows more than he is revealing.

          A simple, small suspicion of a police officer causes Mark’s life to completely change before him. Wanting to be safe, he decides to hire a lawyer, Reggie Love. She is not a typical lawyer, and will do anything to keep Mark safe. Mark, his family, and Reggie must face the horrible journey of escaping the mafia.

          The author, John Grisham, was great at maintaining the reader’s interest throughout the story. It was filled with suspense and mystery, and always left me wanting to read more. The author was excellent at making you feel connected to the characters in the story. Also, he made it very easy to imagine all of the settings and understand the moods throughout the story with his exceptional descriptions and use of literary devices. I would definitely recommend this book to others, especially if they are interested in suspense and thrillers.

Check out The Client from the Newport Beach Public Library!