The Rainmaker

Rudy Baylor is in his last year of law school in Memphis when the job he was counting on disappears. He lands instead with J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone, a ruthless personal injury lawyer, and starts taking on work that pays nothing.

Two of those pro bono clients matter most. Miss Birdie is an elderly woman who wants her will revised. Dot and Buddy Black are parents whose son Donny Ray is dying of leukemia, because their insurer refused to pay for the treatment that could have saved him.

Rudy teams up with Deck Shifflet, a former insurance claims assessor, and the two set up their own practice to bring the Blacks' lawsuit against the insurance company. Rudy has never tried a case. Across the aisle stands Leo F. Drummond, backed by a team of seasoned defense litigators.

This legal thriller follows Rudy from the classroom to a courtroom fight that carries real physical risk. In a hospital he also meets a young woman trying to get out of an abusive marriage, a thread that pulls him toward a second kind of trouble. The book dates from 1995 and was Grisham's sixth novel. A 1997 film adaptation starred Matt Damon as Rudy.