Throwback Thursday: The Client

Throwback Thursday is a new feature at Reading Lark. We'll still be doing some Book Boyfriend Posts and Book BFF Posts on Thursdays as well, but the Larks wanted a little variety on Thursdays. Throwback Thursday will allow us to celebrate some of the reads we loved way back when...

The Client

By: John Grisham

Release Date: 1993

I am super jealous of teens these days. When I was a kid, YA novels were not plentiful. Aside from Sweet Valley High, once I surpassed the middle school novels, there wasn't a lot in my age range for me to read. I was an avid reader from an early age so rather than lament the lack of novels written for teens, I jumped straight into adult fiction. Around 8th grade, I discovered John Grisham and begin to devour his novels. I even decided that I wanted to be a lawyer based on his work. (That life goal changed when I hit college, but it did last for the better part of my adolescence.) While I have Grisham novels I liked more than this one, The Client will always stand out in my mind. I was caught up in Mark Sway's live from the first moment I met him. I was in awe that an 11 year old could be so brave after seeing some horrible stuff happen. I also loved how much Mark cared about his family - particularly his little brother. The characters are truly what made this story memorable for me. 

Goodreads:

This is the story of eleven-year-old Mary Sway, who, as the novel opens, witnesses the bizarre suicide of a New Orleans attorney. Just before he dies, the lawyer tells Mark a deadly secret concerning the recent murder of a Louisiana Senator, whose accused killer, Mafia thug Barry Muldanna, is about to go to trail. The police, the federal prosecutor, and the FBI pressure Mark to tell them the attorney’s last words, but he knows that with the mob watching his every move, revealing his secret will almost surely get him killed. So Mark, streetwise and old beyond his years, hires a lawyer: Reggie Love, a fifty-two-year-old divorcee who’s been through more than anyone could imagine and survived, basically, because she’s tough. And fiesty. And loves helping kids overlooked or abused by the system. But when Mark’s life is threatened, and Reggie discovers her office has bee bugged, and even the Juvenile court judge says Mark has no choice but to talk, she realizes that this time she’s in way over her head. But then Mark comes up with a plan… a crazy plan, in Reggie’s opinion but it’s their only hope. And it just might work.