The Pelican Brief

The Pelican Brief is a legal-suspense thriller by John Grisham, published in 1992 by Doubleday. It is his third novel after A Time to Kill and The Firm. Two paperback editions were published, both by Dell Publishing in 1993. A namesake film adaptation was released in 1993 starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. Plot The story begins with the assassinations of two ideologically divergent Supreme Court justices. Both murders are committed by Khamel, the most wanted hitman in the world. Justice Rosenberg, a liberal, is killed at his home while Justice Jensen, a Republican-appointed swing voter, is killed inside a gay movie theater in Washington, D.C. The circumstances surrounding their deaths, as well as the deaths themselves, shock and confuse a politically divided nation. Darby Shaw, a Tulane University law student, conducts research on Rosenberg and Jensen's records and writes a legal brief speculating they were not killed for political reasons. She shows the brief to Thomas Callahan, her law professor and lover, who in turn shows it to his friend, an FBI lawyer, Gavin Verheek. Soon afterwards, Callahan is killed by a car bomb, while Shaw, who witnesses his death, is contacted at the scene by suspicious people. Afraid that she is the next target, Shaw goes on the run. She contacts and agrees to meet Verheek, but Khamel murders Verheek and impersonates him when they meet. He is just about to kill Shaw when he is shot by an unknown person, so she manages to escape again. Gray Grantham, a reporter for The Washington Post, is contacted by an informant calling himself "Garcia", who believes he has seen something in his law office that is related to the assassinations. However, Garcia is reluctant to come forward. Shaw shows her findings to Grantham, believing that the assassinations were committed on behalf of Victor Mattiece, an oil tycoon who seeks to drill on Louisiana marshland which is home to an endangered species of pelican. A case that would decide whether Mattiece can gain access to the land is expected to be heard before the Supreme Court. Despite their status as ideological opposites, the two slain justices had a single characteristic in common: a history of environmentalism, causing Shaw to surmise that Mattiece orchestrated their murders to make sure their replacements would be appointed by the current president, a hardline reactionary. Grantham agrees to help Shaw prove her suspicion is correct.