#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The classic legal thriller that inspired the blockbuster film starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington

There is a propulsiveness to [Grishams] narrative that keeps the pages turning briskly.People

In suburban Georgetown, a killers Reeboks whisper on the floor of a posh home. In a seedy D.C. porno house a patron is swiftly garroted to death. The next day America learns that two of its Supreme Court justices have been assassinated. And in New Orleans a young law student prepares a legal brief. . . .

To Darby Shaw it was no more than a legal shot in the dark, a brilliant guess. To the Washington establishment it was political dynamite. Suddenly Darby is witness to a murdera murder intended for her. Going underground, she finds there is only one person she can trustan ambitious reporter after a newsbreak hotter than Watergateto help her piece together the deadly puzzle.

Somewhere between the bayous of Louisiana and the White Houses inner sanctums, a violent cover-up is being engineered. For someone has read Darbys brief. Someone who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable crime.