The Pelican Brief was published by Doubleday in 1992, Grisham’s third novel and his second consecutive number-one bestseller. Darby Shaw, a Tulane law student, writes a legal brief speculating about why two Supreme Court justices were simultaneously assassinated. Her theory involves an oil tycoon who wants to drill in a Louisiana marsh that is the last habitat of an endangered pelican species — and when the brief reaches Washington, people start trying to kill her.
The novel combines the legal thriller (the brief itself is a piece of legal reasoning) with the political conspiracy thriller (the cover-up extends to the White House) and the chase narrative (Darby on the run from professional assassins). Grisham manages all three elements with the narrative efficiency that had become his trademark — the prose is spare, the chapters short, the plot relentlessly propulsive.
The environmental angle gives the novel a topical dimension: the willingness of corporations to kill (literally and metaphorically) to protect their access to natural resources was not a new theme in 1992, but Grisham’s treatment — embedding it in a thriller structure that made millions of readers engage with the issue — was more effective as consciousness-raising than any number of earnest environmental texts.
The 1993 film starred Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.
Collecting The Pelican Brief
First edition (Doubleday, New York, 1992): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in fine jacket: $30–$80
- Signed first edition: $80–$200
- Reading copy without jacket: $5–$12