The Client is a legal thriller written by John Grisham. Published in 1993, it is Grisham’s fourth novel. An international best-selling author, Grisham was a lawyer himself for nine years and even served in the Mississippi House of Representatives for six years. His legal and political expertise lend especially well to The Client’s subject matter involving legal ethics, notions of justice, the power of government over its citizens, and political careerism. The Client was adapted into a film of the same name in 1994. Please note that this study guide refers to the 2012 Bantam Books Trade Paperback edition of the novel.

Plot Summary

The Client opens on Mark, age 11, and his brother Ricky, age 8, as they smoke cigarettes in the woods together. A car pulls up in a nearby clearing, and a man gets out and sets up a hose connected to the exhaust pipe. Mark realizes the man plans to die by suicide. The two brothers hide in the brush and watch the car. Mark insists on intervening to prevent the man’s death. He tries multiple times to remove the hose, but each time he does, the man in the car gets out to replace it, growing increasingly agitated each time. On Mark’s third and final attempt to intervene in the suicide, the man catches him in the act. Ricky watches as the man hits his brother and forces Mark to get in the car. Once inside, the man introduces himself to Mark. His name is Romey, and he is a lawyer for a prominent mobster named Barry “the Blade” Muldanno. Romey is suicidal because his client murdered a politician, Senator Boyd Boyette from New Orleans. Barry hid the body on Romey’s property under Romey’s own boat, drawing him into the crime. Romey feels trapped by the scenario and feels suicide is the only way out.

Romey, drunk and high on painkillers, passes out in the car. Mark escapes and is reunited with Ricky. Soon, Romey wakes up from his drunken stupor and finds that the tailpipe hose has been removed yet again. In a rage, Romey retrieves a pistol from the car and kills himself as the two young boys watch from the brush. Mark and Ricky run home to their trailer in Tucker Wheel Estates. When they return to their trailer, Ricky immediately lays on the couch and curls up in a ball. He is unable to speak and is very withdrawn. Mark decides to call 911 and report the body. The operator tries to encourage Mark to reveal his identity, but Mark refuses, afraid of being linked to the scene. Instead, he merely gives the body’s location and hangs up. Even after calling, Mark obsesses over Romey. He decides to return to the scene of the lawyer’s suicide to make sure the cops recover it.

Once there, he is caught by a police officer, Sergeant Hardy. Hardy interrogates Mark as to why he is watching the police recover the body. Mark says he and his brother found the body already dead and ran home to report it. The officer does not believe Mark’s version of events. The officer drives Mark back home and talks to Mark’s mother, Dianne Sway. Mark and the officer find Dianne in grave concern over Ricky’s condition. The officer insists that Ricky is in shock and must go to the hospital. After he is committed, Ricky’s doctor Dr. Greenway says that Dianne and Mark must stay close with Ricky in case he wakes up.

Meanwhile, both the mob and the federal government have found out that Romey was not alone when he died by suicide and trace Mark back to the scene. Both groups are interested in getting to Mark because they each suspect that Romey told Mark the location of Senator Boyette’s body. While the mob wants to prevent Mark from talking, the US government wants Mark to reveal what he knows so they can convict Barry Muldanno for the murder of Boyette. The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Louisiana at New Orleans, Roy “the Reverend” Foltrigg, brings a team of men including Special Agent Larry Trumann and Assistant Attorney Thomas Fink to Memphis. Foltrigg becomes convinced that Mark knows the location of Senator Boyette’s body and wants to discover everything Mark knows. The FBI tells Mark they need to talk to him. Mark comes up with the idea that a lawyer might be able to help counsel him on how to handle the FBI. The next day, he stumbles upon the office of Reggie Love, a female lawyer in her fifties who handles child abuse and neglect cases. Mark decides to trust Reggie and tells her about witnessing Romey’s suicide and the FBI’s pressure. He leaves out the detail of where exactly Senator Boyette’s body is. Reggie agrees to help Mark, and the boy retains her as his counsel.

Reggie tells the FBI and Foltrigg that her client will not be answering any of their questions regarding Romey and Boyette’s body. Meanwhile, Barry Muldanno sends two of his men to New Orleans to intimidate Mark into staying silent. They hire a private investigator named Jack Nance to watch Mark’s every move. Nance corners Mark in the hospital and threatens him with a knife, telling Mark that he will die if he reveals what he knows. Muldanno also retains new counsel, a lawyer named Willis Upchurch. Upchurch secures a continuance on Barry’s case, buying the mobster more time to avoid going to trial. Foltrigg grows increasingly anxious over finding Boyette’s body, which is the key to convicting Muldanno. As a final move of intimidation, Muldanno’s men burn down the Sway family’s empty trailer home.

Foltrigg concocts a new plan to force Mark to talk. Foltrigg’s team goes before a Juvenile Court judge in Memphis named Judge Harry Roosevelt. Arguing that Mark is obstructing justice and that he is in danger of being hunted down by the mob, Foltrigg’s men insist that Mark must be brought into custody. After learning that Mark’s trailer has been burned down by the mob, Judge Roosevelt agrees that the boy is in danger. Mark is forcibly taken into the custody of the Juvenile Court and is thrown behind bars in a juvenile detention center. Mark looks to Reggie for help, but she tells her client that he is duty-bound to divulge what he knows because it is crucial to a criminal case. She cannot free him, and he cannot leave his cell until he reveals the body’s location.

Judge Roosevelt holds a hearing to give Mark a chance to reveal what he knows. Mark pleads the Fifth Amendment, even though Reggie said he cannot hide behind the Fifth because he is not being accused of committing a crime. Judge Roosevelt reminds Mark that he cannot take the Fifth and that if he continues to avoid answering his questions, he will keep Mark in the detention center under contempt of court. Mark continues to plead the Fifth and is sent back to his cell. Slick Moeller, a crime journalist who has been publishing a series of articles about Mark’s involvement with Romey, interviews Judge Roosevelt’s bailiff and writes an article about the hearing. Roosevelt becomes enraged when he reads Moeller’s article leaking information about the hearing and arrests Moeller, holding him in contempt of court. Judge Roosevelt meets with Reggie and the FBI and demands they come up with a plan to help Mark. The FBI offers a witness protection deal for Mark if he gives them information.

Mark fakes an illness while in the juvenile detention center and is rushed to the hospital. From there, he sneaks away from the adults watching him and calls Reggie. Reggie agrees to help him escape and picks him up from the hospital. They decide to drive to New Orleans to confirm the location of Senator Boyette’s body and use the information to negotiate the best deal possible with the FBI. They arrive at Romey’s house just as Barry Muldanno’s men are attempting to move the body. Mark creates a distraction to scare off the mobsters, and he and Reggie are finally able to see Boyette’s body for themselves. Reggie calls the FBI and notifies them of their discovery. However, she still withholds the specific location of Boyette.

Reggie prepares a written agreement between the FBI and the Sways, securing them a witness protection deal that provides care for Ricky and a job for Mark’s mother. After Ricky’s recovery, they will be moved to their permanent location and new home. As the Sways fly away to safety in their government plane, Reggie finally reveals where Senator Boyette is buried to the FBI.