SOURCE: A review of The Pelican Brief, in Los Angeles Times Book Review, April 5, 1992, p. 6.

In the following review of The Pelican Brief, Stabiner notes: "What makes this Hollywood fodder is Grisham's ability to mix and match the elements of commercial fiction. The symbiosis is almost irresistible."

Some books are born to movie deals, others have movie deals thrust upon them. [The Pelican Brief] bears the box-office chromosome. Grisham has fashioned a sexy (if oddly sexless) thriller about a gorgeous young law student who stumbles upon the identity of the man who hired an assassin to snuff out two Supreme Court justices. The ancient liberal justice Rosenberg and his conservative, closeted gay associate seem to have nothing in common, save that each man meets a gruesome death on the same evening. But dogged bibliophile Darby Shaw finds a connection that has eluded all of Washington—in part because...