Themes

As the discussions of the earlier novels show, ethical dilemmas seldom disturb Grisham's characters; their goals, rather than morality, direct their behavior. However, the characters in The Client, at least Mark and Reggie, and also Harry Roosevelt, do feel the pull of ethics. More so than in the other books, here Grisham broaches the problem of how to decide to do the right thing. Whatever readers might debate about the standards of Jake Brigance or Mitch McDeere, both Mark and Reggie definitely do have internalized moral compasses. The task Grisham sets for himself in this novel is to dramatize how challenging it really is for good people to do good things.

Reggie knows that a lie will save Mark (if the prosecutors believe him):

He can say that he had been silent earlier because he was scared of the authorities and that Clifford told him nothing about Senator...