• The Pelican Brief

  • By: John Grisham
  • Narrated by: Anthony Heald
  • Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,145 ratings)

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The Pelican Brief  By  cover art

The Pelican Brief

By: John Grisham
Narrated by: Anthony Heald
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Publisher's summary

In suburban Georgetown a killer's Reeboks whisper on the front 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 murder - a murder intended for her. Going underground, she finds there is only one person she can trust - an ambitious reporter after a news break hotter than Watergate - to help her piece together the deadly puzzle.

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

©1992 John Grisham (P)1992 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House Inc.

Featured Article: The Essential John Grisham in Audio


John Grisham is best known for his fast-paced legal thrillers and mysteries, many of which have been adapted for television and film. Because he’s so prolific and has been writing for decades, it can be difficult to know where to begin when selecting a title from his impressive back catalog. And Grisham is definitely a jack-of-all-trades: he’s written not only legal thrillers, but nonfiction, a series for kids, some humorous novels, and recently, a new mystery series outside of the legal thriller genre. To help you decide which Grisham gem to download next, we’ve compiled a list of the very best.

What listeners say about The Pelican Brief

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    683
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    49
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Performance
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
    180
  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
    16

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Poorly Abridged

After listening to Grisham's unabridged titles on Audible, this one is a little disappointing. The book is comparatively hard to follow, with characters easily confused or not developed - presumably due to the abridged nature of the text. I'd recommend this only for Grisham fans who've run through everything else.
Capably narrated, though by a different narrator than any of the other Grisham books.

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39 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • MJ
  • 12-14-16

If you know and love this book, don't get this version of the Audio!!

I love the Pelican Brief - have read it a few times and wanted to enjoy the audio while driving.

To be fair, I didn't notice it was abridged when I bought it. But why would anyone abridge the Pelican Brief? There are no boring parts or wasted pages in the original - all the abridgement does is take away from the essence of the book. As if it could get worse, it is very obvious where they randomly cut parts out.

The narrating is mediocre at best - punctuation appears to be optional, and at times he will suddenly start talking very fast and the voices used for different characters are inconsistent and annoying. There is music suddenly played during exciting parts of the story but this is not done well.

If you have never read the book and can get past the poor narration, no one can say this is not a great story in its essence. If you are a fan of the book, skip this one.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Poorly abridged

The book was outstanding but this was not worth the price of time it took .

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great story! Poor narrative.

The narrator wasn't that great and sound effects were odd. I would really like to see this one get an update at some point.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Captivating and riviting!!!

An excellent yarn. Better than the movie, and the reason I purchased the audio book was because of the movie. Its the type of story that leaves you wishing that it hadn't come to the end yet. I'm a Science Fiction, Tolkien, Mystery and Classic addict. This is one story that will have me returning to hear it again, whereas, most Science Fiction listining is enough to hear once.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Poorly abridged

One of Grisham’s best stories has been gutted in this abridged version Also the music bumpers transitioning between between scenes were unnecessary and gave the production a cheesy feel Very disappointed with this audio book

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent read

My favorite Grisham. Still in love after around 20 years. The slight accents and voice changes and scene-setting music were great adds. (Anyone else catch the House of Cards sounding chapter intro in there??!) Just wished it was a touch better quality, but hey, not much to complain about. Give it a listen.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome and Interesting

I enjoyed the reading. The narrarator was very enthusiastic and creative in his reading of the Pelican Brief. He read fast, which I enjoy and put an accent on each individual to distinguish dialogue

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of my favorite movies; book is similar

Would you consider the audio edition of The Pelican Brief to be better than the print version?

I haven't read the book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Darby as she was the main character and the brains.

What didn’t you like about Anthony Heald’s performance?

Anthony did OK, but I do not like the playing of music while he is talking or at any point in the book. I find it very annoying.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Anger whenever they played music while the narrator was talking. It was even worse in the audio book The Client

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Still holds up

There are a few places that seem "dated", but nothing to distracting. The story is solid and very entertaining. Grisham does an excellent job of ramping up the tension throughout. If I had to be critical I would say that this isn't Grisham's best character development. Darby and Gray seem a little flat and could be fleshed out some.

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2 people found this helpful