The Rainmaker

A Novel

By: John Grisham

Narrated by: Frank Muller

Length: 16 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

Grisham's sixth spellbinding novel of legal intrigue and corporate greed displays all of the intricate plotting, fast-paced action, humor, and suspense that have made him the most popular author of our time. In his first courtroom thriller since A Time to Kill, John Grisham tells the story of a young man barely out of law school who finds himself taking on one of the most powerful, corrupt, and ruthless companies in America - and exposing a complex, multibillion-dollar insurance scam. 

In hs final semester of law school Rudy Baylor is required to provide free legal advice to a group of senior citizens, and it is there that he meets his first "clients", Dot and Buddy Black. Their son, Donny Ray, is dying of leukemia, and their insurance company has flatly refused to pay for his medical treatments. While Rudy is at first skeptical, he soon realizes that the Blacks really have been shockingly mistreated by the huge company, and that he just may have stumbled upon one of the largest insurance frauds anyone's ever seen - and one of the most lucrative and important cases in the history of civil litigation. The problem is, Rudy's flat broke, has no job, hasn't even passed the bar, and is about to go head-to-head with one of the best defense attorneys - and powerful industries - in America. 

©1995 John Grisham (P)1995 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House Inc.

Critic Reviews

"Great fun to read.... The complex plotting is Grisham's major accomplishment." (Los Angeles Times)

"A taut and terrific page-turner." (Entertainment Weekly)

Very dissapointed with recording

The story is great (so far), and Frank Muller does a fantastic job. But I am honestly appalled that I had to spend my hard earned money on a recording that no one from the production team bothered to listen all the way through. I'm only just getting to the end of the first track and already at least 5 times there have been moments when an entire sentence is repeated by mistake. It pulls you right out of the story and spoils the mood. Just now I had a voice inform me that "the story is continued on disc 8"... honestly if a child submitted this in school as a finished product he'd be failed.
This is my first experience with substandard recordings as a fault of the people converting the audio to a digital format and I am bitterly disappointed.

Excellent Story...

This is my first review of a book. Perhaps it is odd that I would review this book after listening for the last five years to so many books and most of those books being science fiction, but this one is an incredible tale with suspense, intrigue, humanity, humor, triumph, defeat, sadness, joy and exceptional likability. Rudy Bailer is a young lawyer, not yet out of college who lands a big case because of a chance meeting in a less than enjoyable class in his last semester of law school. John Grisham draws and paints his characters with life and makes them believable and sympathetic. The main character is humorous and down to earth. Those of you who enjoy courtroom dramas will certainly enjoy this one. It's one of the best of his novels I've ever read (listened to).

The only, ever so slightly noticeable, detraction is that it is dated. Car phones and fax machines and very little mention of computers. That being said, it's a wild ride making you want more.

I'm sad it's over...

Excellent reading

Although the story looks predictable (underdog freshgrad fighting against big corporation), it has so many surprising turnarounds that it keeps you looking forward for the next one. Narrator is awesome, he can play attractive woman, young lawyer as well as old lady.
5 stars!

Solid book, fantastic narration.

This is one of those titles that is a good book to begin with, but is made even better by simply excellent narration. This guy could read a phone book and make it interesting, but in this title he is given a sold plot making it a fantastic choice!

My favorite Grisham novel

I've listened to six or seven Grisham novels and previously liked The Broker as the best. That's before I listened to The Rainmaker. Grisham's books are like being on vacation when you have something especially sweet planned for the final day. You want to get to that last day, but you don't want your vacation to end. The Rainmaker was classic David versus Goliath with the predictable happening. And the ending, although not winner take all, was much more satisfying than the conclusion of The Partner. Grisham's books are different from each other but I've yet to listen to one that I was sorry I started. You can't say that about too many authors. This book is an excellent listen.

One of his best

Haven't read a Grisham novel yet that I didn't like, but this one was exceptionally good. I rode around the block a few times so I didn't have to stop listening.

Four stars

Muller and Grisham. Those two names should be enough of a clue to any fan of unabridged audiobook fiction to know that this is a "can't miss" download. Get it. :)

the RainMaker

the rainmaker by John Grisham I enjoyed this book immensely is the third one of his that I have listened to and enjoyed it the best. The actual recording was of the poorest quality that I've ever experienced with audible. Obviously the download was copied from a CD version of the book. At times the book was interrupted with the words to change the CD in mid-story. Every time a CD needed to be changed the previous sentence was reread. This was very distracting and I was very surprised they allow this quality to occur. It was very distracting and frustrating. When you pay over $20 for these books that should be of the highest quality. I rate the actual recording a one.

the rainmaker

What a great book! I listened to it twice and enjoyed it both times. The characters were interesting and I loved the story. It gave me insite into the world of insurance, and arrogant lawyers. I would recommend it highly.

here's to the Truth!

The last two years in my life were spent battling for disability pay from my employer's insurance provider. It took so long it turned our lives upside down. Rainmaker, although not about disability payoff, still has an uncanny similarity to our experience. Funny thing, a short time ago we saw that real company on tv being interviewed with basically the same scandal of "Great Benefit" in the novel. Great telling, and sorry to tell you it can be the TRUTH