The Client

Mark Sway lives in a Memphis trailer park with his hardworking single mother and his little brother, Ricky. One summer afternoon the two boys witness the final, frightening minutes of Jerome Clifford, a New Orleans lawyer working for the mob, and before the end Clifford tells Mark where his client, the hitman Barry Muldanno, hid the body of a murdered senator. Ricky is so shaken that he ends up in the hospital, and Mark starts telling lies to everyone who asks what happened.

The case makes Mark the most important witness in the country. Roy Foltrigg, a publicity-hungry federal prosecutor, wants the location for his own career, the FBI wants to protect and pressure him, and Muldanno's associates arrive in Memphis to make sure he stays silent. Mark walks into the office of Reggie Love, a fifty-two-year-old lawyer who started her career late after a painful divorce, and hires her for a single dollar. Together they face juvenile court, a tough but fair judge, reporters and real danger, as Mark tries to protect his family.

Lively, funny in places and heartfelt. About 566 pages in mass-market paperback. Adapted as a 1994 film with Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones.