The Pelican Brief
- 414
- Pages
- about 8 h
- Reading time
- Film 1993
- On screen
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Our view
“The Pelican Brief” is a legal thriller built for suspense: a conspiracy, a murder mystery and tension that keeps climbing. It works well as a first Grisham or a first taste of the genre. Some readers find it entertaining but thin, and some are put off by the way the male characters keep remarking on the heroine’s looks.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Pelican Brief is a legal-suspense thriller by John Grisham, published in 1992 by Doubleday. It is his third novel after A Time to Kill and The Firm. Two paperback editions were published, both by Dell Publishing in 1993. A namesake film adaptation was released in 1993 starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- FilmThe Pelican BriefIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 365 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 71% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Thriller average of 7.6. That is how 7.6 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.6 | 27 | 7% |
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 338 | 93% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Pelican Brief?
It has 414 pages — longer than 52% of the ranked books in Thriller.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Thriller — and a score of 7.6, the closest to this book.
