History Creator / JohnGrisham

* SuspiciouslySpecificSermon: Not so much a sermon as a Sunday School lesson, but in ''A Time for Mercy'', as Jake decides whether to ignore the inevitable call from Judge Noose to take on the Drew Gamble case, he helps his daughter Hanna study the Book of Jonah, about a man who received an uncomfortable order and ran away rather than follow it.

* GenreAdultery: Only six of Grisham's novels aren't legal thrillers; they include ''Skipping Christmas'' (which was later adapted as ''Film/ChristmasWithTheKranks''); ''A Painted House'', a coming-of-age story in Depression-era Arkansas; ''Calico Joe'', about rookie baseball star Joe Castle and the events that cut short his career; ''Playing for Pizza'', which is about football; and ''Sooley'', about college basketball.

Occasionally, Grisham has dabbled in lighter, non-legal-oriented fiction, but it's his legal thrillers that put bread on the table, more or less. Thus far he has made a profession known mostly for paperwork and long speeches seem like a breeding ground for some of the finest {{Magnificent Bastard}}s and {{Smug Snake}}s in modern literature.

* CourtroomAntic:

** Played straight in the prison court in ''The Brethren'', but it's expected - it's a half-serious joke court for cases between convicts, who are usually not the smartest or most legally adept. The judges don't ''like'' the antics, but the worst you're likely to get is an admonition to watch your language.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Twofold in the backstory of "Sparring Partners": [[spoiler:Bolton Malloy's scheme to kill his wife, a woman with a weak heart who happens to be scared of snakes, is to lure her to his cabin in the woods, scare her with a captive speckled kingsnake and trigger a fatal heart attack. The plan proceeds without a hitch until the snake bites Bolton's hand, leaving a nasty mark. After phoning an ambulance as part of setting up his alibi, Bolton drives his dying wife to the hospital and leaves the snake in his cabin unattended. When the paramedics arrive, they collect the snake because their supervisor just so happens to collect reptiles as a hobby. A month later, the supervisor shows off the snake as a reptile fair and by chance it's former owner quickly recognizes "Thurman", identifying Bolton as the man who purchased him. It isn't long before the authorities piece Bolton's plot together, and they use their information about Thurman to force Bolton to plead guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.]]

* ContrivedCoincidence: Twofold in the backstory of "Sparring Partners": [[spoiler:Bolton Malloy's scheme to kill his wife, a woman with a weak heart who happens to be scared of snakes, is to lure her to his cabin in the woods, scare her with a captive speckled kingsnake and trigger a fatal heart attack. The plan proceeds without a hitch until the snake bites Bolton's hand, leaving a nasty mark. After phoning an ambulance as part of setting up his alibi, Bolton drives his dying wife to the hospital and leaves the snake in his cabin unattended. When the EMTs arrive, they collect the snake because their supervisor just so happens to collect reptiles as a hobby. A month later, the supervisor shows off the snake as a reptile fair and by chance it's former owner quickly recognizes "Thurman", identifying Bolton as the man who purchased him. It isn't long before the authorities piece Bolton's plot together, and they use their information about Thurman to force Bolton to plead guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.]]

* GambitPileup: "Sparring Partners" ultimately turns into one, with [[spoiler:Bolton Malloy bribing Governor Sturgiss into giving him a pardon, Bolton's sons Rusty and Kirk catching wind of this and bribing the governor into ''not'' pardoning their father, and Diantha Bradshaw stabbing ''all three'' of them by ratting them out to the feds while securing Bolton's tax-sheltered money for herself]].