The client

The Client:
Mark is a street smart and mature eleven-year-old boy, who likes to smoke, but is determined to stay away from beer and pot, because he has seen how they can bring people down. Mark's Dad was an alcoholic, who tormented his family with physical and emotional abuse for years before Diane, Mark's mother, found the courage to divorce him. Mark is a father figure to his younger brother,Ricky, who looks up to Mark and goes to Mark for information about the real world. Mark teaches Ricky to ride a bike, protects him from bullies, and informs him about all he needs to know about sex and drugs. To his mother, Mark is a friend and caretaker. Diane relies on Mark to protect her from her abusive husband and constantly relies on Mark's maturity.....

Jerome Clifford's Garage

Thisis where Barry the Blade hides the dead body of Senator Boyette.

The Clearing

The clearing behind the Sway's trailer home is where Mark and Ricky go to sneak a smoke and where Jerome Clifford decides to kill himself.

The Sway's Trailer

Mark and his family live in a trailer home that is eventually burned down, along with all of their belongings inside.

Ricky's Hospital Room

Rickystays in the hospital room for most of the novel. Diane, his mother, is forced to remain in that room, as well, waiting for Ricky to wake up. Ricky's hospital room is bugged by the FBI, when Mark escapes from the detention center.

Foltrigg's Van

Foltrigg's white van is what he uses to travel, because he is secretly afraid of airplanes. The van is fully equipped with anything

SocialConcerns

The chief venue in The Client is the Memphis juvenile justice system, and the chief problem for the system is how to get eleven-year-old Mark Sway to reveal what he may know about a criminal case. Through the frequent use of Mark's point of view, Grisham presents how the system seems callous, frightening, and unwilling to recognize Mark's good nature. While readers may know that the logical,legal, and even moral option is for Mark to tell what he knows, readers can also grasp how the system and its players make Mark resistant and fearful.

While sneaking cigarettes in the woods behind their trailer, Mark and his eight-year-old brother Ricky watch a man place a hose in his car's tailpipe in a suicide attempt. Without much thought, Mark intervenes, removing the hose

The Clientbegins with eleven-year old boy, Mark Sway and his younger brother Ricky, who is eight, going into the woods near the Tucker Wheel Estates, a mobile home park where they live with their mother, Dianne. Ricky had earlier caught Mark with some cigarettes and now to keep Ricky's silence, Mark is going to teach Ricky how to smoke. While they are in the woods, a big black 4-door Lincoln (a black 93Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham in the film) arrives, and soon W. Jerome "Romey" Clifford, a 44-year old lawyer from New Orleans, Louisiana, gets out of the car. His only client at the moment is Barry "The Blade" Muldanno, and now here in the woods of northeast Memphis, Tennessee, he is attempting to commit suicide. Mark and Ricky Sway sit hidden from Clifford and watching him from behind the shiny blackcar. Clifford, noticeably drunk, puts one end of a garden hose in the exhaust pipe of the car and the other end into a rear passenger window, and rolls up the window, trying to kill himself with carbon monoxide poisoning. Mark, sneaks up, crawling on his stomach, and pulls the hose from the exhaust trying to stop him. After some time Clifford gets out of the car, cursing, and puts the hose back in.Mark repeats pulling the hose from the tailpipe. On the third attempt, Clifford sees the grass moving in the rear view mirror, leaps from the car grabs Mark and pushes him into the car. Jerome then tells Mark why he wants to kill himself, he is convinced that "The Blade" Muldanno is going to murder him anyway and wants to die on his own terms. Clifford is defending Muldanno for the murder of...