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Audio CD Description Michael Beck (The Golden Seal, Xanadu), who seems to be making a career out of reading books on audio (A Time to Kill, The Runaway Jury), has returned with John Grisham's The Rainmaker, bringing the backwoods of Tennessee's legal world to life. His sultry, southern drawl animates the world of Rudy Baylor, an out-of-luck, budding lawyer who has more things going against him than bedraggled, disaster-magnet Joe from Lil' Abner. The law firm that hired Baylor was gobbled up by a larger firm just three weeks before his graduation, and now he has no job and no chance of finding one. To make matters worse, when he gets home there's an eviction notice, a process server, and a lawsuit waiting for him. What's a bumbling baby-lawyer to do? Get a case and some cold hard cash--fast. Baylor stumbles upon two possible jackpots: A tight-lipped widow with millions squirreled away and a young man whose life is cut short by a negligent insurance company. Baylor gets in over his head and finds himself up against a pack of superpower attorneys; losing could cost him his life and winning would make him a rainmaker cum laude. Grisham's knack for making tedious legalities interesting, coupled with Beck's gift for shifting in and out character like a Mercedes roadster, makes for an exciting, entertaining listen. Running time: 360 minutes.

Customer Reviews Could not put it down John Grishams novel The Rainmaker was filled with interesting and unexpected turns from the begining through the end. It was near impossible for me to put down this book, even to eat. I highly suggest it to anyone of all ages who is looking for a fast paced exciting read. Great Grisham Because I was in law school when I read it, I immediately identified with the hero of this Grisham novel. Rudy Baylor, the hero, isn't the top-notch student of some top-tier school, and the mysterious or openly corrupt southern firms aren't about to bang down his door. Even the mid-level prospects that Baylor had counted on for needed employment after graduation seem to vanish in the wind. But he's determined and not just a little ambitious, and his very first case takes him up against an evil HMO represented by the top law firm in state, a self-contained old-boy network with time and money to burn, and half the state's judges in its pocket. But Rainmaker is more than that. Actually, it's a bundle of stories sharing Rudy Baylor as the common denominator. He finds love with a battered wife, room and board with a widow who may be worth millions, learns things about law they don't teach you in law school and mixes with a rogue's gallery of unsavory types who are in equal measures scary and indispensable. Baylor's best hope (for work) is the ambulance chasing king of the hill, served by an army of disbarred or never-licensed minions who can't litigate issues. The book is best in the first half when it's not clear which of these little stories - if any - will take over the book. When Baylor's lawsuit against the evil HMO's takes over, the story necessarily slows down and becomes less satisfying. The trial itself becomes a bit of a disappointment - the racist old-time judges suddenly keels over to be replaced with one more friendly to Rudy and his cause and openly averse to the defense; the defense attorneys themselves remain the perfect paradigms of their evil breed and the defendants...well, what would you say in the defense of an HMO? As if to balance, Grisham beefs up the other plots (now firmly subplots) with unconvincing melodrama - a violent confrontation with the battered wife's evil husband being the worst example. Through it all however, he remains Rudy Baylor, first year law grad, scared out of his mind and possibly the Grisham's best hero.