The Rainmaker

In this book, John Girsham introduces us to the young law student Rudy Baylor. Rudy is taking a course in "legal problems of the elderly" with professor Smoot. This somewhat boring class brings him on a field trip to the "Cypress Gardens Senior Citizens Building" along with his best friend Booker. Tough Rudy isn’t to thrilled with the idea of this excursion, but it turns out to be worth while. He gets a hold of two potential clients, Mrs. Birdie, and the Blacks, the lastmentioned slightly more promising than Mrs. Birdie, who want’s to rewrite her will for the 20th time.

The Black case is quite clearly a David vs. Goliath matter, being a major bad-faith case against one of the larger insurance companies around, Great Benefit. Dot Black explains to Rudy how the itinerant insurance agent sold them a health insurance, came back every week to collect the money, and suddenly vanish into thin air when they needed the money they had been promised. Therefore, Donny Ray Black is now is in the final stages of terminal leukaemia. A simple bone marrow transplant could have saved his life, but Great Benefit refused to pay for it. Now they relay Rudy, who has just filed for personal bankruptcy, has no job and has yet to pass the bar exam. Thus begins his adventure and his struggle to maintain his personal integrity and to uphold the legal ethics he has been taught.