It will come as no surprise to booksellers to learn that "The Client," by John Grisham (Doubleday), makes its first appearance on the New York Times best-seller list Sunday, coming on in the No. 1 slot. After an initial printing of 950,000 copies of this fourth novel by the lawyer, Doubleday has gone back to press 12 times and by the end of the month will have 2,135,000 copies of "The Client" in print.
Based on the millions of copies of Grisham books in print, it's hard to believe there is anyone in America who hasn't read at least one of his books or doesn't know their names. In the Island/Dell mass market editions of his books alone, there are more than 17 million copies in print.But anyone who needs a reminder of the titles need only consider the paperback best-seller list, where the three other novels, all legal thrillers, are among the top five: "The Pelican Brief" at No. 1, "The Firm" at No. 2 and "A Time to Kill" at No. 4.
Grisham's rare quadruple concurrent appearance in the top five of the best-seller list puts him in the stratosphere of fiction writers.