John Grisham Books in Order (The Rooster Bar, Camino Island, Sycamore Row, The Firm…)

Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Thanks!

Best known for his popular legal thrillers, Grisham is an American novelist, attorney, politician, and activist. He is also one of only three authors to sell two million copies on the first printing, the other two being Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling. Born on February 8, 1955, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player.

That didn’t happen, obviously and he studied law to become a tax lawyer, before his interest shift to general civil litigation. He practiced law for about a decade, from 1984 to 1990. His first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989 and his writing career blossomed with the success of his second book, The Firm (1991). So, he retired from the law and became a full-time writer.

How to read John Grisham’s Books in Order?

You’ll find all of John Grisham’s novels here, series, and stand-alone books.

Theodore Boone Series in Order

John Grisham series is about Theodore Boone, a 13-year-old student who resides in the city of Strattenburg, Pennsylvania, and he has spent more time in the courtroom than almost anywhere else. He wants to follow in his parent’s footsteps, both lawyers.

Due to his parents’ professions, Theo knows every judge, policeman, and court clerk, and a lot about the law, and he happily dispenses legal advice to his friends which leads to new adventures.

You can find a full reading order for the Theodore Boone series here.

1. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer
2. Theodore Boone: The Abduction
3. Theodore Boone: The Accused
4. Theodore Boone: The Activist
5. Theodore Boone: The Fugitive
6. Theodore Boone: The Scandal
7. Theodore Boone: The Accomplice

---

Jake Brigance Series in Order and other books set in Canton, Mississippi

The books follow Jake Brigance, an attorney from Canton, Mississippi. Grisham wrote books that take place in the same setting, without Brigance.

1. A Time to Kill – When extremists outside Clanton hear that Carl Lee Hailey, a black man has killed the two white men who have raped his ten-year-old child, they invade the town, determined to destroy anything and anyone that opposes their sense of justice. Jake Brigance has been hired to defend Hailey. It’s the kind of case that can make or break a young lawyer. But in the maelstrom of Clanton, it is also the kind of case that could get a young lawyer killed.
2. Sycamore Row – Seth Hubbard is a wealthy white man dying of lung cancer. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and defense attorney Jake Brigance into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County’s most notorious citizens, just three years earlier.

3. A Time for Mercy – Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Jake’s fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career, his financial security, and the safety of his family on the line.
4. Sparring Partners (collection of short stories) – Jake Brigance is back, but he’s not in the courtroom. He’s called upon to help an old friend, Mack Stafford, a former lawyer in Clanton, who three years earlier became a local legend when he stole money from his clients, divorced his wife, filed for bankruptcy, and left his family in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again-until now. Now Mack is back, and he’s leaning on his old pals, Jake and Harry Rex, to help him return. His homecoming does not go as planned. Plus: three more stories.

Set in the same setting:

• The Chamber – A brief reference to events from A Time to Kill is contained in the book. Sam Cayhall is a former Klansman and unrepentant racist now facing the death penalty for a fatal bombing in 1967. He has run out of chances — except for one: the young, liberal Chicago lawyer twenty-six-year-old Adam Hall who just happens to be his grandson. Adam has only days, hours, minutes to save his client. For between the two men is a chasm of shame, family lies, and secrets — including the one secret that could save Sam Cayhall’s life… or cost Adam his.
• The Summons – Harry Rex Vonner appears. Once Judge Atlee was a powerful figure in Clanton, Mississippi. Now the judge is a shadow of his former self, a sick, lonely old man who has withdrawn to his sprawling ancestral home. Knowing the end is near, Judge Atlee has issued a summons for his two sons to return to Clanton to discuss his estate. But the family meeting does not take place. The judge dies too soon, and in doing so leaves behind a shocking secret known only to his son Ray…

• The Last Juror – Harry Rex Vonner and Lucien Wilbanks appears in this book set in Clanton in the 1970s. The future of the weekly newspaper The Ford County Times looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details, and his newspaper began to prosper. The murderer, Danny Padgitt, threatened revenge against the jurors if they convicted him. Nevertheless, they found him guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison. But in Mississippi in 1970, “life” didn’t necessarily mean “life,” and nine years later Danny Padgitt managed to get himself paroled. He returned to Ford County, and the retribution began.
• Fish Files – Harry Rex Vonner appears. Short story available in the collection Ford County (2009).
• The Reckoning – October 1946, Clanton, Mississippi. Pete Banning was Clanton, Mississippi’s favorite son-a decorated World War II hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbor, and a faithful member of the Methodist church. Then one cool October morning he rose early, drove into town, and committed a shocking crime. Pete’s only statement about it-to the sheriff, to his lawyers, to the judge, to the jury, and to his family-was: “I have nothing to say.” He was not afraid of death and was willing to take his motive to the grave.

---

Camino Island Books in Order

1. Camino Island – Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer’s block who has recently been laid off from her teaching position. A generous monetary offer convinces Mercer to go undercover and infiltrate Cable’s circle of literary friends, to get close to the ringleader, to discover his secrets. But soon Mercer learns far too much, and there’s trouble in paradise.
2. Camino Winds – Just as Bruce Cable’s Bay Books is preparing for the return of bestselling author Mercer Mann, Hurricane Leo veers from its predicted course and heads straight for the island. Homes and condos are leveled, hotels and storefronts ruined, streets flooded, and a dozen people lose their lives. One of the apparent victims is Nelson Kerr, a friend of Bruce’s and an author of thrillers. But the nature of Nelson’s injuries suggests that the storm wasn’t the cause of his death. As Bruce starts to investigate, what he discovers between the lines is more shocking than any of Nelson’s plot twists-and far more dangerous.

---

Sebastian Rudd Books in Order

1. Rogue Lawyer – On the right side of the law-sort of-Sebastian Rudd is not your typical street lawyer. His office is a customized bulletproof van, complete with Wi-Fi, a bar, a small fridge, and fine leather chairs. He has no firm, no partners, and only one employee: his heavily armed driver, who also so happens to be his bodyguard, law clerk, confidant, and golf caddie. Sebastian defends people other lawyers won’t go near: a drug-addled, tattooed kid rumored to be in a satanic cult; a vicious crime lord on death row; a homeowner arrested for shooting at a SWAT team that mistakenly invaded his house. Why these clients? Because Sebastian believes everyone is entitled to a fair trial-even if he has to bend the law to secure one.
2. Partners – short story only available on ebook and prequel to Rogue Lawyer telling how Sebastian Rudd meets his partner and bodyguard.

---

The Lacy Stoltz Series in Order

1. Witness to a Trial – short story only available on ebook and prequel to The Whistler.
2. The Whistler – Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. It is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine years with the Board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption. But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer is back in business, and he claims to know of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined. And now he wants to put a stop to it. His only client is a person who knows the truth and wants to blow the whistle and collect millions under Florida law. When the case is assigned to Lacy, she immediately suspects that this one could be dangerous.
3. The Judge’s List – Three years later, and approaching 40, Lacy Stoltz is tired of her work for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct and ready for a change. Then she meets a mysterious woman who is so frightened she uses a number of aliases. Jeri Crosby’s father was murdered 20 years earlier in a case that remains unsolved and that has grown stone cold. But Jeri has a suspect whom she has become obsessed with and has stalked for two decades. Along the way, she has discovered other victims. Suspicions are easy enough, but proof seems impossible.

---

The Firm Books in Order

1. The Firm (1991) – When Mitch McDeere signed on with Bendini, Lambert & Locke of Memphis, he thought that he and his beautiful wife, Abby, were on their way. Mitch should have remembered what his brother Ray–doing fifteen years in a Tennessee jail–already knew: You never get nothing for nothing. Now the FBI has the lowdown on Mitch’s firm and needs his help. Mitch is caught between a rock and a hard place, with no choice–if he wants to live.
2. The Exchange (2023) – It is now fifteen years later, and Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firm in the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwide implications-and once again endangers his colleagues, friends, and family. Mitch has become a master at staying one step ahead of his adversaries, but this time there’s nowhere to hide.

---

John Grisham’s Stand-alone Books in Order of Publication

• The Pelican Brief (1992) – After preparing a legal brief, Darby Shaw finds herself embroiled in a terrifying web of intrigue extending to the highest levels of government after she writes a legal brief exposing the illegal activities. Going underground, she finds that there is only one person–an ambitious reporter after a newsbreak hotter than Watergate–she can trust to help her piece together the deadly puzzle.
• The Client (1993) – Eleven-year-old Mark Sway and his younger brother are sharing a forbidden cigarette when a chance encounter with a suicidal lawyer leaves Mark knowing a bloody and explosive secret: the whereabouts of the most-sought-after dead body in America. Now Mark is caught between a legal system gone mad and a mob killer desperate to cover up his crime. And his only ally is a woman named Reggie Love, who has been a lawyer for all of four years.
• The Rainmaker (1995) – In his final semester of law school Rudy Baylor is required to provide free legal advice to a group of senior citizens, and it is there that he meets his first “clients,” Dot and Buddy Black. Their son, Donny Ray, is dying of leukemia, and their insurance company has flatly refused to pay for his medical treatments. Rudy soon realizes that the Blacks really have been shockingly mistreated, and that he just may have stumbled upon one of the largest insurance frauds anyone’s ever seen — and one of the most lucrative and important cases in the history of civil litigation.

• The Runaway Jury (1996) – Every jury has a leader, and the verdict belongs to him. In Biloxi, Mississippi, a landmark tobacco trial with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake begins routinely, then swerves mysteriously off course. The jury is behaving strangely, and at least one juror is convinced he’s being watched. Soon they have to be sequestered. Then a tip from an anonymous young woman suggests she is able to predict the jurors’ increasingly odd behavior. Is the jury somehow being manipulated, or even controlled? If so, by whom? And, more importantly, why?
• The Partner (1997) – Once he was a well-liked, well-paid young partner in a thriving Mississippi law firm. Then Patrick Lanigan stole ninety million dollars from his own firm-and ran for his life. For four years, he evaded men who were rich and powerful, and who would stop at nothing to find him. Then, inevitably, on the edge of the Brazilian jungle, they finally tracked him down. Now Patrick is coming home. And in the Mississippi city where it all began, an extraordinary trial is about to begin.
• The Street Lawyer (1998) – Michael Brock is billing the hours, making the money, rushing relentlessly to the top of Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. law firm. One step away from partnership, Michael has it all. Then, in an instant, it all comes undone: A homeless man takes nine lawyers hostage in the firm’s plush offices. When it’s all over, the man’s blood is splattered on Michael’s face-and suddenly Michael is willing to do the unthinkable. Rediscovering a conscience he lost long ago, Michael is leaving the big time for the streets where his attacker once lived-and where society’s powerless need an advocate for justice.

• The Testament (1999) – Troy Phelan is a self-made billionaire, one of the richest men in the United States. Nate O’Riley is a high-octane Washington litigator who’s lived too hard, too fast, for too long. Rachel Lane is a young woman who chose to give her life to God, and went to live and work with a primitive tribe in the deepest jungles of Brazil. When Phelen commits suicide and leaves a shocking will behind him, these three lives collide in a unique blend of legal suspense and adventure.
• The Brethren (2000) – They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. One was sent up for tax evasion. Another, for skimming bingo profits. The third for a career-ending drunken joyride. Meeting daily in the prison law library, they can use their time in prison to get very rich-very fast. So they sit, sprawled in the prison library, furiously writing letters, fine-tuning a wickedly brilliant extortion scam-while events outside their prison walls begin to erupt. A bizarre presidential election is holding the nation in its grips, and a powerful government figure is pulling some very hidden strings. For the Brethren, the timing couldn’t be better. Because they’ve just found the perfect victim.
• A Painted House (2001) – a small-town mystery. Luke Chandler, age seven, lives in the cotton fields with his parents and grandparents in a little house that’s never been painted. The Chandlers farm eighty acres that they rent, not own, and when the cotton is ready they hire a truckload of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks to help harvest it. As the weeks pass Luke sees and hears things no seven-year-old could possibly be prepared for, and finds himself keeping secrets that not only threaten the crop but will change the lives of the Chandlers forever.

• Skipping Christmas (2001) – a comedy novel. Luther and Nora Krank decide that, just this once, they’ll skip Christmas altogether. Theirs will be the only house on Hemlock Street without a rooftop Frosty, they won’t be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash, they aren’t even going to have a tree. They won’t need one, because come December 25 they’re setting sail on a Caribbean cruise. But as this weary couple is about to discover, skipping Christmas brings enormous consequences-and isn’t half as easy as they’d imagined.
• The King of Torts (2003) – The office of the public defender is not known as a training ground for bright young litigators. Clay Carter has been there too long and, like most of his colleagues, dreams of a better job in a real firm. When he reluctantly takes the case of a young man charged with a random street killing, Clay stumbles on a conspiracy too horrible to believe. He suddenly finds himself in the middle of a complex case against one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, looking at the kind of enormous settlement that would totally change his life – that would make him, almost overnight, the legal profession’s newest king of torts…
• Bleachers (2003) – a sport novel. High school all-American Neely Crenshaw was probably the best quarterback ever to play for the legendary Messina Spartans. Fifteen years have gone by since those glory days, and Neely has come home to Messina to bury Coach Eddie Rake, the man who molded the Spartans into an unbeatable football dynasty. The team replay the old games, relive the old glories, and try to decide once and for all whether they love Eddie Rake-or hate him.

• The Broker (2005) – In his final hours in office, the outgoing President grants a controversial last-minute pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years hidden away in a federal prison. Backman is quietly smuggled out of the country in a military cargo plane, given a new name, a new identity, and a new home in Italy. Eventually, after he has settled into his new life, the CIA will leak his whereabouts to the Israelis, the Russians, the Chinese, and the Saudis. Then the CIA will do what it does best: sit back and watch. The question is not whether Backman will survive-there is no chance of that. The question the CIA needs answered is, Who will kill him?
• Playing for Pizza (2007) – football book. Rick Dockery is the third-string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. During an AFC Championship game; Rick provides what is arguably the worst single performance in the history of the NFL. Overnight, he becomes a national laughingstock-and is immediately cut by the Browns and shunned by all other teams. But all Rick knows is football, and he insists that his agent find a team that needs him. Against enormous odds, Rick finally gets a job-as the starting quarterback for the Mighty Panthers . . . of Parma, Italy. To say that Italy-the land of fine wines, extremely small cars, and football americano-holds a few surprises for Rick Dockery would be something of an understatement.
• The Appeal (2008) – In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town’s water supply, causing the worst “cancer cluster” in history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it. Who are the nine? How will they vote? Can one be replaced before the case is ultimately decided?

• The Associate (2009) – Kyle McAvoy possesses an outstanding legal mind. He also has a dark secret that could destroy his dreams, his career, even his life. One night that secret catches up with him. The men who accost Kyle have a compromising video they’ll use to ruin him-unless he does exactly what they say. What they offer Kyle is something any ambitious young lawyer would kill for: a job in Manhattan as an associate at the world’s largest law firm. Now Kyle is caught between the criminal forces manipulating him, the FBI, and his own law firm-in a malignant conspiracy not even Kyle, with all his intellect, cunning, and bravery, may be able to escape alive.
• The Confession (2010) – In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, Travis Boyette abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high-school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched him off to death row. Now nine years have passed. Travis has just been paroled in Kansas for a different crime; Donté is four days away from his execution. Travis suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. For the first time in his miserable life, he decides to do what’s right and confess. But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that they’re about to execute an innocent man?
• The Litigators (2011) – After leaving a fast-track career and going on a serious bender, David Zinc is sober, unemployed, and desperate enough to take a job at Finley & Figg. Now the firm is ready to tackle a case that could make the partners rich-without requiring them to actually practice much law. A class action suit has been brought against Varrick Labs, a pharmaceutical giant with annual sales of $25 billion, alleging that Krayoxx, its most popular drug, causes heart attacks. Wally smells money. All Finley & Figg has to do is find a handful of Krayoxx users to join the suit. It almost seems too good to be true . . . and it is.

• Calico Joe (2012) – Baseball novel. It’s the summer of 1973, and Joe Castle is the boy wonder of baseball, the greatest rookie anyone has ever seen. Calico Joe quickly becomes the idol of every baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a hard-partying and hard-throwing New York Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren Tracey finally faces Calico Joe, Paul is in the stands, rooting for his idol but also for his dad. Then Warren throws a fastball that will change their lives forever.
• The Racketeer (2012) – In the history of the United States, only four active federal judges have been murdered. Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five. His body is found in his remote lakeside cabin. One man, a former attorney, knows who killed Judge Fawcett, and why. But that man, Malcolm Bannister, is currently residing in the Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland. Though serving time, Malcolm has an ace up his sleeve. He has information the FBI would love to know. Malcolm would love to tell them. But everything has a price-and the man known as the Racketeer wasn’t born yesterday.
• Gray Mountain (2014) – The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer’s career at a huge Wall Street law firm is on the fast track-until the recession hits and she is downsized, furloughed, and escorted out of the building. Samantha, though, is offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic in Brady, Virginia for one year without pay, all for a slim chance of getting rehired. Samantha’s new job takes her into the murky and dangerous world of coal mining, where laws are often broken, communities are divided, and the land itself is under attack. But some of the locals aren’t so thrilled to have a big-city lawyer in town, and within weeks Samantha is engulfed in litigation that turns deadly. Because like most small towns, Brady harbors big secrets that some will kill to conceal.

• The Rooster Bar (2017) – Mark, Todd, and Zola came to law school to change the world. But now, as third-year students, these close friends realize they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a third-tier for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specializing in student loans, the three know they have been caught up in The Great Law School Scam. But maybe there’s a way to escape their crushing debt, expose the bank and the scam, and make a few bucks in the process. But to do so, they would first have to quit school. And leaving law school a few short months before graduation would be completely crazy, right? Well, yes and no . . .
• The Guardians (2019) – In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot dead at his desk as he worked late one night. As a young black man who was once a client of Russo’s, Quincy Miller was tried, convicted, and sent to prison for life. For twenty-two years he languished in prison, maintaining his innocence. But no one was listening. In desperation, he writes a letter to Guardian Ministries, a small nonprofit run by Cullen Post, a lawyer who is also an Episcopal minister…
• Sooley (2021) – Seventeen-year-old Samuel Sooleyman comes from a village in South Sudan. His great love is basketball: his prodigious leap and lightning speed make him an exceptional player. And it may also bring him his big chance: he has been noticed by a coach taking a youth team to the United States. As American success beckons, devastating news reaches Samuel from home. Caught between his dream and the nightmare unfolding thousands of miles away, ‘Sooley’ must make hard choices about his future.

• The Boys from Biloxi (2022) – Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends, as well as Little League all-stars. But as teenagers, their lives took them in different directions. Keith’s father became a legendary prosecutor, determined to “clean up the Coast.” Hugh’s father became the “Boss” of Biloxi’s criminal underground. Keith went to law school and followed in his father’s footsteps. Hugh preferred the nightlife and worked in his father’s clubs. The two families were headed for a showdown, one that would happen in a courtroom.

---

Short Stories by John Grisham

• Ford County (2009) – Collection of short stories.
• The Tumor (2016) – Short story only available on ebook and focused on ultrasound treatment for cancer.

---

Non-fiction Books by John Grisham

• The Wavedancer Benefit: A Tribute to Frank Muller (2002) -Audiobook with Pat Conroy, Stephen King, and Peter Straub
• The Innocent Man (2006) – In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron’s home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death-in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man’s already broken life, and let a true killer go free.
• Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs they Quit (2010) – Authors discuss the day jobs they left behind. With John Grisham, Pat Conroy, Rick Bragg, Connie May Fowler, Tom Franklin, George Singleton, Matthew Teague, Daniel Wallace, Brad Watson, Steve Yarbrough, and more.

---

If you like John Grisham, you may also want to see our David Baldacci reading order, or our guide to James Patterson’s Alex Cross series. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.