The Rainmaker
by John Grisham
★ Top 10 book of 1995 · #8 on Best Books of 1995
Rudy Baylor, a law student in his last semester, ends up facing a powerful and ruthless company. His fight leads him to expose a vast, multibillion-dollar insurance scam.
Best for: Readers who like legal thrillers about underdogs taking on corrupt corporations
The Rainmaker is #8 on BookWard's Best Books of 1995, out of 28 1995 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Rainmaker is about
Rudy Baylor is close to finishing law school in Memphis and has big hopes of becoming the sort of attorney who wins enormous verdicts, the kind people call a rainmaker. Then his job offer disappears when the firm that planned to hire him is swallowed up by a powerful rival. Short on money and options, he takes work with a shady ambulance chaser and gets guidance from an older former insurance assessor who failed the bar exam six times.
A grieving family and an elderly woman bring him cases against a major insurance company that has refused to pay for treatment. Rudy and his partner open their own small practice and take on the company. Along the way he meets a young woman trapped in a violent marriage, and his sense of what the law is for begins to change. It is a story about ambition meeting conscience, written in a clear, brisk style that suits readers who like courtroom fights with a strong moral center.
The Rainmaker on the Best Books of 1995
The Rainmaker came out in 1995. Of the 28 books first published in 1995 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #8 on our Best Books of 1995 list.
Why it made the list: 457 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (33 ratings); 32 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1995 list
- Wicked Gregory Maguire, #6
- The Demon-Haunted World Carl Sagan, #7
- The Diamond Age Neal Stephenson, #9
- Kiss the Girls James Patterson, #10
See all Best Books of 1995 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1994 Best Books of 1996.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 354 want to read it, 32 are reading it now and 71 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.9 out of 5 from 33 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 79 | 55% |
| Reader love | 39 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 89 | 20% |
Questions about The Rainmaker
When was The Rainmaker published?
The Rainmaker by John Grisham was first published in 1995.
Was The Rainmaker one of the best books of 1995?
The Rainmaker is #8 on BookWard's Best Books of 1995, out of 28 1995 books that cleared our data bar. 457 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (33 ratings); 32 are reading it right now.
Why is The Rainmaker on the Best Books of 1995 list?
457 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (33 ratings); 32 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 1995
- The Lost World Michael Crichton, #1
- Emotional Intelligence Daniel Goleman, #2
- Northern Lights Philip Pullman, #3
- Mindhunter John E. Douglas, #4
- Rose Madder Stephen King, #5
- Wicked Gregory Maguire, #6
See the full Best Books of 1995, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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