John Grisham Books In Order – Complete List

John Grisham is a New York Times bestselling author of popular and well-read legal fiction and legal thrillers such as The Firm, A Time To Kill, and The Client, many of which have been brought to the big screen.

Here are all the John Grisham books in order of reading, as well as in the order of publication. Most of his works are standalone books, so they can be easily read in any order you choose; however, if you are like me (and other ‘reading in order’ lovers), you will find this list quite helpful.

I put the list together a while ago and kept updating it in a Word document on my computer, as the author has written so many books, I didn’t want to miss out on any of them.

Latest John Grisham Books

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases

Theodore Boone Books in Publication Order

The Theodore Boone series is a popular series in the young adult fiction genre. Boone, a so-called young lawyer of age 13, spends more time in courtrooms than anywhere else. While he is not a real lawyer, he loves advising anyone who is asking.

1. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer,  2010
2. Theodore Boone: The Abduction, 2011
3. Theodore Boone: The Accused,  2012
4. Theodore Boone: The Activist, 2013
5. Theodore Boone: The Fugitive, 2015
6. Theodore Boone: The Scandal, 2016
7. Theodore Boone: The Accomplice, 2019

The Whistler Books in Publication Order

These crime novels follow the investigations of Lacy Stoltz, a lawyer working for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct.

1. Witness to a Trial (#0.5), 2016
2. The Whistler (#1), 2016
3. The Judge’s List (#2), 2021

Camino Island Books in Publication Order

These mystery novels revolve around the adventures of Bruce Cable, a bookstore owner and rare book dealer on Camino Island.

1. Camino Island, 2017
2. Camino Winds, 2020
3. Camino Ghost, 2024

Jake Brigance Books in Publication Order

Featuring Carl Lee Hailey. These books are classic examples of courtroom drama, and feature various intense legal battles and moral dilemmas.

1. A Time To Kill, 1989
2. Sycamore Row, 2013
3. A Time for Mercy, 2020

The Firm Books in Publication Order

While the original novel was published way back in 1991, more than 30 years later, a sequel followed, changing it from a standalone work to a book series.

1. The Firm, 1991
2. The Exchange, 2023

Rogue Lawyer Books in Publication Order

This series has only one book and a follow-up short story.

1. Rogue Lawyer, 2015
2. Partners, 2016 (short story)

Storycuts in in Publication Order

These short fiction pieces give us quick, engaging reads that basically show John Grisham’s storytelling in a tight and condensed format.

• Casino, 2011
• Fish Files, 2011
• Quiet Haven, 2011

Short Stories / Novellas in Publication Order

These novellas and short stories offer a quick view into the author’s ability to craft compelling narratives in shorter formats than the usual full-length novels.

• Fetching Raymond, 2011
• Casino, 2011
• Fish Files, 2011
• Quiet Haven, 2011
• The Tumor, 2015

Short Story Collections in Publication Order

These anthologies compile some of John Grisham’s best short stories, while offering quite a diverse range of legal and moral dilemmas that the main characters have to deal with.

• Ford County, 2009
• Sparring Partners, 2022

Anthologies in Publication Order

These are collaborative works that feature stories from multiple authors, of course also including John Grisham.

• The WaveDancer Benefit, 2002 – with Pat Conroy, Stephen King and Peter Straub
• Their World is Law, 2002
• Delta Blues, 2009
• Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit , 2010 (with Howard Bahr, Rick Bragg, Winston Groom, Janis Owens, Daniel Wallace, Brad Watson and Steve Yarbrough)
• Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering, 2024
• The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2025, 2025

Standalone Novels in Publication Order

These standalone novels give us insights into the author’s strength in creating powerful legal mysteries that are not part of any particular series.

• The Pelican Brief, 1992
• The Client, 1993
• The Chamber, 1994
• The Rainmaker, 1995
• The Runaway Jury, 1996
• The Partner, 1997
• The Street Lawyer, 1998
• The Testament, 1999, movie to be produced (TBA)
• The Brethren, 2000
• A Painted House, 2001
• Skipping Christmas, 2002
• The Summons, 2002
• The King Of Torts, 2003
• Bleachers, 2003
• The Last Juror, 2004
• The Broker, 2005
• Playing for Pizza, 2007
• The Appeal, 2008
• The Associate, 2009, movie to be produced (TBA)
• The Confession, 2010
• The Litigators, 2011
• Calico Joe, 2012, movie to be produced (TBA)
• The Racketeer, 2012
• Gray Mountain, 2014
• The Rooster Bar, 2017
• The Reckoning, 2018
• The Guardians, 2019
• Sooley, 2021
• The Boys from Biloxi, 2022
• The Widow, 2025

Non-Fiction Books in Publication Order

Both true crime books are written about real-life cases of wrongful convictions, giving us a peek at the current justice system.

• The Innocent Man, 2006 – a nonfiction book about a wrongly convicted baseball player
• Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions, 2024

All the John Grisham Books by Year of Publication

Below is he complete bibliography of John Grisham, listing all his works in order of publication.

1. A Time to Kill, 1989
2. The Firm, 1991
3. The Pelican Brief, 1992
4. The Client, 1993
5. The Chamber, 1994
6. The Rainmaker, 1995
7. The Runaway Jury, 1996
8. The Partner, 1997
9. The Street Lawyer, 1998
10. The Testament, 1999
11. The Brethren, 2000
12. A Painted House, 2001
13. Skipping Christmas, 2001
14. The Summons, 2002
15. The King of Torts, 2003
16. Bleachers, 2003
17. The Last Juror, 2004
18. The Broker, 2005
19. The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, 2006
20. Playing for Pizza, 2007
21. The Appeal, 2008
22. The Associate, 2009
23. Ford County, 2009
24. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, 2010
25. The Confession, 2010
26. Theodore Boone: The Abduction, 2011
27. The Litigators, 2011
28. Theodore Boone: The Accused, 2012
29. Calico Joe, 2012
30. The Racketeer, 2012
31. Theodore Boone: The Activist, 2013
32. Sycamore Row, 2013
33. Gray Mountain, 2014
34. Theodore Boone: The Fugitive, 2015
35. Rogue Lawyer, 2015
36. Partners, a Rogue Lawyer short story, 2016
37. Theodore Boone: The Scandal, 2016
38. The Whistler, 2016
39. The Tumor, 2016
40. Camino Island, 2017
41. The Rooster Bar, 2017
42. The Reckoning, 2018
43. The Guardians, 2019
44. Theodore Boone: The Accomplice, 2019
45. Camino Winds, 2020
46. A Time for Mercy, 2020
47. Sooley, 2021
48. The Judge’s List, 2021
49. The Boys from Biloxi, 2022
50. Sparring Partners, 2022
51. The Exchange, 2023
52. Fourteen Days, 2024
53. Camino Ghosts, 2024
54. Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions, 2024

John Grisham Biography

New York Times bestselling author John Grisham was born in 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas. While his parents lacked formal education, with his father working as a cotton farmer, his mother strongly encouraged him and also prepared him to go to college when he grew up.

After graduating from Mississippi State University, he attended the University of Mississippi School of Law, a prestigious law school, after which he worked as a criminal lawyer in a law firm. Between 1984-1990, he served in the state legislature in the House of  Representatives in  Mississippi.

Initially, he wanted to become a tax lawyer, but seeing all the “complexity and lunacy” tax lawyers had to face every single day, he decided to become a trial lawyer instead.

Having been a criminal lawyer with his legal practice for a decade, the author has plenty of knowledge for his books, and this shows greatly. Eventually, he decided to become a full-time writer.

During his writing career, no wonder so many of his books have been adapted into movies, as they are chilling, suspenseful, and very realistic.

Along with Tom Clancy and J.K. Rowlings, John Grisham is one of the few authors who has sold 2 million copies of the first printed books.

Before becoming one of the top legal mystery and thriller authors, John Grisham was working in a small law firm as a criminal defense attorney, trying to make time to write his debut novel.

As a formal lawyer, John Grisham’s first novel, A Time To Kill, published in 1989, 4 years after he started writing it, has an interesting history. One day the author heard a young girl telling her story to the court, and he got so interested that went to listen to the whole case. And so his first idea for a book came to life.

As he mentioned on his website: I seriously doubt I would ever have written the first story had I not been a lawyer. I never dreamed of being a writer. I wrote only after witnessing a trial.

As soon as he finished writing A Time To Kill, he was already working on his second novel, The Firm – which ended up being pretty much the book that propelled him into instant fame. Even if you’ve never read The Firm, I’m sure you’ve at least watched the same-titled movie with Tom Cruise.

Until 1996 the author got a serious writing fever and wrote a novel a year. In 1996 he took a small break from writing to go back to being a lawyer with a case that he won.

However, his main career nowadays is still writing books (“Thank God for that” say all his loyal followers). So how many books has John Grisham written so far? He has written over 50 books to date, with a latest collaboration, Fourteen Days, published in 2024.

One of my favorite John Grisham book is The Guardians, a standalone legal thriller novel. It features the Guardians, a group similar to Project Innocence, which takes on the case of Quincy Miller, a young black man who was framed for killing Keith Russo, his lawyer. Cullen Post, who founded the Guardians, is its sole investigator, so he takes on the case and starts checking the facts.

However, here he might have gotten more than he bargained for when some powerful people are ready to kill again to keep their secret hidden.

So far, from his first novel, A Time to Kill, the author John Grisham has written around one to two novels a year, most of which became instant bestsellers, or at least crept up to the bestseller year very good. His books cover genres such as sports, adult thrillers, crime fiction, legal novels, and young action/thrillers. So far nine of his books have been turned into popular movies. I have read all his books except for his non-fiction works, and I patiently wait every year for new releases.

John Grisham has written over 50 novels, out of which at least 28 have become number-one bestselling fiction books. If you ask 10 different people, each will have their favorites. Nevertheless, most John Grisham book readers do agree that The Firm, the author’s second book, featuring Mitch McDeere is probably the most-read one, the best-known, and one that people who are new to this author should start with.

The Firm has sold over seven million copies, which makes it a favorite in the genre, overall.

What Are the Best John Grisham Books Overall?

Here are some recommended reading selections for those who are new to John Grisham’s works. I think that these are some of the author’s best novels worth reading. Obviously, The Firm is his most popular novel, but I think these additional books are good entry points to his writing as well.

• A Time to Kill
• The Firm
• The Pelican Brief
• The Chamber
• The Rainmaker

John Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in 1989, and it proved to be also one of his best stories to date. This is indeed a gripping legal thriller that tells the story of a young black girl who is brutally raped by two white men in the small town of Clanton, a place which will feature in several other feature novels.

The Firm was his second novel, and it was published just two years later, in 1991. With over seven million copies sold, it soon became a bestseller as well. The story is about Mitch McDeere, a young lawyer who basically joins a prestigious legal firm, thinking that he hit the jackpot. Little did he know that things at the firm were very different. Soon, he started to uncover sinister ties to organized crime.

The Pelican Brief, another successful novel, published the next year, in 1992, was made an even stronger impression in the readers’ minds with the popular movie featuring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.

In 1994, The Chamber was another bestseller that was successfully published. It tells the story of a young lawyer who takes on a case involving his racist grandfather who is now on death row because of a bombing that killed two Jewish children.

The Rainmaker, which was released just the year after, features yet another resourceful young lawyer, Rudy Baylor, who faces yet another Goliath, this time a corrupt insurance company that puts money above people’s lives. Of course, its 1997 adaptation with Matt Damon and Danny DeVito helped cement its popularity even more.

What Is John Grisham’s Latest Book?

Here are the details about John Grisham’s new and upcoming releases.

The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2025 is an anthology that will include an introduction by John Grisham. The story collection will be released in September 2025.

The latest novel written by John Grisham is titled The Widow, to be released in October 2024.

John Grisham Novels Adaptations

Below is a list of John Grisham’s novels that have been turned into film, movie adaptations, or documentary. After A Time to Kill, several other novels have been also adapted, including:

• A Time to Kill, 1989, adapted into a movie in 1996 starring Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Ashley Judd
• The Firm, 1991, adapted into a movie in 1993 starring Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, Holly Hunter, and Jeanne Tripplehorn and a TV series running between 2011-2012
• The Pelican Brief, 1992, adapted into a movie in 1993 starring Julia Roberts as Darby Shaw, Denzel Washington
• The Client, 1993, adapted into a movie in 1994 starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones, and a TV show running between 1995-1996
• The Chamber, 1994, adapted into a movie in 1996 starring  Chris O’Donnell, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway
• The Rainmaker, 1995, adapted into a movie in 1997 starring Matt Damon as Rudy Baylor, Danny DeVito
• The Runaway Jury, 1996, adapted into a movie in 2003 starring John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman
• A Painted House, 2001, adapted into a TV film in 2003 starring Robert Sean Leonard, Logan Lerman
• Skipping Christmas, 2002, adapted into a movie called Christmas With The Kranks in 2004 starring Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd
• The Innocent Man, his true-crime story about a man on death row, has been made into a Netflix documentary.