Lawyer Grisham, forensic anthropologist Reichs open Literary Festival

By Cliff Bellamy

cbellamy@heraldsun.com; 419-6744

CHAPEL HILL -- Fact may be stranger than fiction, but history and fact also inform and inspire a good, suspenseful story. John Grisham, a trained lawyer and author of "The Firm," "The Pelican Brief" and other legal thrillers, and Kathy Reichs, a forensic anthropologist and the author of "Death du Jour" and other novels, have both produced large bodies of work that draw on their respective professions.

They discussed that relationship at a session in Memorial Hall at UNC Chapel Hill Thursday titled "From Reality to Fiction." The talk opened the 2009 North Carolina Literary Festival, which continues through Sunday.

Grisham said his training in the law led to his career in writing. "There's no doubt that I would never have become a writer if I had not become a lawyer," Grisham told the audience. Growing up, he had no desire to be a novelist. "I was never one to keep journals. ... I did not do many of the things aspiring writers do."

Grisham got his undergraduate degree in accounting. He went to law school with the goal of making a lot of money as a tax lawyer. Realizing that wrestling with the tax code was not his life's calling, he became interested in courtroom procedure. As a young lawyer, he watched a case in which a young rape victim gave grueling testimony.

"I created in my mind this courtroom drama ... in which a father gets his revenge" for his daughter's death, Grisham said. That imaginative work became his first novel "A Time to Kill."

His next novel, and his first best seller, "The Firm," about a corrupt law firm, came from a colleague's experience of being courted by a high-pressure firm. When he pitched the idea to his wife and literary agent, they replied, "That's a big book."

Reich, who teaches at UNC Charlotte, took a similar path creating her books, and her fictional heroine investigator Temperance Brennan. "I take my experiences as a working anthropologist and I convert those into fiction," she said.

Her first novel, "Deja Dead" was based on a serial murder in Montreal in which bodies had been cut up in a very specific way -- by someone who knew and understood something about anatomy. She used that kind of specific detail in her first novel. "Death du Jour" was inspired by a cult-related murder. "It got me thinking, How do cults get people to kill? So that's the theme running through 'Death du Jour'," Reichs said.

Grisham is considered the king of the suspenseful legal thriller. His first novel "A Time to Kill" was followed by "The Firm," which became a national bestseller. His most recent novel, "The Associate," was released in January.

Reichs' expertise has made her a sought-after expert. She testified at the United Nations Tribunal on Genocide in Rwanda, and did forensic work at Ground Zero in New York. Her latest novel, "206 Bones," was released in August.

Earlier in the evening, Grisham spoke to reporters in a brief question and answer session in Gerrard Hall. Grisham also has written two novels that draw on his interest in sports -- "Bleachers" and "Playing for Pizza" -- in addition to "Skipping Christmas," which he called "an attempt to write a comic novel."

After his first legal thrillers were published, he said he got the urge to try something else. "Playing for Pizza" came when he was in Italy doing research for "The Broker." "I discovered American football in Italy. I was stunned, and that led to 'Playing for Pizza'."

In two months he plans to publish a collection of about seven short stories, "some of them I've been playing around with for 20 years." While he said he's getting restless to try other styles of fiction, he still enjoys the strategy of plotting a good legal thriller. "I can see a legal thriller a year for a long time," Grisham said.

About the process of writing, Grisham said planning and revision are crucial to good stories. "I know the end before I start," he said. "I work off a fairly detailed outline," which he said is crucial for him in crafting the narrative. For revision, he relies on his editors and his wife Renee: "Because I listen to them, the books are better," he said.

Grisham was a guest at the first book festival held in 1998. He has other ties to the UNC campus. Last year his daughter graduated from UNC, and his wife decided to finish college after a long absence, and transferred to UNC, where she is now a student.