Literary Inspiration: Not Quite As Expected?

As a writer of a legal thriller, which author would I most proclaim to be an inspiration?

It might be thought that one man stands out head and shoulders above all others when it comes to this genre. The one and only John Grisham, who has recently made his usual impact with his latest work “The Litigators”.

I first discovered John Grisham’s work nearly 20 years ago. “The Firm” nicely took care of a flight to the west coast of the USA. Had Mitch McDeere not decided on the path of virtue – or, arguably, a dangerous venture of playing the Bendini firm at their own game – we could just have pictured the scene when the senior partner, with De Vasher standing at the boardroom door just in case, breaks the news to Mitch that the firm’s best client is the Chicago Mafia and that, armed with this news, he can choose to leave the firm either very rich or very dead. A thoroughly entertaining read in any event.

But my choice would in fact go to an English author of mysteries, often in historical settings, where his clever plot twists are far from predictable. His readership will be able to start one of his works in the clear knowledge that they will rarely or never guess the ending until they have reached it, often identifying and sympathising with a downtrodden central character - such as his trilogy star Harry Barnett - in the process. Twenty two books published so far, and evidently more to come.

Thank you for the writing, Robert Goddard.