Rudy Baylor, then Darby Shaw, then Jake Brigance. I grew up reading these books and decided I wanted to be a laywer. I just graduated law school. It was nothing like a John Grisham book...they should come with a warning like cigarettes do, lol. Seriously though, I wish he would write books like he used to. I haven't read one in years that I really enoyed aside from the Innocent Man and that wasn't even fiction.