The Firm: A Novel

John Grisham

Mar 2010 · The Firm Series Book 1 · Sold by Vintage

About this eBook

#1 WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER • The iconic legal thriller that launched the career of America’s favorite storyteller, hailed as “an absolute master” (The Washington Post)

“[An] ingenious man-in-the-middle thriller.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
Mitch McDeere has worked hard to get where he is: third in his class at Harvard Law. Aggressively recruited by all the top firms, and initially headed for Wall Street, Mitch surprises everyone by joining Bendini, Lambert & Locke, a very private, very rich tax firm in Memphis. Mitch and his wife, Abby, move to Tennessee and quickly settle into their new life: they’re young, happy, and on the fast track. Or so they think.
 
Soon, though, Mitch senses trouble: two of the partners die in a suspicious diving accident off Grand Cayman; the firm’s management is overly proud of the fact that no one has ever resigned; and security measures at the firm, even for a company with billionaire clients, are more than a little stringent. Then, suddenly, Mitch’s vague suspicions come to life.
 
The FBI has the lowdown on Mitch’s firm and needs his help. Now Mitch is caught between a rock and a hard place. The FBI will bust him if he doesn’t cooperate, and the firm will kill him if he does. There’s no way out.
 
Or is there?
 
The story continues in The Exchange, the “breathtaking” (The Wall Street Journal) sequel to The Firm!

Ratings and reviews

“The Firm” is a legal thriller about Mitchell McDeere who graduated out of Harvard Law School and is then employed by a small but prestigious firm in Memphis- “Bendini, Lambert & Locke”. The story deals with how Mitch had to give up his posh life after learning of the truth of his firm and helps the FBI indict the firm along with Morolto family. List of Characters I. Mitchell Y. McDeere: The protagonist; a bright, keen young man who is “hungry” for success and partnership in the firm. II. Abby McDeere: Wife of Mitch and a school-teacher at a prominent school. She is stressed by the long-working hours and the truth of the firm, but eventually helps Mitch escape. III. Wayne Tarrance: An FBI agent who reveals the truth of the firm to Mitch. He is an organized crime specialist who is determined to indict the firm along with it the entire Morolto family. IV. Ray McDeere: Brother of Mitch who is a convicted felon. He escapes prison with the help of the FBI. He is a great linguist in several languages who later aids in Mitch’s escape. V. Oliver Lambert: He is the head of the firm. He is described as having kind, grey eyes and has earned the name of the “grandfather” of the firm. VI. Nathan Locke: A senior partner in the firm who had served the Moroltos since the age of ten. He is evil, eccentric and described as having “black-laser eyes”. VII. Eddie Lomax: An ex-con and a prison friend of Ray. He works as a private investigator for Mitch who is later murdered by one of Moroltos gunmen. My Views This story was a sizzler right from the opening pages, even as Mitch is about to be interviewed and the Managing partners are sizing him up in their chambers. This carries through as the interview progresses and they hook him with their irresistible offers. As I read, I could feel Mitch's growing uneasiness which he fails to express to his wife Abby. But they both ignore these warnings and Mitch goes ahead and joins the firm. Sometimes certain things take their own course, probably what is termed as destiny. Grisham's style of writing is unique. He keeps the readers totally hooked but it is not the fast paced heady action; however the story as it unfolds keeps you interested throughout. “The Firm” is not a complex character study. It is highly entertaining and well worth the ride.

Soon after starting, he learns of the deaths of two of the newer firm attorneys who were killed while boating in Grand Cayman. Mitch is approached by an FBI agent who tells him that the firm is owned by the mob and that Mitch's home, office and car are being bugged by the firm, who are also having him followed. Mitch hires a private investigator to look into the deaths of the two firm employees and two other employees of the firm who died under mysterious circumstances. Mitch gets the report but the investigator is killed. We follow Mitch's life as he goes from an ambitious employee to a man in fear of his career and his life. He wonders how he will ever get out of this situation and if he can count on the FBI. This is a well plotted novel. The reader is drawn to Mitch's dilemma and can visualize something like this really happening and we hope for Mitch to resolve his problem successfully.

Very fun and entertaining suspenseful thriller. Characters and stories more developed than the movie. The ending was kind of lame; didn't really fit the rest of the book.

About the author

John Grisham is the author of numerous #1 bestsellers, including The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Innocent Man, The Whistler, The Boys from Biloxi, and many more. His books have been translated into nearly fifty languages. Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system. He lives on a farm in central Virginia.