The Firm
ISBN: 9780099830009
Description
When Mitchell McDeere qualified third in his class at Harvard, offers poured in from every law firm in America. The firm he chose was small, but-well respected. They were prepared to match, and then exceed Mitch's wildest dreams: eighty thousand a year, a BMW and a low-interest mortgage. Now the house, the car and the job are his. Then the nightmares begin...
Reviewed on 15th March 2009
This book was a bit of a gamble for me. I've never read a 'legal thriller' before - I've read one of Grisham's non-legal novels though (Playing for Pizza - about American football in Italy), and so decided to have a bash at his most famous book.
I've actually found it to be oddly addictive reading - I've not been able to put it down over the weekend, and read the second half on Saturday alone. That should give an indication of how good it is.
It's somewhere in the middle of the group of books I've read by Clancy, Cussler and Ludlum. Less detailed than Clancy, who likes to explain the minutiae, Grisham never delves into complicated legal language or explanations, instead focusing on the characters. Unlike Ludlum, the plot moves fast and stays gripping - it doesn't feel like wading through a bog, and it's more believable than some of the Bond-esque moments in Cussler's novels.
The plot was a little confusing in places - there were a couple of things which were never followed up on, but there were also a few things that came back along just as I wasn't expecting them. There were some sentences that didn't quite seem to flow, or make sense, and in some places the language seemed a little colloquial.
I think I would have benefited from a slower read this time, as the character arc through the second half seemed to move very quickly. This read has persuaded me however to keep an eye out for Grisham's other novels.
