The Associate

The Associate by John Grisham

It's been years since I read a book by Grisham. I used to really enjoy them and then he lost his way. He started writing books like A Painted House,  Bleachers, and one about pizza. So I stopped. I bought The Associate because I was out of town, I had finished the book I brought, and it was cheap. So I bought it and tried him again. Fortunately The Associate  represents a return to the Grisham that I liked.

It's about Kyle McAvoy, a Yale law student who is about to graduate and  plans to use his J.D. for good for a few years, representing the homeless and others who normally couldn't afford a lawyer. But others have different plans for Kyle. A major lawsuit is about to be filed between two companies vying for a major government defense contract and someone wants Kyle to get a job with the law firm representing one of those companies so that he can steal files associated with the lawsuit. You see, Kyle has a skeleton in his closet - an incident that occurred years ago at a frat party, which is being used to blackmail Kyle into getting the job and finding a way to get access to the files.

The story is quite reminiscent of The Firm which is not necessarily a bad thing. It's classic Grisham style and pace. For me, Kyle wasn't a likable character. I didn't really care how things turned out for him. I understand Shia LaBeouf will be playing him in the movie being developed which works for me, since he's an actor that I don't really care for as well.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆