The Firm (Penguin Readers, Level 5)

The Firm

Story: 4 out of 5 stars
Abridged: No
Quality of narration: 4 stars
Reader's range of character voices: 2 stars

Pros: I have read the book and listened to the audiobook, both versions are unputdownable. As for the audiobook narration, Scott Brick's voice is warm and listenable. His delivery is clearly enunciated and pitched so you don't have to keep changing volume to hear what's being said.

Cons: Brick does an excellent job on New York and Long Island accents (check out his reading of Nelson DeMille's John Corey series), but "The Firm" takes place in the Deep South and his southern accents are weak to non-existent. Also, he doesn't do much with female voices other than soften his voice slightly.

This thrilling and exhilarating Grisham novel starts out and explains the normal occurrences of a lawyer fresh out of law school. The long nights and hard work seem to have brought Mitch McDeere exactly what he wanted, a warm climate, a BMW, and a mortgage to a house for himself and his wife. He soon realized after two deaths his first day on the job that the firm was not a safe place to be. After being approached by the FBI I was always curious as to whether he would follow the same path as the former associates who were recently killed or take the greedy path and stick with the money. The ability of Grisham to tell the story from many points of view and keep the most important details hidden till the very end was key to keeping interest in the novel. The escape of Mitch from the firm was somewhat suspicious and his ability to get access to all of the files is somewhat hard to believe but still made for a good read. From the start of the novel I could not put it down and was always enticed by the next twist or turn that would come.

This is one of the few books that had me waking up in the middle of the night to read another chapter. I found it fascinating...

Plum lawyer job not so good after all.


When a hotshot young lawyer is enticed to work for a famous firm he discovers after a while that they really aren't very nice, and not something he wants to be a part of.

Then you get a mystery/thriller with chases, etc., but rather than spy or cop or military hero, you have a legal one.

That wasn't particularly interesting to me, so I never bothered with another Grisham.

This is, no question, hands down, Grisham's best book. He creates a plot that is truly exciting. It creates suspense and cleverly throws unexpected twists into Mitch McDeere's way as he tries to expose The Firm for what it really is.

If you are going to start reading John Grisham books, read this one first. It sure got me hooked.