The Firm

Starred review from March 26, 2012
This smart and smooth audio edition of Grisham’s 1991 novel—now a television series on NBC—about attorney Mitch McDeere and his wife, Abby, captures everything that made the book so popular. Narrator Scott Brick follows the author’s lead, reading in a steady pace during expository sections—the introduction of newly minted Harvard law graduate McDeere to the sinister members of the Memphis law firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke and his gradual understanding that the death rate of the firm’s lawyers is off the charts—and picks up the pace during moments of action and suspense. For his rendition of Mitch, Brick initially captures the character’s youth and brash overconfidence and later shows his confusion, suspicion, and fear. Additionally, Brick is masterful in his portrayal of Tammy Hemphill, a friendly private eye’s blonde, buxom secretary, who is at first nervous and afraid, but blossoms as she helps McDeere. Her deep-fried Southern accent takes on a triumphant insouciance that may be this audio’s brightest moment. A Dell paperback.

February 4, 1991
Grisham's gripping fiction debut describes the inner workings of a law firm set up by the Mafia to launder money and concoct tax evasions. Mitchell McDeere, third in his class at Harvard Law, is wooed relentlessly by the prestigious Memphis tax firm of Bendini, Lambert and Locke. Succumbing to the firm's high-powered salesmanship, he rejects some of the country's best-known firms to join the group, where he is awed by the opulent lifestyle pressed upon him. But the company has ruthless, underhanded methods of gathering information (they wire the homes of all associates) and ensuring loyalty (social situations are severely monitored). The firm's mania for security and secrecy, combined with the fact that the only lawyers who have ever left did so in coffins--five in 15 years--arouse Mitch and wife Abby's curiosity, and they rapidly find themselves in a labyrinth of intrigue and danger. Grisham, a criminal defense attorney, lucidly describes law office procedures at the highest levels, smoothly meshing them with the criminal events of the narrative. Mitch and Abby are appealing characters, though a suspension of disbelief may be required to accept their super-cool behavior while they are on the run from both the FBI and the Mafia. Nonetheless, readers will be totally hooked by this unusual and absorbing story. 50,000 first printing; Literary Guild main selection; movie rights to Paramount.

January 1, 1992
A rookie discovers that the prestigious law firm where he works is a front for the Mafia. MC suggests addding some info along the lines of `a surprise bestseller in hardcover...'/i think this is interesting but it goes beyond the specifications laid out by george of a very brief description of book/pk Author tour.