Review: The Firm

Terrifically exciting and likable first novel about tax lawyers and the Mafia, and a predictable success already sold to the movies, etc. Grisham does not cut as deep or furnish the occasional shining paragraph that Scott Turow does, but he writes a stripped, clichÉ-free page that grips and propels. Mitchell McDeere, married and tops in his class at Harvard, has great offers from several firms and is hungry for success. When Bendini, Lambert & Locke of Memphis snows him with money, a new BMW, a low-interest mortgage financed by the company, a huge clothing allowance and other incredible perks, (including early retirement as a multimillionaire), he seems to have landed in fairyland. Nothing is too much for the one new man a year the firm takes on. All that's required from him in a 90-hour week for several years and a fast hand at billing clients. Most of the firm's clients, seemingly all wealthy and ready to be billed unlimitedly, are content not to question the firm's methods at relieving their tax strain. For a while all looks legal. Then McDeere learns of the heavy mortality rate among the firm's lawyers: no one ever quits Bendini, Lambert & Locke. They die. It turns out that while the firm has many clients with clean hands, it nonetheless was set up by the Mafia as a pumphouse for siphoning drug dollars and other untaxed cash into phony corporations set up in the Cayman Islands. In fact, the firm's lavish Lear jet regularly hauls tons of US legal tender down to the islands with their hundreds of tax-haven banks and secret numbered accounts. Then the FBI chooses McDeere to be its chief informant and offers him its Witness Protection Program; otherwise, McDeere will be swept up in the forthcoming crackdown on the firm. Although the firm knows McDeere is a spy and sets him up for assassination, he is smarter than even the reader knows and fights back against both the firm and the FBI. Hallucinatory entertainment.

Review: The Firm

When Mitch McDeere signed on with Bendini, Lambert & Locke of Memphis, he thought that he and his beautiful wife, Abby, were on their way. The firm leased him a BMW, paid off his school loans, arranged a mortgage, and hired the McDeeres a decorator. Mitch should have remembered what his brother Ray—doing fifteen years in a Tennessee jail—already knew: You never get nothing for nothing. Now the ... Read full review

“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. 

Mitch McDeere takes a job in a law firm in Memphis that specializes in tax law.
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. 

The most intense/ exciting book I've EVER read in my life. I never read a single book last year, but once I started this book I would seek it out in the middle of the day. Definitely a book that is hard to put down. The plot is unlike any book out there! EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS BOOK!

One of my all time favorite books. It has suspense, and really makes you feel like you are part of the story. It makes you pull for the lawyer. The movie ended differently than the book, and was not as good of an ending.
My all time favorite John Grisham book, and he has a lot of great books. 

Review: The Firm

The Firm is a first-rate ride. John Grisham, the author, spends some time at the beginning of the novel showing the backstory that becomes essential later down the road. Not only Grisham's first ... Read full review

Review: The Firm

Synopsis: A fancypants Harvard Law graduate gets hired by some hot-shot tax firm that gives him a really nice car and a house and stuff but then owns his soul. Thoughts: The main character was ... Read full review

Review: The Firm

But Mitch lied to Abby at the end. He shouldn't have. Read full review

Review: The Firm

The book started great but i dislike the end. I mean the end end is great but the 10 chapters before the end are just disgusting. They are so boring that I was bout to stop reading the book. But how it starts and how it moves its awesome That why I rate the book with a 8 out of 10. Read full review