The Firm

Customer Reviews

• The thrilling novel that made Grisham a household name  Apr 24, 2003 (16 of 16 found this helpful)

  The Firm was published in 1991, and almost overnight John Grisham became a household name and a force to be reckoned with in the realm of fiction. There must be something in the water down in Oxford, Mississippi; while Grisham is certainly no Faulkner, he is a man who knows how to make a novel come alive and ensnare any reader who comes along. I really do not care for lawyer-type novels as a general rule, and the fact that Grisham makes such stories so gripping and fascinating has me quite in awe of his talents. Mitch McDeere (whom many may still envision as Tom Cruise, since he played in the role in the movie based on this novel) is a highly intelligent yet monetarily challenged law student finishing up his degree with high honors at Harvard. Holding serious offers from prestigious Chicago and Wall Street law firms for his services, he decides to go ahead and hear the pitch from a smaller law firm in Memphis. What he hears is an offer he cannot believe and cannot refuse. A starting salary significantly higher than he would make elsewhere, promises of large bonuses for passing the bar exam and succeeding on the job, an ascension to partner in as short a time as a decade, a new house with a miniscule mortgage rate, a brand new BMW, and other perks soon have Mitch and his wife Abby settling down in Memphis to enjoy a life of luxury (albeit with hard work on his part). The firm really seems to care about Mitch and his family, wanting happy marriages with several children, to a degree that has Abby a little suspicious. Mitch passes the bar exam, and life is great, despite the fact he is working eighty hours or more a week. Then an FBI agent comes to see him, dropping hints of nefarious dealings at the law firm, asking him for help. Thus begins a journey in which Mitch must first decide whether to risk the lives of himself and his wife to violate his legal oaths and sell out the Mafia-controlled law firm, or take his chances, make his millions, and hope the feds donýt find enough evidence to eventually land him and all of his coworkers in prison. It is really an exciting story, as the McDeeres have to deal with and evade both the feds and the Mafia in their efforts to somehow bring down the firm without sacrificing their own lives.

  I found the schemes Mitch employed on his behalf were quite inventive and plausible, but as the novel progressed in the later stages I found myself wondering how the Mafia could really be incompetent enough in their surveillance to keep losing track of Mitch at crucial times. I can understand the feds having a little trouble staying a step behind him, but you would think that the Mafia could have put an end to all of these games (and to Mitch) long before he got into a position to bring them down. Also, Abbyýs transition from a housewife who wishes her husband wasnýt spending all of his time at work to a wily assistant to her scared and scheming husband is a little abrupt. I also had a hard time completely liking the protagonist after a certain indiscretion on his part early on. Iým not complaining, though, because the tension of the novel ratchets up nicely in the final stages and kept me turning the pages with bated breath. I havenýt read Grishamýs more recent novels, so I canýt say whether or not the quality of his writing has gone down over the years. What I can say, having read both A Time to Kill and The Firm, Grishamýs first two novels, is that the man really and truly had ýitý at the start of his career. The action never ebbs, the story never bogs down, and the reader finds himself hanging on for dear life and loving every minute of it as he/she follows the course of whatever events Grisham chooses to relate.

• One of Grisham's best  Jan 24, 2005 (15 of 16 found this helpful)

  This is a truly amazing Grisham book, full of plot twists and suspense. It's no wonder it catapulted Grisham into the bestseller arena.
  
  The story starts out simple: Mitch McDeere is recruited into a creepy law firm situated in Memphis. They give him a high salary, a BMW, and a good mortgage. No one has ever quit this firm, which seems to be a good thing... But then Mitch realizes that people from the firm have a tendency to die, and the FBI is involved too. No spoilers, but it gets even more intense as the book goes on.
  
  This is a great and fairly easy read. Like most Grisham books, you will find yourself hooked to this book from the start. The ending is good, and you may even find yourself re-reading it sometime in the future. You will not be disappointed with this book.

• The Firm  May 31, 2002 (8 of 8 found this helpful)

  When John Grisham published his first novel in 1989 the results were mixed. Now with this book everything changed for him. The book became an instant hit earning excellent reviews across the board. At the centre of the story is a young Harvard Graduate Mitch Mcdeere who has chosen to sign with a prosperous firm known as Landini Lambert and Locke. They lease him a new car, buy him a very expensive home and hire an interior decorator to help Mitch and wife Abby with the decorating of the home. It all seems to good to be true. It is. An FBI agent who claims that they have evidence of corruption and murder within the ranks of the firm and unless he helps them out he will go down with the rest of them contacts Mitch. They agree to help shorten Mitch's brother Ray's prison time in Tennessee where he is serving a fifteen-year sentence. Now Mitch is torn between a rock and a hard place and whatever choice he makes will forever change his life. The Firm is a brisk thriller that starts good and ends with a rowdy finale. The supporting characters are all really good as is the pacing of the story.
  A superb read.

• Not The Best John Grisham Book I've read!  Dec 14, 2001 (8 of 8 found this helpful)

  This book starts out smoothly and finishes, well, not so smoothly. This book about Mitch McDeere and his job at a Mafia-run law firm-and it's pretty good at making the reader love the book for suspense and such, but I didn't really like the ending at all. For those of you who have not read the book, go and buy another John Grisham book, anyone but this one. I think I might have liked it A LOT more if Mitch McDeere had cooporated with the FBI (Don't worry, that line won't give away the book.) It's an okay book, but if you don't want to waste time with so-so books, go read something else!

• The Firm  May 3, 2000 (8 of 8 found this helpful)

  PLOT: Mitch McDeere is fresh out of Havard Law School with an ambitious attitude and the will to succeed. He receives the best job offers from the largest firms in the country, but a small firm out of Memphis brings him in with the best pay, a new home, relief of his student loans, and a new BMW. Within his first week at the firm, two of his coworkers are killed in a mysterious explosion off the coast of Grand Cayman Island. This makes him suspicious and later finds out that five lawyers have died in the past fifteen years, all very suspicious. An encounter with an FBI agent investigating the firm arouses his curiousity with the security of the firm and starts to unravel a downward spiral of crime, corruption, danger, and possibly death.

  GENRE: Drama-Suspense

  STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES: Grisham's character development is perfect in a sense where you know the characters, but not too well. The predictability of the book is impossible as well as the ability to put it down. The scene changes act as a stimulant for the reader, not elaborating one part of the book too much. Grisham did a supurb job in entailing drama, suspense, and humor into his work.

  This book was the first of Grisham's I read and it will not be the last.