Book Summary and Reviews of The Firm by John Grisham

The Firm by John Grisham

The Firm

A Novel (The Firm Series)

by John Grisham

  • Readers' Rating (5):
  • Published:
  • Aug 2009, 560 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

The iconic legal thriller that launched the career of America's favorite storyteller, hailed as "an absolute master" (The Washington Post)

Mitch McDeere has worked hard to get where he is: third in his class at Harvard Law. Aggressively recruited by all the top firms, and initially headed for Wall Street, Mitch surprises everyone by joining Bendini, Lambert & Locke, a very private, very rich tax firm in Memphis. Mitch and his wife, Abby, move to Tennessee and quickly settle into their new life: they're young, happy, and on the fast track. Or so they think.

Soon, though, Mitch senses trouble: two of the partners die in a suspicious diving accident off Grand Cayman; the firm's management is overly proud of the fact that no one has ever resigned; and security measures at the firm, even for a company with billionaire clients, are more than a little stringent. Then, suddenly, Mitch's vague suspicions come to life.

The FBI has the lowdown on Mitch's firm and needs his help. Now Mitch is caught between a rock and a hard place. The FBI will bust him if he doesn't cooperate, and the firm will kill him if he does. There's no way out.

Or is there?

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What are you reading this week? (04/10/2025)
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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Grisham is an absolute master." —The Washington Post

"Taut, fast and relentless ... a ride worth taking." —San Francisco Chronicle

"Keeps the reader hooked ... from the creepy first chapters ... to the vise-tightening midsection and on to the take-the money-and-run finale." —The Wall Street Journal

This information about The Firm was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

John Grisham Author Biography

Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn't have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990.

One day at the Dessoto County courthouse, Grisham was inspired to start a novel. Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood ...

... Full Biography
Link to John Grisham's Website

Name Pronunciation
John Grisham: jon GRISH-uhm

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