The Associate by John Grisham

Paperback 2009, 434 pages.
Hong Kong.

Kyle McAvoy was about to graduate from Yale Law School when he was blackmailed with a videotape taken while he was in college. He was asked to join a large NYC law firm and to spy on behalf of opposing counsel in a case involving huge defense contractors. He eventually asked for help from his father (also a lawyer), a defense attorney who called in the federal authorities, and planned to turn the tables on the blackmailers. However, the blackmailers mysteriously disappeared when Kyle was about to hand over the illegally downloaded files as part of the sting.

This is a book unsatisfying on many levels. First, you keep reading, thinking something exciting will happen, and then you find yourself close to the end of the book and it dawns on you that there is not much more to the plot. Second, it is never made clear why Kyle is so afraid of the tape (which actually proves his innocence) but so brave as to try to turn the tables on people who are willing to kill. Third, the book leaves the reader hanging as to who the "bad guys" are. Fourth, the ending, as with many other Grisham novels, is quite anticlimactic, bordering on limp.

The reader does get to see how new lawyers get their starts in these large law firms. Of course I do not know if what the author writes reflects at all what happens at the start of these people's careers.

"Uninspired" is how I would categorize this book. Better than many Patterson books, but at some level more dissatisfying as the expectations were high.