The Associate: A Novel

The Associate: A Novel

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “compulsively readable” ( Time ) thriller featuring all the twists and turns that have made John Grisham the most popular storyteller in the world “A page-turner . . . Kyle McAvoy recalls Mitch McDeere from Grisham’s breakout novel The Firm . He’s young, idealistic, handsome, a little too cocky for his own good, but a brilliant lawyer who gets pulled in over his head.”— Los Angeles Times Kyle McAvoy possesses an outstanding legal mind. Good-looking and affable, he has a glittering future. He also has a dark secret that could destroy his dreams, his career, even his life. One night that secret catches up with him. The men who accost Kyle have a compromising video they’ll use to ruin him—unless he does exactly what they say. What they offer Kyle is something any ambitious young lawyer would kill for: a job in Manhattan as an associate at the world’s largest law firm. If Kyle accepts, he’ll be on the fast track to partnership and a fortune. But there’s a catch. Kyle won’t be working for the firm but against it in a dispute between two powerful defense contractors worth billions. Now Kyle is caught between the criminal forces manipulating him, the FBI, and his own law firm—in a malignant conspiracy not even Kyle, with all his intellect, cunning, and bravery, may be able to escape alive. “Grisham has a field day. . . . The Associate grabs the reader quickly and becomes impossible to put down.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Grisham’s confident style hasn’t changed, and there’s suspense aplenty.” — People “Grisham makes it easy for us to keep flipping the pages. . . . A devastating portrait of the big-time, big-bucks legal world.” — The Washington Post “Throughout, Grisham unwinds the spool of his narrative at a masterful, page-turning pace that pulls readers in and keeps them wanting more. . . . The Associate is an absorbing thriller that’s a fitting follow-up to The Firm .” — The Boston Globe “Compulsively readable . . . You’re peering into a secret world of power and money. What more could you or any red-blooded American ask for?” — Time “Grisham’s fans live for his legal thrillers—and this one’s a classic story of a fledgling attorney pushed to his moral limits.” — USA Today John Grisham is the author of numerous #1 bestsellers, including The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Innocent Man, The Whistler, The Boys from Biloxi, and many more. His books have been translated into nearly fifty languages. Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system. He lives on a farm in central Virginia. 1 The rules of the New Haven Youth League required that each kid play at least ten minutes in each game. Exceptions were allowed for players who had upset their coaches by skipping practice or violating other rules. In such cases, a coach could file a report before the game and inform the scorekeeper that so-and-so wouldn't play much, if at all, because of some infraction. This was frowned on by the league; it was, after all, much more recreational than competitive. With four minutes left in the game, Coach Kyle looked down the bench, nodded at a somber and pouting little boy named Marquis, and said, "Do you want to play?" Without responding, Marquis walked to the scorers' table and waited for a whistle. His violations were -numerous--skipping practice, skipping school, bad grades, losing his uniform, foul language. In fact, after ten weeks and fifteen games, Marquis had broken every one of the few rules his coach tried to enforce. Coach Kyle had long since realized that any new rule would be immediately violated by his star, and for that reason he trimmed his list and fought the temptation to add new regulations. It wasn't working. Trying to control ten inner-city kids with a soft touch had put the Red Knights in last place in the 12 and Under division of the winter league. Marquis was only eleven, but clearly the best player on the court. He preferred shooting and scoring over passing and defending, and within two minutes he'd slashed through the lane, around and through and over much larger players, and scored six points. His average was fourteen, and if allowed to play more than half a game, he could probably score thirty. In his own young opinion, he really didn't need to practice. In spite of the one-man show, the game was out of reach. Kyle McAvoy sat quietly on the bench, watching the game and waiting for the clock to wind down. One game to go and the season would be over, his last as a basketball coach. In two years he'd won a dozen, lost two dozen, and asked himself how a