The Firm (Paperback)

The Firm is a 1991 legal thriller and the second novel by John Grisham. It was his first widely recognized book, and in 1993, was made into a film starring Tom Cruise. Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill, was successful but did not bring the author the attention of the general public.Mitchell Y. McDeere is a law student who graduated third in his class at Harvard Law School. Mitch is married to his high school sweetheart, Abby. They also attended college together. His brother Ray is serving a prison term, and his other brother, Rusty, died in Vietnam.

Reviews:
"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."  - Wall Street Journal

"Irresistable... seizes the reader on the opening page and propels him through 400 more."  - Newsweek

Book Plot:
Mitch has offers from law firms in New York and Chicago but eventually decides to join Bendini, Lambert and Locke, a small tax law firm based in Memphis. The firm seduces him by offering him a large salary, a lease on a new BMW 3-series automobile and a low interest mortgage on a house. Soon after he joins, his new colleagues help him study and pass his bar exam. At the firm, the first priority is for the associate to pass the bar exam.Two of Mitch's colleagues die in a scuba diving accident in the Cayman Islands the week he starts at the firm. Mitch finds the deaths unsettling, but settles down, works hard towards his dream of becoming a successful employee of the firm. During a memorial service at the firm for the two deceased attorneys, Mitch notices plaques commemorating three other attorneys who died while working at the firm. Suspicious, he hires a private investigator, Eddie Lomax, an ex-cell mate of his brother Ray, to investigate the deaths of the attorneys.Lomax discovers that all five of the deceased attorneys died under questionable circumstances: two in the diving accident, and the other three in a car accident, a hunting accident and a suicide, respectively. Lomax cautions Mitch to be careful. Soon after delivering his report to Mitch, Lomax is murdered.

About the Author
John Ray Grisham, Jr. (born February 8, 1955) is an American lawyer and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers.John Grisham graduated from before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981 and practiced criminal law for about a decade. He also served in the House of Representatives in Mississippi from January 1984 to September 1990. Beginning writing in 1984, he had his first novel A Time To Kill published in June 1989.As of 2008, his books had sold over 250 million copies worldwide. A Galaxy British Book Awards winner, Grisham is one of only three authors to sell two million copies on a first printing, the others being Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling.Grisham's first best seller was The Firm. Released in 1991, it sold more than seven million copies The book was later adapted into a feature film. Seven of his other novels have also been adapted into films: The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, and A Time to Kill. His books have been translated into 29 languages and published worldwide.