Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Mitch McDeere is near the top of his Harvard Law School graduating class and can virtually have his pick of jobs with high-powered Wall Street firms. But at the last minute, he agrees to an interview with a small Memphis firm, Bendini, Lambert & Locke. The firm's search committee has carefully vetted Mitch and has selected him as their number one draft pick for the year. They bring Mitch and his wife Abby to visit Memphis and make him an offer that is too good to refuse.

Mitch accepts the offer and is determined to be the hardest-working, most successful associate that B,L&L has ever seen. But he doesn't even have his feet on the ground before two of the other associate die in an apparent diving accident. Shortly after this tragedy, Mitch is contacted surreptitiously by and FBI agent who tells him that the deaths were not accidental and that no lawyer has ever left the firm alive.

The FBI insists that Mitch's new firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the mob. The Fibbies want McDeere to become their inside informant to help them bring down the firm. If he won't, the agents tell him that when the firm does go down, Mitch will be convicted as a willing participant in the firm's illegal activities.

McDeere is obviously caught between a rock and the proverbial hard place: If he doesn't help the FBI, he's going to wind up in jail, but if he does, he could wind up in the grave. The only way out is for Mitch to prove that he's smarter and more resourceful than either the FBI or the mob.

This is an engrossing story with appealing characters. Grisham gleefully describes the inner workings of a law office while at the same time weaving an exciting tale that ends with a great climax. It's not a legal thriller in the traditional sense in that it does not involve any courtroom scenes, but it provides plenty of thrills everywhere else.