The Firm

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Adaptation for younger readers.

Mitch McDeere is a young, intelligent and ambitious lawyer. When he gets a job with a top tax law firm in Memphis, he is delighted. But he quickly becomes suspicious after mysterious deaths, obsessive office security, and the Chicago mob figure into its operations. The situation only escalates when Mitch discovers that the firm is listening in on his phone calls and that the FBI want to speak to him. Money and power has a price — and it could be Mitch's life.

Adaptation Notes
This adaptation is a simplified text designed in association with world famous educational publishers, to provide a step-by-step approach to the joys of reading for pleasure. The series include original stories, contemporary titles based on today's best-selling media hits, and easily accessible versions of the literary classics from around the world. Each book has an introduction and extensive activity material. They are published at different levels for readers of all skill levels.

Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

Book Details:
- Difficulty: Level 5 - Upper Intermediate (2300 words)
- Category: Contemporary
- Dialect: British English

76 pages, Paperback

First published February 1,1991

This edition

Format
76 pages, Paperback
Published
February 15, 2000 by Addison Wesley Publishing Company
ISBN
9780582418271
ASIN
0582418275
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Mitchell Y.

    Mitchell Y. Mitch Mcdeere

    McDeere is a Harvard-educated tax lawyer who has a certified public accountant credential. He was the third in his Harvard Law School Class and at 25 he is hired by the law firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Abb...

  • Abby McDeere

    Abby Mcdeere

    Abby is the high school sweetheart and wife of the male protagonist of the novel, Mitch McDeere. Her parents reside in Kentucky and boycotted their wedding as they did not like Mitch. She is an elementary school teacher....

  • Ray McDeere
  • F. Denton Voyles

    F. Denton Voyles

    The Director of the FBI in Washington....

  • Mitchell Y. McDeere,

    Mitchell Y. Mcdeere

    The main character. Mitch McDeere is a Harvard-educated tax lawyer who has a certified public accountant credential. He is also the husband of Abby McDeere, a Western Kentucky University–educated elementary school teacher. They met several years ago, Mitc...

  • Abigail McDeere

    Abigail Mcdeere

    Mitchs wife. Shes an elementary school teacher. Her parents, the Sutherlands, live in Kentucky. Mitch and Abby have a dog, Hearsay. She calls herself "Rachel James" on occasion.more...

About the author

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Robin Anthony Herschel Waterfield is a British classical scholar, translator, editor, and writer of children's fiction.

Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
33(33%)
4 stars
37(37%)
3 stars
30(30%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
April 17,2025
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I shouldn't offer a review. It's not fair and would likely be in an embittered tone anyway. My frustrations w THE FIRM are partly my own.

I'm an admitted slow reader. Generally it takes me 30days to complete an average paperback. This one took over two months but that was not by way of consistent readings.

Days if not weeks went by and I'd barely pick this up. Or I'd get in 15-20min a week. That does have a little to do w my schedule but it was MORE to do w my interest in proceeding.

I simply couldn't find enough give a damn here.

What started off as a promising thriller evolved into a repetitive and uninteresting revengey, amateur espionage-esque story full of random names the reader is supposed to instantly recall. And maybe if the reading was done in a reasonable amount of time that would have been achievable.

Instead this became a burden book. I finished for the sake of finishing. I didn't care how it concluded.
April 17,2025
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I thought this was a poor book at best. Then I read this lovely headline today.





And the innocent friend?





It's a good thing he became an author. He would make a rather poor defense attorney.
April 17,2025
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I have scant memories of this thriller that was quickly turned out as a movie by the Hollywood machine. I think it was entertaining and at the time a bit of a renegade book in the US which did not really have this kind of lawyer thriller fiction at the time if my memory serves (Law & Order was not yet on TV - lots of cop shows, not so many lawyer ones) so I have no idea now, 30 years later how interesting this book would be to re-read...
April 17,2025
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The sole reason I started reading this book was that it was the only literature at hand at my new place. Can you say b-o-r-i-n-g?

Now I feel I have to slog through the remaining 100 pages or so of mindless 'furiously-paced thrills' just so that I can start on my new acquisitions (Bradbury, Pratchett, Adams, Lovecraft, Jordan, Eco ...)

Highly recommended for beginners and people who don't know what a good book really should be.

Update: I can't take it anymore. Dropped!
April 17,2025
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The Firm is a suspense. Really putting you on suspense. It was good enough. The moral sotry for morally right and wrong is being discussed within the plot. The main character is likeable enough for the plot to continue.

3 stars
April 17,2025
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It's very, um, thick. Full of detail. Like, so much detail that it's about a third of the way through before the plot actually really begins. Mitch was kinda flat, though. Everybody was treating him as though he was a much more rounded character than he really was.
I mean, I'm not complaining: John Grisham still managed to keep me reading, but maybe that was just because there were people conducting subterfuges.

Still, the lawyers not suspecting what was going on, when they had all the EVIDENCE in front of them, is so stupid. I mean, they're LAWYERS! The trickiest people on the planet! Not only that, they're lawyers who work for the MAFIA! Surely they wouldn't just take the first explanation they see of the evidence?? Surely!

Surely not, according to Grisham. So, yeah, I can see why he sells, but not why he sells that well.

Two things that also really disgusted me: one, that Mitch cheated on his wife near the beginning, and the photos of him in the act were used to blackmail him, and then at the end he never confesses. If he cared so much, why not confess to her? Sure, it would hurt her, but doesn't he love her and respect her enough not to lie to her?

The second thing was that the women in the book were constantly written as though the author was salivating over them, and wanted all the guys to join in, which I personally found really degrading.

I can't really see myself ever reading this one again, and I read everything again.
April 17,2025
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This book is absolutely wonderfull, and have an engaging plot. ♣
April 17,2025
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IJzersterk advocaten thriller. Wat doe je als je jong bent en in de wereld het wil maken?
Je kijkt niet verder als je neus lang is en gaat op een aanbod in waar je enorme spijt van krijgt.
De man krijgt een baan bij een goed lopend advocatenkantoor. Hij moet onmogelijke uren maken maar daar staan veel beloningen tegenover. Zijn jonge vrouw gaat mee. Wat eerst een droombaan leek blijkt en enorme cover up te zijn waar alle partners bij betrokken zijn. En die niet meewerken verdwijnen vroegtijdig in hun graf.
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