BOOKS: The Associate

THE ASSOCIATE By John Grisham
Doubleday, $27.95, 384 pages
REVIEWED BY CHRISTIAN TOTO

The inspiration for John Grisham’s latest novel, “The Associate,” could have come from 2006’s notorious Duke lacrosse rape case. It wouldn’t be the first time the author turned a headline into a best-seller — “A Time to Kill” also spun from an actual legal case.

But Mr. Grisham’s new book also shares a connection with the novelist’s own past.

It’s hard to read about “The Associate’s” Kyle McAvoy and not recall Mitch McDeere, the protagonist from his first literary smash, “The Firm.”

Both feature young, cocky lawyers who get themselves in way over their heads when they join their first giant law firm. And “The Associate” should similarly satiate the author’s flock — at least until its remarkably drab conclusion.

“The Associate” is the more cynical of the two books, spreading mistrust around to not just the courts but also greedy arms dealers and the modern spy game. It’s a conspiracy story gussied up as a legal thriller.

Kyle is about to graduate at the top of his class from Yale Law School when an incident from his past threatens his future.

Years ago, he belonged to a fraternity that treated a local coed like a sexual plaything — with her consent. One day, Kyle and some of his aggressive frat brothers crossed the consensual line, but potential rape charges were dropped. Problem solved, or so Kyle thought.

Now, a creepy man named Bennie has a video of the night in question taken from a cell phone, and he uses it to blackmail Kyle into joining one of the largest law firms in the world, Scully & Pershing. Bennie wants Kyle to infiltrate the firm and steal some of its secrets — information regarding a massive lawsuit involving the Pentagon and weapons sales.

Kyle must do precisely as Bennie wants or he’ll be part of a media circus that could derail his ambitions indefinitely at best — or end with him behind bars.

Mr. Grisham cranks out page turners, not Pulitzer Prize-winning prose. His writing here is perfunctory, nothing more. What makes a Grisham novel snap is the dizzying events surrounding the main characters as well as the author’s intimate feel for legalese.

Mr. Grisham breaks down complex regulations, and the cutthroat attorneys who live and die by their arcane rules, with a grace even his detractors must envy. It doesn’t take a law degree to appreciate the behind-the-scenes maneuvering behind Kyle’s plight.

Small details, like false deadlines meant to humiliate green associates and partners who urge their underlings to fudge billable hours, give complexity and color to a story that doesn’t derive either from traditional sources.

The phrase “billable hours,” drawn and quartered here by Mr. Grisham, becomes akin to an obscenity long before the book ends.

The story’s modest romance, between Kyle and a similarly bedraggled associate, also lends some humanity to the proceedings.

But while Mr. Grisham ratchets up the tension chapter by chapter, a gnawing feeling starts to build. Can the payoff measure up?

Mr. Grisham doesn’t even try. The final pages wrap the tale in such a rushed, unsatisfying manner it’s as if an intern had been summoned to complete the manuscript.

The book also asks the reader to accept some pretty hoary plot devices. The rape incident occurred roughly five years ago, a time when cellular phones could barely take a sharp photograph, let alone an extended video sequence.

And the plan Kyle embarks upon to save himself seems like it could have been started on Page 50, not just during the final passages.

It’s hardly a shock “The Associate” will soon make its way to the big screen. USA Today reports Shia LaBeouf is already signed on to play Kyle McAvoy.

But the film won’t succeed unless it strays far from the book’s disappointing finale.

• Christian Toto, who writes frequently on popular culture for The Washington Times, lives in Denver.