After graduating from Yale Law School, idealistic Kyle McAvoy intends to devote three years to public service before applying for employment with a prestigious firm.

However, his plans are derailed when he is approached and questioned by two men claiming to be FBI agents, who then pass him on to a mysterious man named Bennie Wright.

Bennie has a videotape of a party that took place in Kyle's apartment five years earlier, when he was an undergraduate student at Duquesne University.

In it, two of Kyle's fraternity brothers, Joey Bernardo and Baxter Tate, are seen having sexual relations with Elaine Keenan, a young woman who later claimed she was raped while unconscious.

Bennie's plan is to have Kyle accept a position at New York-based Scully & Pershing, the world's largest law firm, which is representing Trylon Aeronautics in its case against Bartin Dynamics.

The two defense contractors had joined forces to design the B-10 HyperSonic Bomber for the Pentagon, and when they won the contract over Lockheed, the competitor sought support from senators and lobbyists.

Kyle will be required to infiltrate Scully & Pershing's files and deliver to Bennie crucial information desired by the people he represents.

What he doesn't anticipate is the re-emergence of Elaine, who still maintains she was raped, and Baxter, who has completed a lengthy stint in rehab and, as part of his twelve-step program, wants to make amends to her.

His confession will give Elaine the proof she needs to file charges, and with Kyle drawn into the spotlight, his position at Scully & Pershing will be jeopardized–a risk Bennie must eliminate by any means.

But by this time, realizing that Bennie is nearly always one step ahead of him, Kyle tells the whole story to Roy Benedict, a criminal lawyer and former FBI operative.

The Associate is true to form: it grabs the reader quickly, becomes impossible to put down, stays that way through most of its story, and then escalates into plotting so crazily far-fetched that it defies resolution.

"[2] Richard Rayner of the Los Angeles Times said, "Nobody goes to Grisham for style, and there's a sense here of a skilled craftsman cranking it out on autopilot.

But it's still a page-turner: Many of Grisham's legions of fans will doubtless sign up for this latest ride, eager to see how Kyle McAvoy manages to get himself out of the hole.

"[1] Charles Taylor of Newsday said, "You don't need to be sadistic or foul-mouthed to write a good thriller, but you need exactly what Grisham lacks: a taste for cunning, meanness and grit.

Worse, Grisham's country-mouse attitude toward the big, bad city - where apartments rent for thousands of dollars a month and you can't find a good $3.99 blue-plate special at the local diner - is a drag.

It's supposed to be a scary place, in theory, full of brooding criminals and impossible choices, but it's really a relic of the American past, one as sentimental and archaic as a Norman Rockwell painting .

"[5] Joshua Rozenberg of The Observer said, "Suffice it to say that The Associate bears many similarities to The Firm, even down to the two dust jackets, which both show shadowy young lawyers on the run.