The Associate by John Grisham

Haven't read a John Grisham legal thriller for ages, when I found this in a hotel in Egypt on my recent vacation. Decided to grab it for a quick read. It is about Kyle, who is about to graduate and become a lawyer. He wants to work bro bono for some years, paying back to society and all that, but before graduating, he is being called to a meeting with some suspicious types who want him to do their business. For various reasons, he ends up accepting their "offer", which really is no offer at all, and soon after his graduation he finds himself in an enormous firm in New York, being worked to death as a first year associate. He has the suspicious types following his every step, his apartment is wired and he is generally finding himself in a huge jam, of which he cannot see a way out. But Kyle is a ressourceful young man, and a smart one as well, and he begins his own investigations and plans to get rid of his shadows and their threat of ruining his career if he is not doing as told.

This legal thriller is fine enough for a beach- or poolside read, and I was well entertained and found the writing fine and with a good flow. But nothing more. Not much substance and written like its to become a movie, rather sooner than later. I used to like Grisham's earlier works, then he sort of got "James Patterson Syndrome" and begun whipping out one bad book after another. He has not reached the low of James Patterson yet, though, and I can recommend this book as an entertaining, fast read.