John Grisham, The Associate

According to the back of my most recent Grisham-purchase, he has sold more than 250 million books worldwide.

This might explain the amount of errors this particular volume contains. Maybe Grisham's editors are getting sloppy, maybe Grisham is? I don't know. What I do know is it annoys the hell out of me.

The Associate revolves around Kyle McAvoy, who finishes Yale Law School just as we meet him. Unfortunately McAvoy has a dark secret, which is not really his secret, but some of his friends. Obviously Kyle hasn't really done anything wrong - if he had, he couldn't be our hero. This dark secret is not as secret as Kyle might have hoped. Some sinister people - who may or may not be government employees - know about the secret as well, and they are certainly going to take advantage. Just like every other Grisham-novel out there (well except The Painted House). I have no issue with Grisham's plot. It works. And I enjoy reading it - every time. What I do have issues with, is the fact that he does not follow through on half the threads of this specific plot.

Several important characters are left hanging. Namely Dale, Joey and Bennie. Now you obviously do not know who these three people are, but I'm not here to recount the story for you, but to tell you what I like, and what I do not like about this book.

What I like - which is basically what I like about every Grisham-novel out there - is this:

Grisham knows how to build a story. Every bit of information is carefully selected to make the reader want to finish the book. I WANT to know more. I WANT the bad guys to lose. Even though Kyle McAvoy has his dark secret, the source of this not being his doing, he is likable. I want him to get out of his predicament unscathed.

I know I'm being manipulated, and usually I don't mind. In this case though, the errors annoy me. For instance, when Kyle McAvoy gets up at five o'clock, and is at work around six, and his colleague asks him what time it is, it is an error, when McAvoy says "it's almost five".

It's a tiny thing, but that tiny little thing is not the only tiny thing, and it is annoying. Normally I glide through Grisham with no hitches, errors ruin that.

although true to form, grisham leaves you wanting more at the end of this thriller. i am a big fan of john, but i am also a big fan of good work. this work, the associate, to say the least is a bit of a let down, if in fact, there is no follow up to this book. character development was a bit weak, and the story line was a bit predictable. good, not great. i think this was written with a formula of some sort to generate extra funds.