The Associate A Novel [Paperback]

Kyle McAvoy possesses an outstanding legal mind. Good-looking and affable, he has a glittering future. He also has a dark secret that could destroy his dreams, his career, even his life. One night that secret catches up with him. The men who accost Kyle have a compromising video they’ll use to ruin him—unless he does exactly what they say. What they offer Kyle is something any ambitious young lawyer would kill for: a job in Manhattan as an associate at the world’s largest law firm. If Kyle accepts, he’ll be on the fast track to partnership and a fortune. But there’s a catch. Kyle won’t be workingforthe firm butagainstit in a dispute between two powerful defense contractors worth billions. Now Kyle is caught between the criminal forces manipulating him, the FBI, and his own law firm—in a malignant conspiracy not even Kyle, with all his intellect, cunning, and bravery, may be able to escape alive.

“Compulsively readable.”—Time

“Masterful . . . an absorbing thriller.”—The Boston Globe

“Impossible to put down.”—The New York Times
 
“A page-turner.”—Los Angeles Times

JOHN GRISHAM has written twenty previous novels and one work of nonfiction,The Innocent Man, published in 2006. He lives in Virginia and Mississippi.Chapter One



The rules of the New Haven Youth League required that each kid play at least ten minutes in each game. Exceptions were allowed for players who had upset their coaches by skipping practice or violating other rules. In such cases, a coach could file a report before the game and inform the scorekeeper that so-and-so wouldn’t play much, if at all, because of some infraction. This was frowned on by the league; it was, after all, much more recreational than competitive.

With four minutes left in the game, Coach Kyll%