The Firm

How it reads

The Firm is thriller (legal thriller, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in a big city setting, in the recent past, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are justice, class and society and secrets. In weight it's light and escapist — easy to fall into.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. It's a mega-bestseller — the book everyone seems to have read.