The Associate

By: Phillip Margolin

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Daniel Ames is an associate at Reed, Briggs, Portland's most prestigious law firm, earning more money than he ever imagined possible.

When a charismatic civil litigator sues the firm's biggest client for manufacturing a drug that he claims causes unspeakable birth defects, Daniel is certain the claim has no merit. But as he begins to investigate, his world comes tumbling down around him. His work is sabotaged, he's accused of professional incompetence, and he's fired. Twelve hours later he is arrested for murder.

Daniel scrambles to clear his name and save his reputation, and in the process unearths a trail of deceit. But someone doesn't want this trail explored, and Daniel becomes the target of a vicious killer who will stop at nothing to prevent the truth from being revealed.

©2001 Phillip M. Margolin (P)2001 Books on Tape, Inc. and © 2001 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"It takes a really crafty storyteller to put people on the edge of their seats and keep them there. Phillip Margolin does just that." (Chicago Tribune)
"Intelligent, stylishly written, and exciting." (Booklist)

Can Daniel Ames clear his name?

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I really liked this book. It was part mystery and part courtroom drama which in my mind is a great combination.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Associate?

I liked that there was a story within a story. At first the preface made no sense and I loved finding out how it fit into the story.

Have you listened to any of Scott Brick’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is the first Scott Brick book I've listened to and I thought he did a great job. I will look for his name again.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listened to this book while I was walking each day and each day I walked longer!

Meandering Tale

Convoluted plot doesn't translate well to an audio format. I was disappointed. The only thing that kept me going was the narrator.

A fast-paced, fun read

Fast-paced with an engaging protagonist. I enjoyed this book thoroughly... and was prompted to buy several other Margolin novels as a consequence. In fact, I thought The Associate was one of Margolin's best novels--far, far better than Wild Justice.

Average; fast read, not a legal thriller

First, I did not enjoy the narrator of this book; I thought he was dull. Perhaps he suffered by comparison to the narrator of P.D. James' the Murder Room.

As for the book, there was a lot of action, murders, and a few twists and turns. The last one was difficult to determine, but the rest were relatively easy to spot. Having worked in law firms, I had a bit of a difficult time swallowing the initial premise; along with the outcome of some of the criminal proceedings.

While I "read" it quickly, and found no glaring horribles, I just found that it left me with a so what feeling. I did not feel much empathy for any of the human characters (most were lawyers, after all!) Perhaps one not so familiar with law offices will find this book more intriguing.

Disjointed story with many characters

I really enjoyed the first half of this tale about the downward spiral experienced by a young associate at a prestigious law firm. But just when I was really involved in the story, the cast of characters completely changed. I repeatedly needed to rewind because I kept losing track of who these new characters were. I finally just let the book play, but I was never fully engaged. I've enjoyed other books by this author a lot more than this one.

The Associate

I will listen to almost anything Scott Brick reads and this was a very good story. However, I was very disappointed that the director didn't catch the mispronunciation of the Willamette River (it has a short a) and at the very end, the word mischievous was classically mispronounced as mischievious. There are only 2 i's in mischievous, not three. Grrrrr. Set my teeth on edge! Come on Scott, you can and do do better!

dated now, but interesting

Not as bad as a Russian novel, but there are still a whole lot of characters to keep track of. The ending was anticlimactic, partly because of not recognizing one of the principal players, as well as the story line just sort of winding down.

There was a courtroom scene that was allowed to go on far longer than other books have led me to believe possible, and the woman's tale of Satanic torture was ridiculed and disbelieved, the woman labeled completely nuts. This was disappointing since such things do occur, and no further inquiry was made into her story.

The book shows its age now, but the author has developed into a better writer than this. Scott Brick did well despite misplacing the emphasis in several sentences.

Convoluted and implausible but mildly entertaining

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Short answer: a lot.This was the first book I've read by this author. I was drawn by the classification as a legal thriller; it was neither. The story line was intriguing but interrupted by a less than believable "romance." Yes, sometimes we experience love at first sight but in The Associate we didn't get that feeling.The narrator was good at accents though sometimes his attempts at Eastern European dialects were hard to distinguish from his attempts at Spanish. He seemed to not even try male and female voices so that at times it was hard to determine who was speaking.There wasn't much suspense and I was able to discern the perpetrator relatively early. Nonetheless, I soldiered on with the listen, in part because I needed a diversion during sessions at the gym and The Associate didn't require much deep thought.

What could Phillip Margolin have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Margolin could have made the characters more plausible, perhaps with some deeper insights into their personalities to help us understand why the two lead characters fell for each other so hard and so quickly.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He should work harder to differentiate male and female characters for starters and remember what accents he's supposed to be using.

Did The Associate inspire you to do anything?

I'll think long and hard before listening to another Phillip Margolin book or Scott Brick narration.

Great Mystery With Court Room Drama

This is a great mystery with a good plot. The main character is a young, scared, naïve lawyer who makes silly mistakes but it is the mistakes that drives the story along and develops into a very entertaining listen. Would a real world lawyer do some of the things he did? Most likely not!... but he is scared and fear caused him to do a couple of really stupid things. Just when he thought that he was going to finally get the information that's needed to clear his name only to find out that he's made another mistake -- the reader can see it coming, but it's okay because the story has enough meat on the bones to hold interest. The development of the main characters is done very well that you care about what's going to happen next... how will he clear his name, how will all the threads in the story be weaved into a coherent conclusion. Margolin did a beautiful job of weaving a story inside of a story which is done in one long flashback.

Scott Brick provided an excellent performance. He did not over perform in any way as he is known to sometimes do.... He is one of my favorites and I think that he hit the mark just right with this performance.

Not his best

I enjoyed Sleeping Beauty so looked for another title by the same author. Unfortunately, this title did not keep my interest. While I thoroughly enjoyed Sleeping Beauty I didn't finish this one. The narrator was very dull.