#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * If you thought Mitch McDeere was in trouble in The Firm, wait until you meet Kyle McAvoy, The Associate

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 working for the firm but against it 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.