The associate

the long version

E-book extra: Phillip Margolin's "The Origin of the Associate."Daniel Ames is a driven young associate at Portland's top law firm, determined not to let his blue-collar roots hold him back from a productive career. Desperate to impress, he takes on more than he should to cover for a colleague. When the case they're working on -- a pharmaceutical company is being sued for birth defects alleged to be caused by one of its products -- goes bad, Daniel finds himself scape-goated and hung out to dry. Black-balled, his reputation sullied and his career in jeopardy, he begins to investigate the facts of the case in order to clear his name and win back his job. But someone doesn't want those facts investigated. Daniel winds up caught in the middle of a multi-billion dollar case of fraud -- and the target of a vicious killer's bullets.