Joint Review: The 500 by Matthew Quirk

by:  Matthew Quirk
published by:  Little, Brown and Co.
publish date:  June 5, 2012

Mike Ford is a former con artist who's been plucked from his Harvard Law School classroom to be an associate at The Davies Group, Washington's most high-powered and well-respected strategic consulting firm. Their specialty: pulling strings and peddling influence for the five hundred most powerful people inside the Beltway, the men and women who really run Washington -- and by extension the country, and the world.

I checked out Matthew Quirk's website before I started writing this.  I was surprised to learn this was his debut novel.  The 500 was a fantastic thriller.  I was not too surprised to learn it was already optioned by Twentieth Century Fox for film.  The 500 would have great big screen sucess.  It was full of criminals, thugs, and politicians...sometimes all rolled into one.  Two scenes I'd love to see in the movies is when he was in the locker at the club and when he goes with the politician to see his drug dealer.

My favorite aspect about The 500 was the underlying humor throughout the whole book.  It was a serious political thriller, but the main character has awesome sarcasm.  The little stories sprinkled throughout about various hijinks that he got into as a kid were great too. 

Like Autumn, I enjoyed The 500.  I was pleasantly surprised by the book.  I was afraid it was going to be like The Firm (which I didn't care for) and I was happy to say that it wasn't like that at all.  The story is filled with intrigue, paranoia and lots of secrets. The plot of the book was well fleshed out.  I enjoyed some of the twists that the author threw into the story to throw the reader off.  I don't want to give too much away, because it would ruin it. While I don't really know much about lobbyists and the inner workings of the political, the author did a great job of making me comfortable enough with the subject to enjoy the book.

I loved the main character.  Mike is a pretty likeable guy. While I didn't always agree with the choices he made, I still liked him.  His sense of humor about his circumstances really made the book fun. I also loved the ending. It's a good one with a little twist of "Will he or won't he?".  What a great way to end the book!  The audiobook was wonderfully narrated by Jay Snyder.  If you are looking for your next great read, check this one out!