Product Description

They found him in a small town in Brazil, near the border with Paraguay. He had a new name, Danilo Silva, and his appearance had been changed by plastic surgery. The search had taken four years. They'd chased him around the world, always just missing him. It had cost their clients three and a half million dollars. But so far none of them had complained. The man they were about to kidnap had not always been called Silva. Before, he had another life, a life which ended in a car crash in February 1992. His gravestone lay in a cemetry in Biloxi, Mississippi. His name before his death was Patrick S. Lanigan. He had been a partner at an up and coming law firm. He had a pretty wife, a new daughter, and a bright future. Six weeks after his death, $90 million had disappeared from the law firm. It was then that his partners knew he was still alive, and the long pursuit had begun...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5300 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Literary slugger John Grisham's The Partner is a story about--surprise!--a lawyer in trouble. Patrick Lanigan had been a young partner in a prominent Southern law firm. He had a beautiful wife, a new baby girl, and a bright future. Then one winter night Patrick was trapped in a burning car; the casket they buried held nothing but ashes.

A short distance away, Patrick watched his own burial then fled. A fortune was stolen from his ex-firm's offshore account. And Patrick ran, covering his tracks the whole way.

But, now, they've found him. --Peter Ducasse

Review
Grisham (The Client, 1993, etc.) justifies a colossal first printing of 2.8 million copies with his best-plotted novel yet, gripping the reader mightily and not letting go. Nor is there the dispersal of belief that often follows his knockout openings. Patrick Lanigan is tracked down to his hideout in Brazil, where he lives modestly near the Paraguayan border. Surely, Jack Stephano thinks, Patrick could not have spent the $90 million he ran off with four years ago. Jack has spent $3 million tracking Patrick down, and he wants that money. He wants it so much that he's blithely torturing Patrick to discover its location. The problem is that Patrick doesn't really know. He's given power of attorney to his lover, the brilliant Brazilian lawyer Eva Miranda, and she has been shuttling the money from bank to bank around the world, keeping it untraceable. When Patrick fails to call her at four in the afternoon, per usual, she skips out, as they've planned, and goes into hiding. And as planned, she phones the FBI office in Biloxi, Mississippi, and tells them that one Jack Stephano has very likely captured Patrick and is holding him in Brazil. The FBI puts pressure on Stephano to bring Patrick back to Biloxi, where the embezzlement took place and where Patrick's cremated remains were buried after his car went over an embankment. Patrick even attended his own funeral, watching through binoculars. As it turns out, the $90 million he ran off with was dirty money his law firm had helped collect in a criminal conspiracy to rob the government. Will the money be returned? Will Patrick escape trial for the murder of whoever it was that died in that accident? And what of Eva, now hiding in the States and helping Patrick orchestrate his defense? Grisham comes up with a masterfully bittersweet end (with his title taking on a sly double edge) that may be his most satisfying ever. (Kirkus Reviews)

Synopsis
They found him in a small town in Brazil, near the border with Paraguay. He had a new name, Danilo Silva, and his appearance had been changed by plastic surgery. The search had taken four years. They'd chased him around the world, always just missing him. It had cost their clients three and a half million dollars. But so far none of them had complained. The man they were about to kidnap had not always been called Silva. Before, he had another life, a life which ended in a car crash in February 1992. His gravestone lay in a cemetry in Biloxi, Mississippi. His name before his death was Patrick S. Lanigan. He had been a partner at an up and coming law firm. He had a pretty wife, a new daughter, and a bright future. Six weeks after his death, $90 million had disappeared from the law firm. It was then that his partners knew he was still alive, and the long pursuit had begun...

Customer Reviews

Portrait of a Flawed Legal Genius
A great lawyer is meticulous, calculating, aggressive, relentless, and prepared for anything. John Grisham lovingly shares an intricate plot to provide you with an unforgettable portrait of those qualities in action. In the process, you'll also see a man whose soul is offended by his profession.

Ultimately, this book is about a dream . . . a dream that may be more dangerous than an addictive drug. What will you do to capture your dream? That's what you'll be asking yourself after you read The Partner.

The beginning of the book seems like an international espionage thriller. A group of private detectives track down a fugitive to a little town in Brazil near the border with Paraguay. They pounce, and the fugitive is in for his worst nightmare . . . remorseless torture aimed at getting him to tell something he doesn't know.

Soon, an unlikely intervention creates a whole new vector for the story. The fugitive has to face the music from a lot of angry lawyers . . . including his former partners.

Like many legal thrillers, you'll be getting no more information than you need to know to follow the action. Pay attention to the questions that occur to you: Thinking about what might have happened is half the fun of this book.

If you aren't interested in the ins and outs of how lawyers think about criminal issues, you won't like this book as much as I did. I was impressed at how well the legal issues were displayed without being too technical. Remember that lawyers usually spend a lot of time thinking through how the opposing attorney will respond to various probes.

Watch out for the unexpected!

A real page-turner
If you want a novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this is for you. Full of twists and turns, Grisham takes his readers on a rollercoaster of emotions - pity, excitement and sometimes sheer bewilderment. The author presents you with the bad guy - an ex-lawyer called Lanigan who stole $90 million from his firm - but immediately gets you on his side and, as the story unfolds, the situation is turned completely on its head. Lanigan has thought his plan through in the finest detail - he simply can't fail, can he? A brilliant storyline, another great novel from Mr Grisham. Is Lanigan the villain or the hero of the piece? You decide.

Not as good as his other books
This is my least favourite John Grisham book so far. I didn't find the characters convincing and the ending was weak. It was a bit of a letdown after just having read "The Firm".