The Partner: A Novel

by John Grisham

2012

Status

Available

Genres

All Topics

Mystery

Fiction

Collection

Standard Shelves

Publication

Dell (2012), Edition: Reprint, 480 pages

Description

Fiction. Literature. Suspense. Thriller. HTML: They watched Danilo Silva for days before they finally grabbed him. He was living alone, a quiet life on a shady street in Brazil; a simple life in a modest home, certainly not one of luxury. Certainly no evidence of the fortune they thought he had stolen. He was much thinner and his face had been altered. He spoke a different language, and spoke it very well.But Danilo had a past with many chapters. Four years earlier he had been Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a prominent Biloxi law firm. He had a pretty wife, a new daughter, and a bright future. Then one cold winter night Patrick was trapped in a burning car and died a horrible death. When he was buried his casket held nothing more than his ashes.From a short distance away, Patrick watched his own burial. Then he fled. Six weeks later, a fortune was stolen from his ex-law firm's offshore account. And Patrick fled some more. But they found him. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from John Grisham's The Litigators..… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member cartoixa

A rather typical John Grisham novel, with a quite predictable plot (I found). The second half of this book verges on boredom, only saved from it by the always enjoyable writing style of the author.
This makes the very last pages of the book all the more stunning : they trigger a disturbing emotion

that I will have a hard time forgetting.

Show Less

24 more

LibraryThing member reading_fox

Entertaining maybe, but hardly scintillating. The biggest problem is the hero - one is supposed to be rooting for him and his cleverness, but actually he's a completely nasty piece of work.

Patrick, living with an unfaithful wife, is as is usual in a Grisham novel, a sucessful lawyer. He's just been

made partner in a Mississipi law firm, and learns the other partners are about to kick him out, prior to recieving a multimillion dollar fee. And so Patrick plans. First of all he tapes and records all sorts of secret conversations, and has his wife followed and daughter DNA tested (without permission which is illegal), then he stages his own death leaving his friends and family in the dark, and then steals the firms fee and flees to Brazil. The story starts with Patrick being caught by a private organiation chasing the money he stole.

Nowhere is there any discussion about the thought of decieving so many people, nobody reproaches him for it, and it never crosses his mind. He's been a complete bastard, decieving his friends for years, spying on his wife, and work collegues, abandoning his paretns, and relying on his girlfiriend to keep him out of trouble, and not once, nowhere is this thought to be a problem. Needless to say, I had little sympathy for him.

The writing is Grisham's usual, fastpaced, skipping over any plot holes but enjoyable mostof the time. For no explained reason Patrick decides to release his story in dribs and drabs rather than in one long conversation. This is annoying as Patricks story is the key part of the book, rather than all the manipulatin of the justice system going on around him.

Fairly typical mid-course Grisham - it's not about lawyers in courtrooms making legal arguments, but it is about lawyers and corruption making backroom deals.

Show Less

LibraryThing member koalamom

Patrick Lanigan is back and after staging his death, he is found alive and well in Brazil. From the time of his "capture" to the end of the book, he will lead us on a great adventure to an ending that is pure Grisham and totally unexpected and will possibly lead us to where?

LibraryThing member paesley

Not quite the page turner that I've found other Grisham's books to be. I wasn't sure whether I supposed to sympathize with the main character. I actually figured out the ending way before I got there - an unusual experience for me with Grisham's books. Still, the story hooked me and I enjoyed the

plot.

Show Less

LibraryThing member JimBrewington

One of the best Grisham books - fun, many twists up to the end.

LibraryThing member shawnd

The plot was super - certainly could have been made into a feature film well before now. The writing was more workmanlike than other Grisham's. And the plot certainly fits into the Grisham formula: man and woman pair, initially the man alone, woman becomes a co-conspirator later, the man an

attorney with morals brought into a bad situation with his law partners, comes up with some crafty way to end up with a bunch of money and safety, etc etc. It was a bit annoying that most of the book was the protagonist telling his story of his life over the last four years. This kind of writing gets to me: when it's all about the past. You have to sit through the niceties of them meeting their interviewee with little vignettes of what meaningless stuff is happening now. Is it really too much trouble to tell it as it occurs? In this case it's justified because there are long periods where nothing happens and that's part of the drama. Still it is mildly painful.

The ending is indeed special.

Show Less

LibraryThing member kd9

No young naive protagonists. No characters that you care about at all, instead there are jaded lawyers, weary judges, and burned out investigators. There is torture, jails, hospitals, courtrooms, and banks. Yes, a lot of money is stolen quite cleverly, but it is lost in the end. And by then you

hardly care.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Djupstrom

The same plot/storyline as the rest of John Grisham's other novels. Nothing new from this formula author.

LibraryThing member DayBreak

Excellent story! I forgot how well Grisham can weave a tale!

LibraryThing member polutropos

First-rate thriller. Wonderful twists and turns, great suspense, among the best in the genre.

LibraryThing member nyiper

I listened to John Grisham only a couple of weeks ago when he was discussing on c-span how he writes best when he has an outline. In listening to The Partner I was struck with the incredible arrangement of details to make everything work in sequence. I was trying to picture his outline for this

book on some sort of wall or arranged in a pile of cards spread out on the floor---- it boggled my mind! I thoroughly enjoyed what I thought was a nicely complicated plot line.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Crewman_Number_6

Readable but typical Grisham--recycled plot with a new title.

LibraryThing member baroquem

This was the first John Grisham novel I read, and I think it was a bad choice. I did not enjoy this book. The fundamental problem is that the protagonist, Patrick, is a wholly unsympathetic character: once we get past the initial torture scenes, we're left with a man who cares nothing about his

family, fakes his own death, steals a large sum of money, then spends most of the book manipulating the legal system to try to walk away with as much loot as he can. Are we supposed to feel sorry for him? Admiration for his escapades? For me, it was a total misfire. And at the end of the story, Grisham throws one final twist that is perhaps intended to satisfy those who see injustice in Patrick's escape to freedom. Unfortunately, the twist is so arbitrary, going against everything we know about the characters, that it rings false and leaves the reader scratching his head in confusion. Not quite the effect the author was hoping for, I suspect.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Zhindgelle

I absolutely like the story. Patrick Lannigan stole the money because if not, then this will go to an ass hole shark . Remember that the partners and the client got the money by lying to the government. So Patrick did some favor to the government by stealing the money and hiding it. Although

Patrick was able to gain interest from that loot, but that is actually the compensation he should get by hiding the $90M than loosing the entire amount to a corrupt and lying bastard. But what I like about the story is the idea of vanishing without a trace. When you dont want anybody to look for you and stay in a beautiful place starting life anew...

Show Less

LibraryThing member shazjhb

Predictable. Interesting I had not read this book but maybe I just "forgot"

LibraryThing member bennyb

I enjoyed reading this story. Plenty of suspense all the way through. I would recommend this one to anyone who is a Grisham fan.

LibraryThing member MichaelDeavers

Legal twist and turns make this a super read.

At first, in the book The Partner I wasn't a big fan of the main character, Patrick. I was not quite sure if I was supposed to want Patrick to get away with everything but found myself on his side even though I didn't know why he had committed this

theft. I did admire the way he had every angle thought out. The book was hard to put down. The constant legal twists and turns in the story kept me riveted. Mr. Grisham kept me interested with the number of players in the plot and then he planted this hidden thought of what would it be like to start life over?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would recommend it highly. Beware; the ending is not expected and rather disheartening.

Show Less

LibraryThing member gopfolk

I'll be honest this book has been sitting on my bookshelf for a very long time and I've not really been enthusiastic about reading it. I've seen a few of the Grisham movies and while I know that I should never judge a book by the movie I just could not bring myself to read this book.
I finally read

it and I'm happy to report that I loved it. The characters were very well developed and the story was just captivating. You could predict what was going to happen but the getting there was simply amazing.

Show Less

LibraryThing member amurphy98

I've wanted to read this book for years and finally got the chance. The story is well written and held my attention. The ending surprised me though. What's the ultimate moral of the story?

LibraryThing member ScottKalas

started 11/13/2010; It started off 4 star but the final 100 pages or so were three, the ending though predictable was only a 2 star.

Pretty much the whole plot was 70% predictable but I did like how it unraveled; I never really liked the Lanigan character as he came off smug to me.

Nonetheless I'm

still a Grisham fan

Show Less

LibraryThing member TeenieLee

I cannot think of many things that would piss me off more than finding out that my husband faked his death...

LibraryThing member dbsovereign

One of his least believeable and most predictable.

LibraryThing member Karl304

Deviously pleasant.

LibraryThing member Wuzzlicious

Classic Grisham, this was a good book. The ending is one that I should have suspected, but I managed to not see it coming anyway and was appropriately infuriated.

LibraryThing member antao

(Original review, 1997-05-30)

This morning on the Tube I saw a Grisham lying around, “The Partner”, and I was tempted to take it, but it was not marked as a bookcrossing book - so I wondered if somebody had only forgotten it or lost it out of his backpack when leaving the tram in a haste. So I

left it in there. Of course, somebody might have finished it and let it lie there for somebody else to take it. But since there was no affirmation that it was fine to take it I did not want to commit trover and left it. Shame, it would have been my first Grisham. Yes, I know, he wrote lots and is a bestselling author, which is usually a sign for someone who has found a formula that works, but he is a lawyer and writes about what he knows. I didn’t Laws - not even Portuguese ones. Not that I lack books. I could always finish Cortazar's Winner next. Or Snow Child ... Or that Portuguese single volume Fantasy book. Or ... Or ... Or ...

What would you have done?

And if some of you let a book lie around in public transport after finishing it - do you mark it as Fine To Take? Or do you just let it lie around?

Bear with me, for I have to say it: Cortázar over Grisham any day ;) Do you think you’d probably pick it up? I don't imagine someone would rush back to get it.

Got to give Grisham credit for what he does though: some great easy reads, that help you get back on track when you start caring about your corporate employers just a little bit too much. Don't think I've read more than two or three books of his, but nothing particularly cringe-worthy (one star reading, I mean) comes to mind. I never leave books in public transport: I'm a compulsive hoarder, so all of them (finished or not) pile up on my bookshelves. There are, however, quite a few begging to be taken to second hand book stores, those that I can't stand or those that deserve a new life.

Maybe as I get older and turn into a waterpot, it’d entitle me to take whatever the hell I want in the world of abandoned books. I don’t speak as a waterpot and my word is not final (*Yeah, finally all those Regency Romances have paid off! ;) That is where my usage of "waterpot" stems from. I knew it would come in handy one day. Next time I will try to fit in the word "fiddlesticks", stolen from "Little Lord Fauntleroy".)

NB: I used to participate in our Portuguese equivalent of Bookcrossing, but gave up because it seemed to get very competitive and infested by Romanians shamelessly looking for free books - the original spirit was lost. I would never take, let alone leave, a book on public transport. Maybe after turning into an waterpot things will change...

Show Less

Fewer