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. ( )

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...

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. ( )

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. ( )

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? ( )