This, for me, was one scary book. It is a pretty well documented work showing just how our legal system has broken down, how there are different standards applied to different social classes of people, and how easily power can be abused in our system. I fully admit that Grisham has probably put some spin on some of the facts here, but the underlying story hit pretty close to the truth. I live in a small town near the area most of the action in this book takes place, i.e. Ada, Oklahoma, and I am quite familiar with “justice” in many of the small communities in the area. Quite a number of cases here in S.W. Missouri could be made into just as a compelling story that Grisham uses here. I am also quite familiar with the village of Ada, and trust me, Grisham has pretty well nailed the place correctly. I am also quite familiar with some of the individuals in this book, including Ron Williamson himself, and again, the author has them pretty well nailed also.

Overall, the book is pretty well written, although I must admit that the author dose ramble quite a lot and the book could probably have used some heavy handed editing. At times it gets so repetitive that I wanted to scream and simply dump it. It is an odd book though, despite this, I simply could not put it down once I got started. I think the story of these unfortunate individual was so compelling, that sifting through the endless repetitive details was quite worth it. I cannot imagine being placed on death row, setting there year after year, knowing I was completely innocent. I did, unlike some other reviewers, enjoy the authors description of jail and prison conditions. Having visited many over the years, I felt the author’s observations were quite accurate. I also felt, unlike some others, that the Grisham was probably overly kind to the local District Attorney. If you live in small towns in this part of the world, you will find that almost all of them have at least one horrid little person of his ilk on the payroll. This is sad, but true. If you really want to read some funny “squirming,” you should go to Bill Peterson’s wed site. It is not only funny, but rather pathetic.

Overall, I have to give this one four stars. Not the best I have ever read, but then again, not the worse and it is well worth the read. For those of you that are not inclined to dig through the book, I might suggest the CD, which is unabridged and well read by Craig Wasson. I both read the book and listened to the CD while driving. I actually enjoyed the CD more.

This is a strong novel, although not among Grisham’s best. It’s interesting to see the ways in which the legal system are manipulated, and which deals are struck and how, even if there is little doubt from a hundred pages on as to what kind of person Patrick is — and therefore how the questions about his past are going to be answered. Patrick also seems a little too smart to be bought at face value (DNA tests of his daughter? bugging his own office?), but I guess novels are, at heart, romanicized reality at best. The Partner doesn’t fully investigate everybody’s fantasy of taking a vast amoung of money and running to an exotic locale, but it comes close. When all the facts are laid on the table, you’ll wonder whether you would have done things any differently. And, as always, this Grisham is an easy and fast read.

Very enjoyable.

Matty J

Patrick Lanigan is a partner in a law firm in Biloxi Mississippi when he is killed in a fiery car crash. He is burned beyond recognition, and his remains are cremated and then buried. But when several weeks later, 90 million dollars goes missing from his law firm, Patrick becomes the chief suspect. Four and a half years later, Patrick is discovered living in Brazil, and is captured and tortured by some disreputable characters who are working on behalf of the companies that were bilked of their millions, including two insurance companies. Patrick does have the money, although he doesn’t know the exact location of it. But he also knows a terribly powerful secret that can bring many people crashing down if the information was to be made public. The Partner becomes a literary game of chess as Patrick uses this information while bargaining with the FBI, the Justice Department and Harrison County Law Enforcement.

But while The Partner is entertaining, it is totally unbelievable. First, Lanihan has managed the almost perfect crime, and there are just too many coincidences to be realistic. He becomes an expert at disappearing, becomes proficient in a new language, masters electronic surveillance, tackles offshore banking, learns to hide money, creates gasoline bombs, and a host of other skills. I’m not sure that Lanigan was even likable, and when the book ended with a shocker, I wasn’t sure if I was glad or sad for Patrick. In fact, there weren’t a whole lot of likable characters in The Partner, except for maybe Sandy McDermott, who was Lanigan’s college friend and served as his lawyer.

So if you’re looking for something with lots of action and some twists and turns, The Partner is vintage Grisham. But don’t expect it to be believable. It’s more a light, summer beach book than a work of great literature.

On the flip side, the true nature of the story also holds Grisham back. In sticking with the facts, his creativity was limited. Among Grisham’s greatest strengths as a writer are character development and intricate setting of the locale. In both of these instances, the facts limit what Grisham can do. Simply put, at times I felt I was reading the daily news, not a book.

Grisham should be applauded for writing a book that helped bring this injustice to a larger audience. The book may not entertain, certainly not to the degree of his best work, but what he did here was more important than anything else he could have written. Somewhere, at some point in the future, this book will prevent another innocent individual from being unfairly railroaded. If nothing else, Grisham should be proud of that fact, and we all should be grateful to him.

The research is impeccable and Grisham’s biting commentary is poignant. This is a vital book on how the public trust in institutions pledged to uphold justice is ripped to shreds and the fate of the many victims left under the tracks of this runaway train.

Grisham tells a compelling story. He also tells it in a much more longwinded than necessary fashion, which caused me to downgrade the rating from 4 stars to 3. There are endless pages detailing the alcohol-dependency and personality disorders and erratic behavior of the protagonist. OK, Mr. Grisham, we get the point–it is not necessary to make it several hundred times. The fact that Grisham does this makes this story very tedious to work through. This book would have benefited from a much stricter editing process. The story could have been told in a much more succinct manner which would have, in my opinion, been much more forceful.

This is a worthwhile read, and at times an entertaining one. Better editing would probably have made it a compelling one, but as it stands it is unnecessarily tedious. A good reading experience nonetheless.