The Partner By John Grisham (Doubeday)
Patrick Lanigan is a junior partner at a law firm, when he learns that his firm is deeply involved in helping a shipping magnate defraud the US government out of millions of dollars. When he discovers that his bosses intend to keep him out of their $30m share of their ill-gotten gains, he decides to steal the money and disappear. But not wishing to be a wanted man, either, he fakes his own death – using the body of a hapless homeless man as a decoy.
Some weeks later, $90m vanishes from the law firm’s offshore account, and the bosses know only an insider could have the knowledge to commit such a manoeuvre. They begin to suspect that maybe Patrick is not dead after all, and they employ a specialist to try to track him down.
Thus begins yet another entertaining adventure from that king of the legal thriller, John Grisham – author of The Pelican Brief, The Runaway Jury, The Rainmaker and many more. It’s one that involves hideouts in the Brazilian jungle, double-crosses, a plot of many threads that gradually entwines, and his typically crowd-pleasing courtroom drama. Different this time is a main character who is undeniably a thief and a fugitive, but the reader is easily drawn into his shoes and will undoubtedly wish him to succeed.
