Rating: 
Summary: What a way to ruin a good book...
Review: The book started out fairly well. It was an interesting read, and a fairly good book... until the ending.
The ending was awful, and came out of nowhere. There is nothing in the book suggesting this kind of ending could take place. Plus, a lot of the different sub-plots in the book never came together and the ending left the reader hanging on those.
The plot is fairly simple. A partner in a law firm, Patrick, fakes his death and runs off with $90 million. They track him down and torture him, but can't get the money because a girl is hiding the money, and not Patrick. Patrick goes to jail, but things get interesting when he starts showing evidence that the money maybe been obtained illegally...
One will enjoy reading this book for the most part, although the start is a little slow. However, the ending will ruin the entire book.
Rating: 
Summary: Grisham needs a co-author
Review: The Client again demonstrates that success is built upon the abysmally low standards of the American reader and the resonance engendered in that public by detailing the slime of the American legal system. The book is a tour de force of weaving together a cast of cartoon characters, farcical plot and a No Henry ending by means of talented prose. The guy can write but he demonstratively lacks anything to write about. Grisham's motto appears to be: Suspend any rational though when you read this book.His books fall into two classes: 1) Hate "whitey" polemics and 2) Action-Suspense without suspense but with random action. He would please me if he would join forces with another writer who had a head for story line, character development and had a logical mind. With such help, a future Grisham novel could make sense as well as have great surging prose style.
Rating: 
Summary: A suspenseful nonstop action story that is cleverly unfolded
Review: This book was action packed non with stop suspense throughout. Grisham wrote the story extremely well. It was a perfect plot that was cleverly unfolded. Patrick worked for a law firm. When the firm got a case that ended up stealing 100,000,000 dollars, he stole the money, faked his death, and ran from the U.S., and ended up in Brazil. He lived happily there, just like everyone else for four years, until one day, when they cauhgt him. From then on, Grisham slowly unfolds the story making it impossible to put the book down until you've read every single page. Be prepared to stay up all night long for the next couple of days once you start it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good and Bad
Review: Though the book was a bit predictable, I liked the writing style and the simplicity of it and loved the plot. I always learn something more about the legal profession when reading Grisham's books. However, he doesn't provide enough character development about co-leading good-guy characters (Eva, Sandy). The way Patrick got out of all his legal troubles was not very realistic but fascinating escapist fare nonetheless. The ending seemed as though he couldn't come up with something better or couldn't decide how to end the story, so with no clues whatsoever along the way, he severed the story abruptly before it was due to end. A clue or two along the way would have made the same ending satisfying and believable, but to have a character suddenly become a totally different person in the last two pages of a book or else to have the character disappear altogether left me feeling duped and pissed off at the author for his lack of planning and feeling like he didn't really do his job all that well after all. With all the thought that went into this book to set up the elaborate plot, I think Grisham could have put a bit more thought into either creating a believable ending or leaving clues along the way. I don't think any reader likes to be 2x4'd at the end of an enjoyable book, which is what the lack of clues makes this out to be.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best, not his worst
Review: Usually, even if I don't like a Grisham book, I'll still have enough interest in it to finish it before setting it aside and moving on to a better book. With "The Partner" I was about 1/3 through it when I abandoned it for a few weeks. When I eventually went back to it I did finish it but it was more because I like to finish what I start than any compelling interest in the story.I figured out how Patrick, once snatched and back in the USA facing trial, would weasel his way out of jail time about halfway through. I might have picked up on it sooner but I wasn't trying to anticipate the ending. I also guessed correctly about the surprise twist at the end - mainly because I was hoping that what happened would happen. I liked the ending although I thought Grisham could have added a few more pages to wrap up some loose ends. Without giving anything away, I would have enjoyed learning when a particular character decided to do something otherwise unexpected. Maybe I'm sick of lawyer books or maybe it's just the ones that inhabit Grisham's imagination that I find so repulsive. Grisham's Patrick Lanigan comes up with a brilliant and intricate scheme to fake his own death and disappear with $90 million that was to be split between his firm and one of their clients. Once caught, he employs an equally clever scheme to get away with it. But there was a certain smugness to the character that I found incredibly unappealling and unsympathetic, except (of course) when he was being tortured. If you like Grisham's books, you'll probably like "The Partner". It's not up there with his better work but it's also not his worst.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Story shame about the ending
Review: Very entertaining, it was fun to see how Patrick Lanighan had planned ahead and got away with his prize. yet the ending does not make any sense whatsoever. Not because it was sad, but because throught tbe book the author did not give any background to make this type of ending logical. I understand you have to add an unexpected twist, but this ending is almost an insult to the reader. The Brazilian lawyer could have run away with whole lot of money from the start, and even if she did not want any one to be after her, she still had the money to enjoy at her home town with man she presumabley loved and near her father. Disappointing end to a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: What do you do when you have a hero who is as antiheroic as you can get? Patrick Lanergan has stolen ninety million dollars, possibly burned someone else up in a car that was supposed to be his fiery death; hidden away for four years; and used a lovely lawyer to help him achieve his ends?
Of course as the novel unwinds (and Grisham keeps your interest in spite of this quandary), we find that perhaps Patrick's motives are a lot more noble than one could imagine. Grisham populates his book with some interesting and likeable people (Sandy for instance) and some that aren't fleshed out enough to feel anything about (unfortunately this includes Eva, whose actions at the book's close are rather devastating and one couldn't see it coming).
Patrick's brilliance in his scheme is to be admired, as is Grisham for concocting the whole thing. But it's soulless hero and it's rather unfair ending keep it from being a book it should have been.
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