The Partner
by John Grisham
★ Top 25 book of 1997 · #17 on Best Books of 1997
After four years of searching, a team tracks down a man living under a new name in Brazil. He was once a lawyer presumed dead, and his disappearance coincided with $90 million vanishing from his firm.
Best for: Readers who like legal intrigue, fugitives, and long chases across the globe
The Partner is #17 on BookWard's Best Books of 1997, out of 27 1997 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Partner is about
Patrick Lanigan is a junior partner at a law firm in Biloxi, Mississippi, where a client named Benny Aricia has been defrauding the U.S. government through inflated Navy shipbuilding contracts. In February 1992 Lanigan fakes his death in a car crash. Six weeks later, $90 million disappears from the law firm, and he flees to South America.
He resurfaces in South America as Danilo Silva, with a new face after plastic surgery, and begins a new life in Brazil with a woman named Eva. The people he robbed spend four years looking for him. John Grisham's eighth novel is a legal thriller about greed, betrayal and the long reach of the people he left behind, and it will suit readers who like a story built on a clever scheme and a long chase.
The Partner on the Best Books of 1997
The Partner came out in 1997. Of the 27 books first published in 1997 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #17 on our Best Books of 1997 list.
Why it made the list: 205 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.3 out of 5 (10 ratings); 21 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1997 list
- Out of the Dust Karen Hesse, #15
- Cat & Mouse James Patterson, #16
- How I Learned to Drive Paula Vogel, #18
- The Perfect Storm Sebastian Junger, #19
See all Best Books of 1997 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1996 Best Books of 1998.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 149 want to read it, 21 are reading it now and 35 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.3 out of 5 from 10 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 37 | 55% |
| Reader love | 4 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 70 | 20% |
Questions about The Partner
When was The Partner published?
The Partner by John Grisham was first published in 1997.
Was The Partner one of the best books of 1997?
The Partner is #17 on BookWard's Best Books of 1997, out of 27 1997 books that cleared our data bar. 205 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.3 out of 5 (10 ratings); 21 are reading it right now.
Why is The Partner on the Best Books of 1997 list?
205 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.3 out of 5 (10 ratings); 21 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 1997
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling, #1
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad Robert T. Kiyosaki, #2
- Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond, #3
- The Adventures of Captain Underpants Dav Pilkey, #4
- The Power of Now Eckhart Tolle, #5
- Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer, #6
See the full Best Books of 1997, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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