This is the second time I'm reading this book 'The Partner' by John Grisham. It was more than a year ago when the first time I read this book.
When I read this book for the first time, I felt sympathy with Patrick Lanigan when he couldn't find his girlfriend, Eva in Aix. Since she's the only person in the world who knows where Patrick's money is, the biggest possibility of Eva's disappearance is she runs away with his money. Eva learns a lot from Patrick on how to hide or disappear, how to change identities, how to move money instantly, and how to spend the money without drawing attention. At this point, Eva should be smart enough on how to hide or gets disappeared from Patrick. Another thing which amazes me is the Patrick's intelligence on working together with his lawyer to drop all the charges against him and walks out as a free man.
When I read this book for the second time, I have a different view. I'm no longer feeling amazed with Patrick's intelligence anymore. In fact, I disagree that he can escape from all the punishments just because he has a strong evidence related to a fraud case which involves of his law firm's partners and also a Senator. I felt both are two different cases and that should not be a reason for him to escape from his crime. However, as for the sad ending (depends on the reader), I would rather choose to have my own version's optimistic ending. Although it seems obvious that Eva has ran away with the money but the story doesn't indicates that she really has ran away with the money. The author remains a room for readers to have their own creativities for the ending of the story. My own version for the ending of the story will be probably Eva met any mishaps or being killed during her journey to Axi or someone outside still looking for her as she is one of the richest person in the world at that moment.
I couldn't find any interesting quotes from this book except towards the end - when Patrick asks Sandy whether he will walk away and vanish if he got the chance. Sandy's response is no since he has a loving wife and kids whereas Patrick is in a different situation. Patrick comes out with the following interesting words:
"Everybody wants to run, Karl. At some point in life, everybody thinks about walking away. Life's always better on the beach or in the mountains. Problems can be left behind. It's inbred in us. We're the products of immigrants who left miserable conditions and came here in search of a better life. And they kept moving west, packing up and leaving, always looking for the pot of gold. Now, there's no place to go."
Rating: ★★★
More reviews on Goodreads: The Partner.