Hey Friends,
This novel is by any standards one of the best works by JG. The kind of story that JG has written in this book tells you that this is certainly something written by an author at the pinnacle of his career. But this is certainly not ‘the best’ work of JG. It could very easily have been but then the kind of mistakes that have been committed in this novel are only those that an over enthusiastically imaginative writer can commit and you become an over enthusiastically imaginative only when you are pinnacle of your career. Isn’t it a strange irony?
Let us see than what makes this novel so good at one side and so bad at the other.
The Characters
Patrick Lanigan alias Danilo Silva alias God know what else is the central character of the story.
He was a young partner in a good legal firm in Biloxi, Mississippi (somewhere on the gulf coast, pardon my geography because I am an Indian and I am not much familiar with geographical locations in USA).
He died on February 9th, 1992. (More on this in the next heading).
Eva Miranda. She is the girl friend of Patrick and a beautiful Brazilian Lawyer.
Sandy McDermott, the lawyer of Patrick who will represent Patrick in the court of law.
The story is filled with lawyers, FBI agents, county judges, federal judges, federal attorneys, local attorneys and more FBI agents. Then there is a private investigator named Jack Stephano, his clients - CEOs of big insurance companies and some more investigators.
The Story
On February 9th, 1992 Patrick S. Lanigan died in a car wreck while going on hunting in the woods. His body was badly burnt because the car exploded and was filled with gasoline. The body of Patrick was so badly burnt that only pelvis bone was left in the car.
He was cremated (as per his will) and was given a proper burial. His wife got the $2.5 million of insurance money and quit grieving a month later.
While Patrick died the law firm where he used to work was pleading a case of fraud in the court which was about to be settled. The plaintiff Mr. Bogan was about to receive $ 90 million in reward from Pentagon and the law firm’s cut as usual would be 33% i.e. $ 30 million.
The money was to be received in some off shore account out of the USA for the obvious reasons to avoid the IRS. As the money received in the account the whole of it disappeared. Someone stole $ 90 million and its recipients got furious.
They finally concluded that Patrick stole the money and ran. Now, started the big chase and they finally managed to catch him in Brazil after 4 years to tough search. What the pursuers of Patrick were not aware of was that everything they are doing with Patrick has been planned well in advance by him and right now they are doing nothing but helping Patrick execute his plan!!!!
Why the story sucks?
(This heading is essentially for the people who have read the novel. If you have not read the novel you are suggested to skip this portion otherwise your whole interest in story will be spoiled. Some important sections of story are discussed here. If you still want to proceed do so at your own choice.)
Now, the greatest reason why story sucks is why did Eva ran with the little of money that was left? Even if we accept that she got greedy with the money than there are some possible counter theories for that.
First one being, when she never got greedy with $ 90 million, why should she get greedy with $ 5 may be 6 million or something. She always had the option of moving the money, tipping Patrick’s pursuers and walking away with her father and brother. This is a very big loophole, she could have walked away at any time and with much more that she walked away with at the end.
Second one is that, Patrick is shown to be a man who plans deeply and laboriously. He covers everything and never misses anything, this was the reason why he was successfully able to fake his death and stay under covers for 4 years. Even when he got caught it was his decision to get caught. Still he missed such a basic point that he is on the run and Eva could ditch him, as Patrick says, you don’t trust anyone when you are on the run. Why did he trust Eva completely in the first place? So this creates a serious conflict with what Patrick is shown to be and what he has actually done?
Third one, any court of law does not except the audio tapes as evidence because they are the easiest to be faked. These days even photographs can be faked! Than how did FBI accepted audio tapes of Patrick as evidence? A possible explanation can be that they can be used to investigate further or perhaps to intimidate related people to plea bargain.
Some Final Comments
(Just in case you have read the above heading and not read the novel, don’t worry too much and do read the novel because what is revealed above will do no damage to your story. It is only 0.1% of the story and that too in the assumption that the reader knows what he is reading! You don’t know anything about any tapes and Eva betraying Patrick until you don’t read the story. So, just chill and read the novel, if you don’t you are surely missing something).
Now, there is just one final comment I can add. You can not guess what is coming. At times in chase stories, you get a little hunch, a little idea of what is coming but here you can not guess anything because it is a reverse chase. First the person is captured and afterwards his past reveals itself slowly while present is going on at express pace. This style of writing is extremely enjoyable.
(You can witness this style is the movies Yuva and Calcutta Express (both are Indian movies), where in characters and their past reveal themselves slowly while story goes on in present).
The climax of the story sucked. If only Eva would have not betrayed Patrick and both of them would have been shown on some Caribbean beach drinking Rum Punch and enjoying sun shine and scuba diving it would have made for a good happy nice merry ending that would have satisfied people much more.
Just a final comment I’d like to add, in most of the novels of JG the protagonist of the story resigns from the practice of law and leaves the profession of law to some more peaceful, easy and relaxed profession. This is my personal observation. Why does the protagonist always leaves and gets feds up with profession of law?
Our young hero in The Firm leaves his law firm and walks away, hero in The Chamber get killed at the end after losing a trial, in The Rainmaker the hero walks away to teach history after getting a spectacular victory, in The Partner a lawyer fakes his death and takes big money and runs, in The Runaway Jury a law school dropout manages to cut a deal with tobacco company and runs away, in The King of Torts the hero resigns to a foreign country after a big loss and so the list goes on.
I am not able to understand why the heroes of JG are always running away from being lawyers.
Keep the fact in mind JG himself was a lawyer and quit to become a novelist.
If anyone gets any answer to this question, any sort of theory you might have or any other things you would have observed please answer this little question of mine.
Happy Reading,
Khagesh Gautam
