Saturday, March 16, 2024

The Summons by John Grisham (Review)

Genre: Legal Fiction
Publisher: Dell 
Released: Feb. 5, 2002
373 pages
About the Book:

Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He's forty-three, newly single, and still enduring the aftershocks of a surprise divorce. He has a younger brother, Forrest, who redefines the notion of a family's black sheep.
And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years. No longer on the bench, the Judge has withdrawn to the Atlee mansion and become a recluse.
With the end in sight, Judge Atlee issues a summons for both sons to return home to Clanton, to discuss the details of his estate. It is typed by the Judge himself, on his handsome old stationery, and gives the date and time for Ray and Forrest to appear in his study.
Ray reluctantly heads south, to his hometown, to the place where he grew up, which he prefers now to avoid. But the family meeting does not take place. The Judge dies too soon, and in doing so leaves behind a shocking secret known only to Ray. And perhaps someone else.


My Rating & Thoughts:    

Story starts a bit slow, but once I got to know the character of Ray and he finds the money that's not referenced in the will, I was intrigued. Where did the money come from, and who knows about it? Ray appears to want to do the right thing and doesn't know who to trust. His brother has been on a path of destruction for years, and the family lawyer can only provide so much insight. Ray's quest to find the source of the money leads him on a few paths with few answers. As the days pass, he gets very little rest, and the situation becomes more and more dangerous. How will Ray react, and can he figure out who is behind the events happening? It wasn't until the end that I started suspecting the person who turned out to be responsible. I enjoyed this read, and the twists kept me invested. FYI, there is a bit of language in this book, but nothing that made me uncomfortable.

(I purchased my copy of this book; opinions expressed 
in this review are my honest opinion and completely my own.)

Other books from this author that I have reviewed:  

   

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