Book info

• Title The Summons
• Author John Grisham
• Year 2002
• Genre Thriller

Ray Atlee teaches law at the University of Virginia. His ailing father, Judge Atlee, was once a loved - and feared - titan, towering over local law and politics in the ancestral Atlee home of Clanton, Mississippi. And now, entering his last days, he calls Ray home to discuss the family estate. Newly single and far from happy, Ray reluctantly heads south to meet his father. He never does. The Judge dies too soon, but leaves behind a shocking secret which Ray believes only he knows; a secret that could destroy Clanton's very foundations. And it soon becomes clear that Ray is wrong. He's not the only one who knows.

Thoughts

Ray is a Professor of law and likes to fly. He goes home to see his dad who is dying but finds him already gone, along with a simple will that omits the boxes containing three million dollars in the cupboard. Where did it come from? What should he do with it?

Ray seems normal enough, his brother Forrest is a drug addict. Both are described very well. It’s really interesting to follow how Ray changes when he decides what to do with the money. Cash changes people.

This wasn’t as much about law as in a usual Grisham book, and it was a very slow-starting story. Everything gripping seemed to be left until the last minute. I thought the ending was good, that was where everything happened but also there was an unexpected turn of events that genuinely surprised me and I hadn’t guessed would happen. The rest just rolls along, keeping you interested but not giving much away.

Rating: 3 / 5