3.5

Chłop przez dwieście i kilka stron wozi pieniądze z miejsca na miejsce

An older book. Not as good as some of his other books. It’s about 2 brothers and their father who is a judge. This is what happens when lots of money is involved.

Het boek had geen enkele spanning tot op 2/3, de reactie van Ray op alles was vrij ongeloofwaardig en de ontknoping lag enorm voor de hand.

Got monotonous. Did not like ending.

There have been many of John Grisham books I loved, and some that just bored me. This one was a winner. I love the stories that include familiar characters. In this case we have Harry Rex that has been in the Jake Briggance books. I like him. He's funny.

In this story we have a judge who dies and his estate is in question. Our main character Ray finds a fortune in the house, and then has to forfeit it. I really enjoyed it a great deal. I would definitely recommend this book to those that enjoy the Fort County stories.

Not a very compelling read. Good while in the small Southern town, but boring just about everywhere else. A disappointment.

I had a very hard time getting interested in this one, and that's usually not the case for a Grisham novel. I was bored to tears until Ray (finally) went home to see his father, and discovered the Judge's body. The story did improve from that point on, but still, it wasn't as enthralling as what I've come to expect from Grisham. I was able to figure out 'whodunnit' very easily, and thought the ending was quite lackluster. It's not the worst book I've ever read, but it's the worst I've read from Grisham.

Southern lawyer finds money. Uh oh.

This is a very different novel than the others I have read by John Grisham. It seems as if the contrasts here couldn't be clearer. And yet, despite writing a different style of novel, Grisham is still able to effectively tell an entertaining and interesting story.

While the other books were longer (600+ pages), this one is short (370 pages). Where the others deal with deep, dark, and important themes like racism, the death penalty, and reparations, this book deals with light topics like found money and improper relationships. I think that the lack of heavy topics is what hurts this book, because you just can't help but compare it to his larger, more deep books.

At the heart of this book is a mystery. Ray Atlee visits his father's home to find him dead and to find an enormous amount of money hidden away. The book becomes the search for answers to the following questions.

1. How did Judge Atlee have that kind of money?
2. Who knows about it?
3. What should Ray do about it?
4. Who is following Ray and Why?

Because of the mystery, this book still has enjoyment. Its the closest Grisham gets to an Agatha Christie mystery. Unfortunately, the mystery isn't quite as perfectly handled as the Queen of Mystery would have, and it shows how Grisham should stick with his legal dramas.

As with a lot of Grisham's books, I found the ending believable but unsatisfying. I think Grisham prefers endings that will keep audiences talking than endings where everything is wrapped up nicely.

The only recognizable character (except for the dead Judge) was Harry Rex Vonner, and he wasn't quite as roguish in this book, and he had an interesting dynamic with Ray. I enjoyed their banter quite a bit.

Overall, this is a fun book. I was interested in the mystery and wanted to find out the answers to all the questions. The problem is the book lacks the gravitas that other Grisham books have and also doesn't have a near enough satisfying ending. Overall, the book gets a 7.0 out of 10 for me.

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. I DON'T HIDE MY REVIEWS, NOR DO I PROMOTE THEM VIA FEEDS.

I understand why not all John Grisham books get made into movies. If the protagonist is not wholly likable, it's sort of a downer.

That is the case with the main character in this book -- Ray Atlee, the older of two brothers who have grown up and grown apart from each other, as well as from their long widowed, now elderly dad. Both sons have made homes far from the small Mississippi town where their father, a widowed and retired judge, has always lived.

Ray and brother Forrest have a history of conflicts. Forrest has an addiction problem and an unsteady work history. In his own way, Ray is just as self-indulgent though he's a successful law professor.

Summoned by their ailing dad to visit, Ray arrives first to the hometown, to find the man dead in his own house, apparently of old age.

Ray and Forrest seem to be cooperating in the death-related tasks -- to close the father's estate, sell the old family home, etc. But beneath the surface, each brother has a secret, and is being judgmental about the other. Matters are further complicated by Ray's discovery that their supposedly upright dad did (at least) one hugely unethical deed during his career on the bench.

I appreciate the symmetry of the plot -- in which each brother, sort of, gets even with the other. But I felt as though I would not want to be friends with either of them. As a result, the book sort of left me cold.

I finished reading this book last week and I believe it's the first book I read by this author. I had feared it would be rather dry and boring, about lawyer stuff but it was actually about the characters and a good story. It presented us with a unique situation and then asks what would a person do in that case.

Ray was summoned home by his father, the Judge (he was a retired Judge) only to find him dead. The main problem starts right after that, when he discovered a huge amount of money in his father's study. He then has to figure out where did it come from, is it real, what to do with it, etc. To complicate matters more, Ray's brother Forrest is an alcoholic and drug user.

The book asks a lot of questions about trust, various morals and what is the right thing to do. I had fun trying to guess where the cash had come from but I did not guess it. There was also someone after Ray, someone who clearly knew about the cash and I did not guess who that person was either. In retrospect I should have but I didn't.