Ray, a corporate law professor and recent divorcee receives a letter summoning him and his younger brother, Forrest, home to discuss his dying father’s estate, but the judge succumbs to cancer (or, rather, intentionally overdoses on morphine) by the time the brothers arrive. Quickly, Ray uncovers a trove of cash, which he promptly hides from Forrest. What follows is a mystery to identify the source of the secret stash.

Fans of Grisham’s other novels will recognize the patriarch and his son’s lawyer, Harry Rex, from supporting roles in the Jake Brigance series and Patton French from The King of Torts. Though, there is no need to have read those books to enjoy this one.

Grisham is an expert at delivering entertaining anecdotes that illuminate the physical and emotional state of the characters as well as the physical and moral setting of the story. For example, in early chapters, we see Ray angrily land at an airport in a shabby plane beside his now-fashionable ex-wife and her rich, replacement husband’s sleek jet, plus a flashback about an infamous but respected decision by the judge in his early years to protect the free speech rights of both the first pornographic film to be played in their small southern town’s theatre and the protesters who objected to it. These asides frame Ray as a jealous man largely motivated by a desire for expensive things and the senior Atlee as a just man largely motivated by a desire to do the right thing. These inserts also orient the reader in Clanton, Mississippi and focus the reader on the story of ethical conundrums that is about to unfold.

Some might have difficulty enjoying this book, as Ray’s moral superiority is intentionally annoying to the reader. He’s constantly referring to Forrest and the people who are after the money as the bad guys, even though he’s the one who is dating a student and lying to everyone about the size of the estate including Forrest (who has a rightful claim to half of it) and his own lawyer (who obviously needs to know the truth to do his job properly). In my opinion, reading from this unsympathetic narrator’s viewpoint is bearable and worth the irritation, however, as Ray ultimately gets his comeuppance.

Boring. Predictable. Stupid. Read it only if you really hate yourself.

What would you do if you got more than three million dollars in cash?
It sounds like a dream come true, right? But what exactly to do with such an amount?

The book plays with this concept and the end result is not half bad. Rather interesting.

What would you do if you went to your father's house, found him dead and then discovered 3 million dollars in cash stashed away and knew it wasn't covered in the will? Keep it, tell your drug-addled brother and split it or call the authorities.
That was the dilemma that confronted Ray. Not as easy as 1-2-3 especially when someone else knows about the money and will kill to get it.
A very good legal thriller from the guy who does it best.
Recommended.

Desde luego no es lo mejor que le he leído a Grisham (uno de mis autores preferidos). Lento, algo predecible... donde los giros de la trama son más rodeos que verdaderos giros... Las tramas híper hilvanadas e inteligentemente desentramadas de obras como la tapadera, aquí son confusas y no quedan resueltas con claridad. Un final casi precipitado, que no recrea bien las partes más interesantes al lector... Definitivamente es el peor Grisham que he leído.

Big Man in small county, Judge Atlee is on his death bed, so he sends out a Summons for his two sons, one is an alcoholic and drug addict; the other who actually turns up is law professor Ray Atlee, who return to his childhood home to be at his father's bedside. His father's legacy is unexpected and turns out to be very dangerous. Another interesting Grisham thriller suspense read that took me along many oaths I did not expect! 7 out of 12, Three Star read.

2024 read

5 Stars

Grisham has thrilled in the past, but those days are over, it appears. While I appreciated the theme of two brothers conflict over a large inheritance, and the drug addiction part was interesting, I thought I would go mad if Ray Atlee went to one more casino or hotel or restaurant or old friend or law office or rich lawyer's yacht or storage unit or private detective.... ad nauseum... Grisham is not his old self. I recommend The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Runaway Jury, possibly The Rainmaker, and that's about it.

DNF @ 53%. I didn't hate the writing, I hated the story.

Listened on audio CD while driving.

SPOILER alert....

I love me some Grisham, but this one... eh... it was good, enjoyable quick read, and a pretty basic, fast-paced story, but it was anti-climactic and predictable. Left the reader feeling a bit empty too. I enjoy Grishams legal knowledge and he paints a setting like it's nobody's business and I definitely enjoyed watching Ray run around with the money trying to figure out what to do with it, but my question was - why not just get a safe deposit box? The character even questions the same, but never explains why not. The paperwork? So what? You don't have to spell out the contents. Made no sense. The other annoying thing - the pilot Fog Newton. Really.. FOG Newton? Did the fig newton people pay Grisham for a vague product placement? The WORST fictional name... EVER! It was a page-turner though, well-written, kept my attention and I do enjoy his books.

I had just finished Moby Dick and thought that I would look around the house for something interesting to read. In one of my drawers, I found a bunch of Grisham books that I had bought at a garage sale months ago and never read. Unfortunately, I picked this one first. Compared to some of my favorite books, the writing style in "The Summons" is lackluster and simplistic. I found a few grammatical errors in the early pages, but nothing too extreme. The small-town atmosphere present in some parts of the novel was interesting, and perhaps well done, but this is pretty much all of the praise that I'd give the book. Now, onto the worst element of the book: the plot.

Spoilers: The only three characters that matter in this book are Ray Atlee, a professor of law at a prestigious university and a sad man whose wife left him for a millionaire; Forrest Atlee, an addict to every drug you can think of who has bounced from rehab center to rehab center for more than twenty years; and their father, who is mostly referred to as "the judge" since he served as a judge in the small town of Clanton for over 30 years. At the beginning of the novel, both Ray and Forrest get a summon note bearing the signature of their father with the purpose of discussing his will. Ray doesn't really want to go but he knows that he should since his father is suffering from cancer and diabetes, and doesn't have much time left. When he gets to his father's house, he lets himself in since his father never locked his door. Therein, he finds that his father has died of what he presumes to be a morphine overdose. Near his father, he finds a will that names him the executor of his father's estate and proclaims that both Forrest and Ray should share the bounty of the estate 50/50. Ray starts looking around the house and finds 27 boxes full of cash, with a total of a little bit more than 3.1 million dollars. Ray reasons that the money, if real, must either have been won by his father through gambling or through illicit deals as a Judge since his father could not possibly have made that much money in his lifetime any other way. A while later, Forrest arrives and, due to greed and possible concern that his brother would kill himself with the money by purchasing too many drugs, Ray decides to withhold the existence of the 3.1 million dollars from Forrest. Ray decides to stay at his father's house for the night in order to safeguard the money, while Forrest goes out to drink after many months of sobriety, much to Ray's chagrin. That night, Ray hears an intruder trying to open the door from the outside, which Ray had locked earlier, and ends up throwing a glass pitcher at the door which scares the intruder away. Long story short: this is the start of Ray's frantic efforts to keep the money for himself and to escape his pursuers. Though, Ray doesn't do a very good job at it as he originally didn't even want to carry a gun, and did not think of the possibility that his car was tapped with a tracking device. It is later revealed that the money was given to the Judge by a corrupt millionaire named Patton French as a reward for how the Judge had ruled in a case that had made French very wealthy. The judge was reticent to keep the money but ended up stashing it in his closet. French tells Ray, on his private yacht, that his pursuers are most likely French's former henchman who want to steal the money from Ray. After his meeting with French, Ray travels back to his father's house, with the money stashed in his car, and decides to unload the money in the house and to stay the night there. That night, an attack on Ray begins from his pursuers who throw bricks through the window with notes attached to them telling Ray to leave the money in the house and to leave quickly. Ray decides that enough is enough and leaves the money in the house and escapes to safety. A few days later, French calls Ray and tells him that his former henchman had been eliminated as threats just a while after he left French's yacht. This astounds Ray because it means that French was wrong after all and that it had not been his former henchmen who were after the 3.1 million dollars. Anyways, Ray's life quickly goes back to normal once he no longer has to protect the money. While in Clanton, one of Ray's old friends tells him that he had seen Forrest with the Judge a few days before the Judge died. This gets Ray thinking, and he starts suspecting that Forrest had had contact with their father before Ray found him dead and that Forrest might have known about the money. Therefore, he travels to the rehabilitation center that Forrest had been at for his drug addiction and confronts Forrest. In this exchange, Forrest tells him that he was indeed behind everything and that he had hired two of his friends to harass Ray in order to take the money from him. Forrest had been with the Judge when he died and had helped him administer the morphine that the judge overdosed on since the Judge was in incredible pain. Forrest had known about the money, had written the summons himself, and had forged the Judge's will that split their father's estate 50/50 and that had made Ray the executor of their father's estate. Apparently, Forrest expected Ray to split the 3.1 million with him, and got angry when Ray decided to keep the money for himself. Ray finishes his conversation with Forrest and leaves the rehabilitation center.

Here's why the plot is garbage:

The stupidity of the characters is absolutely astounding. As I mentioned before, Ray is an idiot who did not even initially want to carry a gun and did not consider that his car was being tracked. Vast swathes of this book, which I did not mention in my summary, are about Ray's experiences in various casinos as he tries to ascertain if his father won the money in them and if the money was even real. Another chunk of the book is dedicated to his hobby of flying airplanes. These two gigantic swathes of the book are essentially fluff added to make it longer, they do not add anything to the story, they only make it more boring. Perhaps the DUMBEST character in the entire book, though, is Forrest. If Forrest had stayed at his father's house and waited for Ray to get there, and then showed him their dead father and the 3.1 million dollars, telling him that they would split it evenly, there would have been NO conflict in this book at all. It is never explained why Forrest did not tell Ray about the 3.1 million dollars at the beginning of the book. After all, Forrest himself stated that he thought that Ray would evenly split it; why didn't Forrest approach Ray himself about splitting it instead of expecting Ray to split it? I honestly can't believe how contrived this plot is, this has to be one of the worst pieces of fiction that I've ever read. I wish that I had never read this book.