The Summons: Amazon.ca: John Grisham: Books

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Customer Reviews

682 Reviews

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(128)
3 star:		(147)
2 star:		(156)
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Average Customer Review

2.6 out of 5 stars (682 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars A Law School Hypothetical Problem Turned into a Slow-Moving Novel, Nov 29 2007

By

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)

This review is from: The Summons (Mass Market Paperback)

One of the problems of being a lawyer is that you can start to think like one all too much of the time. For those who are most fascinated by the law, the favorite intellectual game is to pose ever more complex scenarios to test what is the right solution. John Grisham clearly thought he was writing a law school hypothetical problem when he penned this novel . . . which will leave those who aren't lawyers puzzled, troubled, and disgruntled.

From a legal and personal perspective, this book raises some nice ethical questions:

1. What is the obligation to protect the reputation and memory of a deceased person?

2. How should an addict be protected from hurting himself?

3. How far should potentially illegal activities be pursued by an attorney who is an executor of an estate?

4. How should protecting property be weighed against protecting life?

5. Can you overcome the temptation to run off with something that no one knows you have found?

Attorney and law professor Ray Atlee is faced with all of those issues and more when he returns home to find his father dead and the living room filled with stationery boxes bursting with cash. First, he wants to know if the cash is counterfeit or part of some illegal activity. Second, he is concerned that his brother not go on a long cocaine-sniffing holiday from which he might not survive. Third, he's afraid someone will walk off with the money. Fourth, he begins to think how nice it would be to avoid paying taxes on the money. Fifth, he dreams about having it all to himself.

But life isn't that simple. Someone else seems to know about the money, and they are getting aggressive about retrieving it. What will Ray do?

There's supposed to be a mystery here, but parts of it are pretty transparent. What isn't transparent eventually turns out to be far-fetched.

Except for tickling my memories of property class hypotheticals, I didn't find much to recommend this book. If you do decide to read it, I suggest that you listen instead to the Recorded Books reading by Michael Beck who makes a lot of the silliness sound more interesting.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Not for most Grisham fans., Jun 22 2011

By

J Roche (CANADA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Summons (Mass Market Paperback)

The Summons differs from the bulk of Grisham's body of work in that it relies heavily on suspense and contains very little action. I enjoyed reading this book the lead character was compelling and the story held my interest throughout.

This is a psychological drama where the bulk of suspense occurs in the imagination of the lead character. I can understand why a Grisham fan would not enjoy this book. It doesn't fit his typical mold.

However if you enjoy a good suspense that gets you thinking you may find enjoyment in this book. I did.

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1.0 out of 5 stars What's happened to Grisham?, April 29 2004

By

Wayne Price (Dallas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Summons (Hardcover)

I've loved this author's earlier books, but is he turning out to be like so many who turn out a good novel or two, then, in order to keep the$ coming in, churns out new ones even when they're not worth reading? In earlier novels I have always admired a certain, admittedly far-fetched, logic to the unravelling of the story. Don't look for that in this one. We begin to understand why the protagonist's wife decided to leave him abruptly sometime in the past. His actions are so unreasonable as to stretch credulence. As others have said, it IS a page-turner, and the faster the pages turn, the better. The rather predictable "surprise" ending just dribbles away to a conclusion, with nothing there. In short, check this book out of the library if you've got to have something to read for a summer trip, but don't expect much.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Two Different Worlds
Ray Atlee is a UVA law professor in Charlottesville, VA and receives the news that his father, Judge Reuben Atlee, has died. Read more

Published on Nov 23 2008 by Douglas P. Murphy

4.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed this book very much
I could not put it down until it was done. I cannot think of a better way to spend a rainy afternoon. Can't wait to get my hands on the author's next works.

Published on Sep 24 2005