The Summons - John Grisham

...reading John Grisham's books like the plague as my daughter in law and my son kept insisting that I should read them. Knowing my son's taste in reading material from his late teens centred around gory, badly written war stories which seemed to involve a lot of blood and gore and visits to brothels I assumed that Grisham's books would be of the same ilk. I was very much mistaken. I have now just finished reading my fourth Grisham novel, The Summons, ...
...have bothered with the other three. The story ,like the other novels I have read, features aspects of the American legal system and cleverly weaves a fairly intricate plot around them. However the plot failed to grip in quite the same way as those in the other books I had read with fewer twists and turns and an almost wholly predictable ending. THE MAIN CHARACTERS Ray Atlee - He works as a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He is ...

baeswoman 18.02.2008 · Read full review
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Review of The Summons - John Grisham

...more or less mop up the ones that I haven’t read. That’s certainly why I read The Summons, which was published in 2002 and is Grisham’s twelfth novel. One benefit of reading one off books by the same author back to back (at least for the purposes of reviews) is that it does allow you to directly compare quality. Unfortunately in this case it wasn’t such an advantage in my quest to enjoy the book that I’m reading, but I’ll get to all of that in good ...
...very straightforward. The protagonist is Ray Atlee, a college law professor in his early forties. Ray’s father is a well known yet aging and very ill Judge who has managed to push his sons away from him through his harsh and unforgiving attitude to life, and his brother is Forrest is a life long drug and alcohol addict on a road to self destruction. For obvious reasons Ray keeps a level of distance between himself and the rest of his immediate family, ...

CrazyJamie 02.08.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Summons - John Grisham

...that they generally involve lawyers, the law or courtrooms, and I have read some reviews which criticise this emphasis, and say there should be more emphasis on the characters and their lives away from their work. Well I can say, 'The Summons' will please both camps, as it is about a lawyer and his family. Again, the story is based in the south, where the family in question originate from a place called Clanton in Mississippi, which is where is excellent ...
...nearly 400 pages long in the paperback version, it is a standard Grisham novel size wise, but has been criticised by fans and the media alike, and many claim it is his worst novel to date. Published in 2002, it is one of the more recent releases, and the main character is a divorced law professor called Ray Atlee. All of his life, Ray has been overshadowed and intimidated by his father, the affluent Reuben V Atlee, who was a well respected and feared ...

nicanddarrell 07.09.2003 · Read full review
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Review of The Summons - John Grisham

...to say it was not the best example of his work that I have come across. The Storyline Within the first few pages of the novel the story holds true to it's title, and the summons arrives on the desk of professor Ray Atlee, son of Judge Atlee who is near his end and wishes to summon his sons to discuss his will and estate. Judge Atlee is well-known in Clanton, Mississippi for his ability to make all his courtroom decisions fair, and also for writing ...
...never returned to set up the law practice as his father had wished. Ray's brother, Forrest, was the bad egg in the family and had been in and out of detox centres since he was young. When Ray arrives at his run-down family home he finds the Judge peacefully lying dead in his study, and this is where he finds three million dollars in a cash. The discover is so out of the ordinary that he hides the money and vows to find out where it originated from. ...

frizzball 02.05.2003 · Read full review
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Review of The Summons - John Grisham

...once again become exposed to the vagaries of the London transport system, I decided it was time to purchase some new reading material. For any of those used to the world renowned fish in can experience that is the London Underground, I won’t need to mention that high-brow reading that requires all your concentration is far from ideal. No, for the cramped, sweaty, bustling underground light untaxing reading is definitely the order of the day. ...
...the latest John Grisham paperback for a measly £3.84 in my local Tesco’s. Whilst I don’t profess to being a huge Grisham fan, a brief glance at the list of his previous publications revealed that I’ve read all but one, so clearly there’s something I appreciate about his work. His flowing lucid prose usually contains within it a legal tale of intriguing content, with enough complexity and nuance to keep me entertained and occasionally ...

Mercury 20.03.2003 · Read full review
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Review of The Summons - John Grisham