Rating: 
Summary: Not what I was hoping for.....
Review: I was so excited for another legal thriller - but found that this had nothing to offer....no hooks, no suspense, nothing that I felt kept me reading. I could have easily put it down and not picked it up again. I recently finished "A Painted House" and felt more for Luke than I did for Ray Atlee. Sorry John, seems that since you have started with a new genre, you have forgotten what made your earlier works so great....suspense along with a cat and mouse game thrown in.
Rating: 
Summary: So-so book...
Review: A friend of mine told me about this book. And since I wasn't fully satisfied after reading Skipping Christmas (also by John Grisham) I decided to give this book a try.It's a story about the two sons of a judge in a small town of Clanton, Mississippi. One son is the black sheep of the family (Forrest Atlee). The other is a professor of Law in Virginia (Ray Atlee). They get summoned one last time to Clanton presumably to discuss the will of their dying father (Rubeus Atlee). When Ray arrives home first, he discovers their dead father and a cabinet full of money - $3 million worth. Questions arise in his mind about where the money came from and whether he should tell anybody about it. Forrest, no doubt, would use any money to stoke his addiction for drugs and alcohol. So Ray decides to keep the money for the meantime. That's where his adventure begins. He goes around town trying to ascertain the authenticity of the money (they could be counterfeit). He also tries to hide it from a stalker who seems to know his every move and how to scare the living daylights out of Ray (letters in the mail, break-ins into his apartment). In the end, Ray decides he wants to have nothing to do with the money. So what happens to the money? You'll have to read the book (or e-mail me) to find out. :) The editorial review mentions Harry Rex (a long time family friend to the Atlees) as being the only character that "jumps off the page". I too felt that Harry Rex was given more life to than any other character in the story. At the same time, he's only in the background. He's like the voice of reason for Ray (a la Robin Quivers for Howard Stern). He's not pretentious, righteous or cocky. He's down-to-earth, practical and helpful. It's unfortunate that we don't see him more involved in the plot of the story. With more characters like Harry Rex, this book would've been much better. FLAP rating:
F:0.0 (not a romance book)
L:4.0 (easy to read, genuine dialogue)
A:2.5 (no murders or fight scenes)
P:3.2 (has a twist in the end) (* For more information about what the FLAP rating means, please visit my About You section and look for my review on The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum.)
Rating: 
Summary: Spelling and grammar errors ruined the book
Review: Spelling and grammar erros made the book too painful to enjoy.
I feel cheated because I paid hard earned money for a book that the publisher did not bother to have proofed by a human before publishing.
Rating: 
Summary: I found it interesting
Review: Yes, this was an easy read and entertaining. But, that's what I expect from Grisham. I love his law books and dislike "Skipping Christmas." A distant and uncaring father dies and leaves his sons little. One son is a law professor and the other is an addict. The professor finds $3 million dollars stashed in the father's study. He is chased and threatened and almost jailed. I think the ending is a bit of a surprise and well done.
Rating: 
Summary: Grisham at his best
Review: How is it that Grisham keeps getting better and better? The plot in The Summons is well crafted and the characters are realistic.
In this era of twisted ethics, Grisham sets up a situation that leaves the reader questioning his/her own decisions if walking in Ray Atlees' shoes. The climax is a clincher. How many of you readers were able to predict the ending?
If you buy this book, plan a weekend of reading because you won't be able to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: The last time he'll disappoint me
Review: This is definitely the last straw! Grisham has managed to consistently disappoint me with each novel he's written since the "Pelican Brief." It must be a writer's worse nightmare to fall slave to a contract or publishing advance that forces you to write lifeless uninteresting novels like " The Summons." I would comment on the plot and characters in the novel but they're both so flat that they're not worthy of mention. Half way through the novel I simply gave up, acknowledging that I am turning Grisham in for better material. His last ten novels have succeeded in diminishing the value and credibility of his first three. He seems much more capable of producing mediocre, uninspired, sophomoric reading material than producing anything of serious novelistic value. You should not waste your time or money with this. He's not getting any better so don't waste your shelf space. I'm selling everything I own by him.
Rating:
Summary: Has Grisham run out of ideas?
Review: I have read all of Grisham's "legal" novels. They seem to be following a progressive trend downhill. While this is not a "bad" book, it is not what one would expect from an accomplished novelist. The plot is very simple and mostly predictable. The moral dilemma of what to do with $3,000,000 is marred by the childish antics of the main character. Grisham's continual trashing of the legal profession is also getting old. I'm a doctor and have no love lost for most attorneys, but his characterizations of lazy academics and money grubbing crooks are somewhat overdone (I hope).
Rating:
Summary: Failed Goodness
Review: The Summons had all the elements of a great page turner. But somehow, somewhere, something went wrong. This time around, Grisham sacrifices content and plot in order to make his yearly contribution to the best seller list. A forty-something man is summoned back to his family home by his dying father. When he gets there, he finds his father dead. As he is waiting for his drug-addicted brother to arrive, he finds over three million dollars hidden inside a dozen boxes. What should he do with the money? Keep it for himself? Do nothing? Tell his brother, who is a drug addict and who will spend the money on drugs and booze? He hides the money while he can take care of his father's estate and decides what to do with it. But of course, somebody else knows about it and wants it. Now, he must find out who that person is before something bad happens. The novel has the potential to be a good page-turner, like Grisham's The Firm or The Partner. But all the characters are so forgettable (the main character, a law professer who makes 150 000 dollars a year keeps reminding us how he doesn't need this money) that the book becomes tedious after a while. And, somehow, Grisham's very distinctive style seems to be missing in this outing. The sentences are always short and the vocabulary is too simple for Grisham. The prose doesn't really have any style. This felt more like a movie outline than a real novel. I had trouble keeping interest while reading The Summons, something that has never happened with Grisham before. Hopefully, this is will be a one-time thing and his next one will be as good as his earlier novels. If not, Grisham will lose one huge fan.
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: I was eagerly awaiting Grisham's return to the world of the law and had read a few promising early reviews of the book. What I read was a predictable whodunit that was obvious from early on. As another reviewer observed, the ending is a lead-in to a future sequel. I have never known Grisham to be this lazy in the past (other than a reliance on a formula of small time young Southern lawyer in over his head with the big boys, which we forgave because his writing was strong and his characters memorable). His writing is still strong in moving a story along, however, the characters are stock types and not that interesting. A weak effort.
Rating:
Summary: Was Grisham on the clock on this one?
Review: After reading "The Brethren", I thought that Grishma realized he owed the book in a couple of days and just came up with the best ending he could. After reading this, I had the feeling that the publishers showed up at his house unannounced and said, "Just give us what you've got." Other than the ending, it wasn't too bad. I personally felt all the books have been downhill since "The Partner", and I hate books and movies that so blatantly set themselves up for sequels. The story had an intersting premise, and has a few good twists and turns. Having Harry Rex Vonner from "A Time to Kill" return was a pleasant surprise. Not one of Grisham's better books, but a quick read (I finished it in about 2 hours), and worth a glance.
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