Rating: 
Summary: He's been slipping for a while
Review: Somewhere around 'The Runaway Jury', one began to get the feeling that Grisham was losing his touch. His plots were increasingly contrived, the characters increasingly implausible and the denouements increasingly 'lame'.After sighing my way through 'The Testament', and more recently, 'The Brethren', I hoped that he had regained his footing with this one. Alas, not. The actions of his protagonist are implausible to the point of becoming cartoonish, and the final confrontation between the brothers reads like someone whose engine has died chugging out the final gasp of gasoline. Sorry, John, we're definitely underwhelmed with this one.
Rating: 
Summary: One of My Favorite Grisham Books
Review: This book kept me turning pages until the end. I had no more idea where the money came from than the hero did. The wonderful setting for the story (Clanton, Mississippi) was like another character. Give me more books like this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Another waste - could have been good, but flops again.
Review: John Grishman are so easy to read, I decided to read this one on the train. His books flow, are easy to follow, build up and then just drop flat. Not since his first 3 books has he finished one where you can put the book down and say "wow", that was great....I keep reading and probably will continue to, however, I am more and more disappointed. This book just ends.
Rating: 
Summary: moralistic mixed bag
Review: The Summons is a mixed bag of moralistic dilemma, abortive romance, and a cop-out twist at the ending. The central character is Ray, a law professor who lost his wife and whose ethical and moral choices are tested in gridiron when, after being summoned by his father, he found him dead with three million dollars cash. The philosophical quandary would have been resolved right away by the timeless rationale -- finders keepers.What Ray did afterwards revealed more of his true moral fiber. The same thoughts that consumed the readers consumed him: How can a judge subsisting on his salary (most of which was spent on charities) accumulate millions? If the money is tainted, should he return it? If the money is legal, should he share it with his prodigal brother? Should he share it with the estate? And just when everything was fleshed out, cut and dried, Grisham came up with a surprise twist at the ending. After a dismal whitewash job in the Painted House, I thought that Grisham should stick to his lawyerly knitting. I'm glad he did.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to his norm
Review: Were this written by any other, I probably would have given it a better rating. As it was, I guess I expected more. The story line never really seemed to develop to his usual page-tuner flare nor did the characters. Not a bad read at all, just was not the exceptional work I've come to expect from Mr. Grisham.
Rating:
Summary: My least favorite Grisham novel
Review: I have to wonder if John Grisham has still got it. After being disappointed by The Testament, I gave him another shot with The Summons. Unfortunately, I was once again disappointed. This is a frustrating novel. I enjoyed the characters--they felt like real people with real problems. I thought the story idea was interesting, although not well executed. The pace was slow and I had to force myself to pick up the book on several occasions. However, once Grisham begins the novel's climax, it was difficult to put down. Overall, the characters and the main story saved this novel from a one-star rating from me.
Rating:
Summary: Worst Grisham by far
Review: I've ready them all, as I'm sure you have, and this is by FAR the worst. I kept waiting for something to happen - this was like "A Painted House" with a few lawyers thrown in. Uninteresting characters, no excitment, no driving plot. And it looks like it will continue with "The King of Torts," since a character in this story has a boat by that name. Yawn....
Rating: 
Summary: Should be called The Nummons. Give it zero stars.
Review: So. John Grisham is taking flying lessons and buying a Beechcraft plane. Gambling, too. Oh, and taking a vacation to Flathead Lake in Montana. And he needed to write this book to take the tax write-offs. Just as he did in The Partner and other recent books. How else do you explain having to slog through 300 pages to get to the first hint of excitement, all those trips to a casino to learn what anybody who watches the Discovery Channel's "Casino Diaries" about catching counterfeiters and cheaters already knows? 300 pages of setup that in the end only barely contribute to the plot? Come on. This is a "Twilight Zone"-like short story padded out to novel length. If a mindless computer could write a book, The Nummons would be it. It's not so much that The Nummons is so boring. It's that the writer is soooooo bored. He writes a "hero" so intrepid that at the end, once you've already figured out the "villain," a brick comes through the window, and intrepid hero flees like Scooby Doo. Hero has dirty thoughts about a woman grad student but pulls his punches all the way through. It's like Grisham can't get it (his enthusiasm) up to write a book. He pads on top of padding, gets to his required word count, dreams up an improbable ending and walks out of the story with the words, "So long, Bro." If only readers would stop buying his tripe and rewarding this lazy writing, we might be able to bid JG: "Good riddance, Bro." His regular readers betray how pathetic this book is, with their faint praise about not being sooo bad. I wonder what excuse Grisham makes to himself. There is only one mystery to The Nummons. How on earth could all those excerpts appear on the cover praising this stinker? Did the critics fall asleep before page 300, too?
Rating:
Summary: Not one of Grisham's best efforts.
Review: The Summons is fast-paced legal thriller with all the elements Grisham is known for: a well developed plot, interesting/colorful characters, and a need to "find the truth". While I really enjoyed this novel, it was clearly not one of Grisham's best efforts. The story tailed-off considerably in the final few chapters. Definitely a good story for a book club as it will generate much discussion, especially regarding alternative endings.
Rating:
Summary: A little slow.......
Review: I picked up this book for a cross country flight expecting another masterpiece, alas I did not find that. I thought that the story itself had some potential, but I thought it was very slow to develop. Ray is a great character who has some moral issues to deal with when it comes to the Judge's money, and the issues surrounding his brother Forest. I just thought that the plot poked along slower than his other offerings.
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