Rating: 
Summary: Ho Hum
Review: I'm a John Grisham fan from the work "GO", but this is not one of his better writings. If you're an airplane pilot or a gambler, you may get a kick out of the mundane descriptions relative to those hobbies/occupations, but they were rather boring to me. The last quarter of the book picked up and the ending was neat. Not worth the read, though. I liked his other books much better.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow moving, and uninvolving
Review: The novel takes a look at the way money corrupts, and changes people. Ordinary men will cheat, steal, lie and turn violent at the prospect of a large sum of cash.Summoned by his dying father, Ray Atlee returns to his childhood home one last time. When he arrives, he finds Judge Atlee dead on his sofa, and three million dollars in cash in a cabinet behind him. Ray is plagued by a myriad of questions: where did the money come from? Who else knows about it? Would anyone be willing to kill for it? I love legal thrillers, so this was a nice venture back to a long forgotten comfort genre. Grisham's writing is as beautifully descriptive as I remember. Unfortunately, the story moved at a crawling pace, and failed to capture my attention. I couldn't bring myself to become interested in any of the characters, and the ending was a bitter disappointment to say the least.
Rating: 
Summary: Very readable!
Review: I had read only one John Grisham before I read the Summons (The Street Lawyer) and loved it. I was expecting the same level of suspense and drama but it just wasn't as strong a story as The Street Lawyer. However, the characterizations were strong and the suspense kept me turning pages. The ending was so disappointing, though. Lets just say that the main character wasn't in as much danger as the author led us on to believe. Still, it was worth reading. Buy a copy, but buy it used. Save your money for a Carlene Thompson novel!
Rating:
Summary: Great prose, but unfortunately less than thrilling
Review: NB: This is only the second Grisham novel I've read, so take into account the fact that this review is written by someone less than fanatic about Grisham's writing. That aside: this one concerns Ray, a law professor, the son of a respected Judge of a small Southern county. Summoned to the Judge's house, he finds his father dead and three million dollars in cash hidden in boxes behind the couch. Uncertain what to do and unwilling to tell his drug addict brother Forrest, Ray hides the money. Soon, however, he's plagued by greed and doubt, as well as the more physical [dangers] of someone who knows about the money. This is a pretty suspenseful book two-thirds of the way through, and prose-wise, it's light-years ahead of _The Firm_. The descriptions are evocative and rich, the characters fully realized. What's lacking this time around is thrills or action, and the ending is a dull anticlimax. Too bad.
Rating:
Summary: Yawn...
Review: This was a simple little morality that tale that was light on plot and heavy on the southern atmosphere. It is a tale of money, greed, fear, and family. Ray is a likable enough guy. It is an intriguing mystery that ends in a way that is not typical for novels of this genre. It was a decent, if not fully satisfying conclusion. I most interested in the King of Torts character...who more interesting than anyone else. I've stayed away from Grisham for a long time since I wasn't enjoying his work anymore, but this medicore. Not a waste to read at all, just not great. However, being Grisham you do get the pleasure of meeting a character named Harry Rex. Where else but Grisham's Mississippi.
Rating: 
Summary: One Star is too High!
Review: Much like in his novel A Painted House, Grisham is attempting to do more literary style techniques with deeper characters in this novel. Of course, Grisham's long-standing hatred of his previous profession leaks through again along with the usual thinly disguised rants against the excesses as he sees it of the legal system are included. The combination along with an ending that absolutely settles none of the big issues raised in the book combine for a less that satisfactory read. Ray Atlee is the son of a very powerful and distinguished Judge in Clanton, Mississippi. Ray is a professor at a law school in Virginia and has very little dealings with his father. To have any contact, it would be an effort on both parties and neither one seems to be able to do so. Ray's brother, Forrest, is the resident black sheep of the family and constantly in trouble as well as being in and out of drug and alcohol treatment centers. Both brothers have very little contact as well, but the letter from their father changes that. Judge Atlee has summoned the brothers home to discuss the distribution of his estate. The Judge is dying of various ailments including cancer, and knows his end is near. Unfortunately, he miscalculates and is dead when Ray finds him slumped on the couch. Then he finds something else, a secret that no one besides Ray seems to know about. But, Ray soon learns that at least one other person knows about the secret and will stop at nothing for it. I can't reveal what the secret is without blowing this whole mediocre book. Ray becomes obsessed with the secret and this novel is supposed to chronicle how his life changes due to the knowledge and obsession of the secret. While the reader is supposed to emphasize with Ray's mounting desperation, many of his actions seem to be the result of poor planning and ridiculous to the extreme. At the same time, the inner torment and desperation in the character is never adequately carried to the reader and thus the attempt at character development fails. Furthermore, when I read a 456-page novel, I expect the book to end with an actual conclusion. In this case, apparently I was mistaken. While the ends are tidied up nicely and everything is explained for the reader, the issues aren't solved. If anything, it seems like it was set up precisely this way, not to make some literary point, but to serve as the springboard for a sequel. Such a cheap trick by an author, especially of Grisham's supposed caliber, is extremely annoying and serves no other purpose than to annoy his readers. This novel with its various shortcomings is certainly not the novel of A Painted House and nowhere near the action level of his early work such as The Firm. Instead, this seems to be more the effort of a novelist who has made his millions and is coasting on his name rather than trying to make any real literary efforts.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Reading
Review: I have not read many of Grishams books. I did enjoy the Summons. When Ray Atlee finds millions of dollars of cash in his dead Fathers home, he wants to keep it. But an unknown person is after him and wants the cash too. The book was very easy to follow. And I thought the ending was surprising. It is an enjoyable read that keeps you guessing.
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Bad
Review: I've read (and enjoyed) 4 other books by Grisham, and thought this would be a good book to take on vacation. Halfway through I considered just putting it down, but I didn't have anything else to read. The "plot twists" are fairly obvious. The action is repetitive, moving the money again, going to another casino, etc etc etc... By the end I didn't really care what happened, but was just determined to finish. All in all a suprisingly weak effort from a talented writer.
Rating:
Summary: Definitelly not Grisham's best...
Review: Don't get my title wrong - this isn't that bad of a book... People who missed John Grisham's thrillers would definitely get their fix. But somehow, the story isn't very interesting. There are too many trips to Clanton, which all seem alike, and looking back a week after reading the book, are all blurred. I can't tell you how many were there and what distinguishes each one. The same goes to the too many trips to different casinos and to the endless meals with Harry Rex... The story develops in jumps and starts - there could be a long period where nothing happens, then we get quite a lot of developments / discoveries / etc. in a few pages. The ending and its twist are also very unbelievable...
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable holiday reading, but not exceptional
Review: Enjoyable reading, but a predictable ending. The concept of the story was very appealing in the beginning, but towards the second half, a child good guess who was the bad guy... I liked this book, but I've had enough of Grisham for a while now...
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