The Summons

Rating:
Summary: His Worst Book!
Review: This is John Grisham's first truly awful book. I hope this is not a sign of what his future books will be like. No plot, bad ending and too long=bad book! Don't read this book unless you live off of Grisham's works, which I doubt anyone does. Maybe the King of Torts will be better.

Rating:
Summary: Another Success by Grisham
Review: Another fine job by Grisham. He very rarely disappoints. While not quite as tension filled as some of his other novels, it is very readable.

Rating:
Summary: Boring...
Review: Kept reading to get to the exciting part and then it was over...flat story.

Rating:
Summary: What happened to the Grisham I used to read?
Review: Judge Reuben Atlee was once a commanding and powerful figure in the legal community of a small Mississippi town. Now he's terminally ill, living a solitary life, having chased away all those who might have cared for him. Ray Atlee receives a formal summons to appear at his father's home to discuss his estate along with his younger brother, Forrest, but when he arrives he finds a shock, "known only to Ray. And perhaps to someone else," as the back of the book says.

Grisham is a good writer, evidenced by the easy, interesting, and believable way he writes his characters. So I don't know why he has spent so many years devoting himself to these rambling, boring books. The plot could have been interesting but it just droned on for me and I spent most of this book waiting for something good to happen. Characterization was good as I mentioned, but at moments the main character seemed to have some inconsistencies for the sake of suspense. My decision long ago (after reading "The Chamber") to stop buying his books new and only read them if I found them used was confirmed again by "The Summons."

Rating:
Summary: Two One Dimensional
Review: The book did not really hold my attention. What took a whole book to do could have been done in a quarter of the space! A short story would have been best for this book. It drags on in a one dimensional path. I forced myself to finish this book.
What a shame. Grisham's other books were much better.

Rating:
Summary: Not actually a novel
Review: I'd have to agree with a previous reviewer - this would have been a better short story. As is, it's pretty much a one act play, with a few scenes of filler thrown in to round it out.

Halfway through the book I realized it wasn't going to be getting any better, but I toughed it out until the end. Not much excitement, and pretty one-dimensional plot. Do yourself a favor and just read "The Firm" again....

Rating:
Summary: well... unlike many others, i liked it
Review: it seems like Grisham's fans didnt enjoy The Summons. it was my first Grisham book, and i kinda enjoyed it. i guess you would like this book if you dont have any Grisham experience...

Rating:
Summary: Not as Bad as The Testament, But . . .
Review: The Summons is definitely a disappointment. Characterization and writing were fine, but I read Grisham for plot, and the plot of this one was way too thin. It might have made a decent short story, but of course there's no money in that.

Save your money and re-read The Rainmaker or The Firm.

Rating:
Summary: Hardly a plot and too much like King Of Torts
Review: Luckily it only took me a short time to read this novel. I've read a lot of Grisham's novels and many of them I have liked, this was not one of them. I felt there was not much of a plot except for someone finding a little over 3 million dollars and trying to figure out what to do with it.
Also, I read his latest novel, The King of Torts, right before I read The Summons, and I got very agitated when there were a lot of similarities between the two. First of all there is a character who is introduced in The Summons and will play a larger part in The King Of Torts. But when he wastes pages and pages discussing mass torts that was discussed in entirety in his latest book, it got very boring since it was nothing new he was providing. This 340 page novel could have been cut down to a 50 page short story. It seems Grisham is losing the greatness found in his earlier works. One piece of advice, between King of Torts and The Summons, choose one and skip the other, if you are determined to read either of them. I recommend don't even bother reading either of them.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting ... longing for more
Review: I think the book had an interesting premise and very interesting characters but spent too much time on the details of hiding the money. I would have liked to see more on the relationships between the characters.