Rating: 
Summary: An interesting book; worth reading.
Review: Imagine your father, who is dying, is a successful judge in your hometown, which is Clanton, Mississippi. He summons you and your brother to discuss his estate, and you arrive to discover that your father is already dead. In a closet, you find $2 million in cash. You think you are the only one who knows about the money, but you are wrong. Suddenly, you don't know who is your friend and who isn't. You're not sure who it might be, but someone is after the money. This is the plot of The Summons, by John Grisham, and the life of Ray Atlee, a law professor and the narrator of the book. The Summons depicts Ray's quest to find the origin of the money and who is after it.
The Summons is the second John Grisham book I have read, the first being The King of Torts. I found many similarities between the two, but nothing redundant. Like many Grisham novels, The Summons depicts a lawyer who is offered money without any visible consequences. The lawyer hesitates, but goes for the money and later pays for his mistake. To make this observation more general, the lawyer is faced with a moral conflict.
The Summons is very suspenseful and addicting. All of the characters are interesting, each with good and bad traits. The scenes are never dull, and are always intriguing. For instance, Ray has a unique way of relieving his stress - flying airplanes. Before he drives to the airport for the first time in the book, the reader would never guess and is surprised that Ray is a pilot. A good example of a person with mixed traits is Forrest, Ray's brother. Forrest is a drug addict, but he is always trying to quit. He is able to do it for a few months, but then he starts again. Despite this, he is determined to stop. Forrest always acts upbeat, and greets Ray with an affectionate, "Hey, Bro." This shows that even though Forrest has a tough life, he manages to act friendly.
I am glad I read The Summons and The King of Torts so close together because I realized that the books shared some characters and ideas. For instance, the mass tort lawsuits, which are in The King of Torts, are incorporated in The Summons in three ways. First, the Skinny Ben prescription weight loss program lawsuit that is mentioned in The King of Torts provides Forrest with a job in The Summons. Second, Ray meets Patton French, a mass tort lawyer, who plays a leading role in The King of Torts. Third, French's yacht is even named "The King of Torts."
The Summons is possibly the easiest book to relate to that I have ever read. The events that take place in Grisham's books are similar to events that happen in real life. When you read about them, the opportunities offered to the main characters make you question your own values. I feel that this is the best and most unique quality of these books. I would recommend The Summons to anyone who likes to read.
Rating: 
Summary: I don't understand Grisham
Review: For the life of me I don't understand what's so great about John Grisham's stories, I've read The Testament, The Brethren and now The Summons and still haven't got it. The Summons was around 3 hundred pages describing the main character(Ray)running around with $3Million. The story had no depth and a very weak plot to say the least.
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Summary: Good Ole Southern Charm
Review: I liked this book. Though the plot was rather typical and the ending a bit disappointing, the author's southern yuppy sensibility was intriguing.
Rating: 
Summary: Take it at face value
Review: This book was good for what it was, I suppose. I was recvoering from surgery and needed an easy, fast read that did not require too much concentration on my part. I have read several Grisham novels and would have to agree with other reviewers in that this certainly was not the best work he has produced. The number one problem was that there was not one iota of suspense! There weren't any twists or turns or anything that made you say "Hmmmm....?" I kept waiting for something that would actually push this story along, but no such luck. Ninety percent of this book was ho hum, ho hum, and then the story gets resolved in the last twenty pages in an "oh yeah, by the way, this is who did it" fashion.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Book
Review: I have always enjoy reading books by John Grisham..so I thoroughly enjoyed this one....
Rating:
Summary: Summon another Grisham book
Review: Another in the long series of Grisham thrillers with tenuous ties to lawyering and the legal profession. Here a law professor and his brother are summoned home by their dying father. One brother finds the father dead and also discovers $3 MM in cash. Almost idiotically, he assumes that the old man, a country judge, had come by this loot through gambling once a week at a local casino and spends more than half the book researching that absurd thesis. Finally, the professor drops that line of inquiry and meets up with the most interesting character in the book, who immediately and proudly admits he was the source of the funds. Too bad, he did not show up in the first 50 pages and save us endless trips to Atlantic City and river-boat casinos. However, the mystery is only half-solved since the source of the funds is not the one trying to kill the professor. Grisham also introduces a lot of other one-dimensional and irrelevant characters such as a student romantic interest, a hard-boiled private investigator, and some washed out pilots who hold court at the local airstrip. A divorce lawyer named Harry Rex provides a lot of comic relief and quips, but does little to assist his friend the professor, although the professor seems to consider Harry Rex a suspect at times. I think that some of these characters were left over from other books. Finally, everything is revealed in the last 20 pages as numerous mis-understandings and rivalries between the brothers flow forth. This is one of Grisham's weaker efforts, but still better than most authors could put together. He seems to be trying to maximize his literary output and earnings while working gentleman's hours. It is a nice light read, ideal for beach or audiocassettes, and it will be easily adaptable to the big screen.
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Summary: Just not credible
Review: I have a soft spot for Grisham, but this story is just too prepsterous even for him. The plot lacks complexity and depth and, as usual, the characters are about an inch deep. It might have been better as a short story.
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Summary: DON'T BOTHER
Review: I read this book, hoping that the next chapter would be better. The ending killed it. My friend asked me if maybe there was a chapter was missing. No such luck.
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Summary: Good Twist!
Review: Atlee was an aging Prominent Judge who lived in Mississippi. Although his family didn't like his personality the people around town spoke very highly of him. One day he summoned his two sons (a lawyer and a drugie) to go over his will. The older brother (the lawyer) got to the house first to find his father dead. The older brother thought he overdosed on medication so he thought nothing of it. Later the older brother found a lot of money in envelopes on the father's desk thinking the younger brother would be irresponsible with it the older brother took it. He went on now getting threat notes the older brother had to keep hiding the money in different places. Finally he returned the money. The book ends with a chilling twist and a great moral! This was a great book and I would recommend it to all people who like "who did it?" twists!
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Summary: This was not what i had expected
Review: The Summons by John Grisham A law professor receives a summons to return home and to discuss his father's will in THE SUMMONS a legal thriller by John Grisham. The bulk of the story takes place in Clanton, Mississippi, Ray Atlee's hometown and the place where his father had made a name for himself as the powerful judge of Clanton. As he is waiting to die, Judge Atlee draws up a will to declare that the estate will be divided evenly between the two brothers, Ray and Forrest, with Ray being the executor. However, when Ray arrives at the old plantation house, he finds his father dead. Ray also finds a huge stash of money in the house along with the will, but there is nothing in the will that indicates who the money goes to. With Forrest's history of drug and alcohol abuse, Ray does not want to let Forrest, or anyone else, know about the money. From here the action begins. Ray finds that someone is after his money and the threats become bigger and more surprising. Ray is on the run, going back and forth between his own home in Virginia to the estate in Mississippi, all the while dealing with his brother Forrest, and at the same time trying to find out the mystery of the money. This was my first Grisham novel, and I have to say, I wasn't that impressed. I know he's been on the best-seller lists for years, but apparently this book was not one of his better ones. I cannot imagine him becoming a popular author based on the quality of this novel. The story was interesting, but there was something lacking. I've been told that his earlier novels were much better, and to give him another chance. THE SUMMONS is definitely not the definitive Grisham, so those of you who read this novel as your first taste of Grisham, you may want to try one of his earlier books to sample the master at his best.
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