Rating: 
Summary: Great legal thriller, but not your father's Reed Arvin
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed "The Wind in the Wheat" (Arvin's first novel) and I really like legal novels -- two of my favorite authors are John Grisham and William Bernhardt. So this combination seemed like a sure bet for "The Will". And I was not disappointed. The characters are real and fleshed out, especially the main protagonist, Henry Matthews. The plot had some nice twists and some good mysteries that unfolded over the course of the book (beyond the main mystery that it is built around).One word of caution: This would be a fairly coarse book at times to some folks -- language alone would merit it a PG-13 were it a movie, and there is a half-page (unnecessary, in my opinion) sex scene as well. If neither of those bug you, have at it.
Rating:
Summary: Great legal thriller, but not your father's Reed Arvin
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed "The Wind in the Wheat" (Arvin's first novel) and I really like legal novels -- two of my favorite authors are John Grisham and William Bernhardt. So this combination seemed like a sure bet for "The Will". And I was not disappointed. The characters are real and fleshed out, especially the main protagonist, Henry Matthews. The plot had some nice twists and some good mysteries that unfolded over the course of the book (beyond the main mystery that it is built around). One word of caution: This would be a fairly coarse book at times to some folks -- language alone would merit it a PG-13 were it a movie, and there is a half-page (unnecessary, in my opinion) sex scene as well. If neither of those bug you, have at it.
Rating: 
Summary: A good effort
Review: I wasn't aware of a lot of the comparisons to Grisham that many people have made regarding Reed Arvin. That's probably a good thing, since I'm one of the very few people on this planet that doesn't care for the king of legal fiction. I found The Will an okay read; not earth-shattering, but not awful, either. Some of the characters, like lead man Henry and the Birdman are painted clearly and convincingly, although their motives are not always plausible. On the other hand, many of the secondary characters (Amanda, Elaine, Sarah...particularly female characters) exist mainly as cardboard cutouts. There's very little depth, and still less reason to care about them. There were some fine points in the plot...great idea, the town eccentric suddenly all but owning the town...but far too much downtime in between. I found myseld losing the thread of the story while jumping from place to place, character to character. Often I think not knowing quite so much about what was happening behind the scenes would have increased the tension and bettered the pace of the whole novel. There are very few surprises, and all in all this book marches toward a fairly predictable ending. It is evident that Mr. Arvin's first love is not writing fiction, but I must commend him on the lovely turns of phrase that are sprinkled throughout this work. Kudos for the creativity.
Rating:
Summary: A good effort
Review: I wasn't aware of a lot of the comparisons to Grisham that many people have made regarding Reed Arvin. That's probably a good thing, since I'm one of the very few people on this planet that doesn't care for the king of legal fiction. I found The Will an okay read; not earth-shattering, but not awful, either. Some of the characters, like lead man Henry and the Birdman are painted clearly and convincingly, although their motives are not always plausible. On the other hand, many of the secondary characters (Amanda, Elaine, Sarah...particularly female characters) exist mainly as cardboard cutouts. There's very little depth, and still less reason to care about them. There were some fine points in the plot...great idea, the town eccentric suddenly all but owning the town...but far too much downtime in between. I found myseld losing the thread of the story while jumping from place to place, character to character. Often I think not knowing quite so much about what was happening behind the scenes would have increased the tension and bettered the pace of the whole novel. There are very few surprises, and all in all this book marches toward a fairly predictable ending. It is evident that Mr. Arvin's first love is not writing fiction, but I must commend him on the lovely turns of phrase that are sprinkled throughout this work. Kudos for the creativity.
Rating: 
Summary: Small-town secrets
Review: If you're looking for a new author to satisfy your thirst for top notch legal thrillers, then you'd be well advised to remember Reed Arvin's name. As far as legal thrillers go, this is a first class book, combining an intriguing mystery with the constant threat of deadly consequences. Add this to some excellent characters who are vividly brought to life and you have a book that is very difficult to put down. Henry Mathews is a hotshot lawyer working for a prestigious Chicago law firm. When Ty Crandall, the richest man from Henry's home town of Council Grove Kansas dies, Henry is called and asked to return home to act as executor of the will. The will contains a major shock for the Crandall family when they learn that the bulk of the estate has been left to Raymond Boyd, known to the townsfolk as the Birdman. Boyd is a dishevelled vagrant of questionable sanity who sits in the local park preaching verses from the bible. The obvious questions are, why would a homeless man be made beneficiary of such a vast estate? What was in his past and how is he connected to Ty Crandall? Finding all this out makes terrific reading indeed. Although the premise described above is interesting in itself, there is a lot more to the story than just a fight over a will. There are plenty of small town secrets, ego trips and power plays at work, as well as a significant amount of greed shown by the more powerful figures who have their own reasons for not allowing the Birdman to collect on his good fortune. There are also the ethical considerations caused by the pressure placed on Henry to return to Chicago and his high-paying job. I found this to be a fast-paced thriller with a plot that contained plenty of drama and an interesting look at the place of ethics in the legal world. But most of all, it was a darn entertaining story.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Our book reading club in Houston read the reviews of this book in December and selected it for reading. None of us liked the book. We found the technical/legal content to be inaccurate and unconvincing, some of the characters not believable, and the writing style unimpressive. Although there were a handful of well crafted and memorable lines in the book, the vast majority of the book was a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: A solid story with a great ending
Review: Reed Arvin has done a great job with this novel. The story moves along at a steady pace and really picks up toward the end. As a matter of fact, there really aren't any slow spots in this novel, and that's a major accomplishment for a thriller like this. You really can't call this a "legal thriller", though some of the action takes place in the court room and the main character is a lawyer. It's not so much about the law as it is about the strange characters that populate the town. Each has their own little secret to hide, and most will keep you guessing until the ending. And the ending...what can I say? The revelations make everything make sense in a way that says "Ahhhhh, so THAT'S what was happening!". There is profanity sprinkled unnecessarily throughout the story, but it's not to the level of some books out there. When it comes, it's from out of nowhere and it's strong. Be prepared. All in all, this is a great story of faith. It was shopped in the Christian market before Reed gave up and went secular. Obviously the story got some extra treatment after that decision (the language and a sex scene), but it still retains a good "moral of the story". I enjoyed it much more than his other novel, "The Last Goodbye". I hope we see more like this one from him in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Henry Mathews and the Birdman Search for Salvation
Review: THE WILL is a complex story that defies simple categorization. It is nominally a legal thriller; its title certainly reinforces that impression but little of the action actually takes place inside a courtroom. The legal maneuverings instead form the basis for a complex tale that is part mystery, part political intrigue, part romance, part religion and philosophy, and primarily a study of human relationships and psychology. If you enjoy simple mysteries and action thrillers, this storyline may be too complicated and slow moving for you. However, if your reading interests incline towards stories with a more leisurely pace and substantial character development, then I highly recommend this book. I decided to read it after immensely enjoying the THE LAST GOODBYE (review 2/17/2004) by this author. While this differed in many significant respects, I found it to be an equally compelling read. Henry Mathews is a young associate at a prestigious Chicago law firm with a high powered partner as his patron. His drop dead gorgeous girlfriend Elaine is on an equally fast track at her brokerage firm. Together, they seem to be the prototypical unstoppable power couple with everything within their grasp. Suddenly an apparently minor detour appears in Henry's path; he is notified that Tyler Crandall, the richest man in his tiny hometown of Council Grove, Kansas has died and Henry feels dutybound to return to unseal and execute THE WILL. It had been prepared by Henry's father shortly before he and Henry's mother were killed in a tragic automoblie accident several years earlier; its contents have remained unknown to everyone except Ty Crandall and Henry's father until this moment. When Crandall's family (as well as the residents of the town and several powerfully and poitically connected Kansans) learn that the estate was left primarily to a local resident nicknamed The Birdman (Raymond Boyd), chaos erupts! Ty's son Roger wants to challenge the will, but can only do so at great potential cost to both his mother and himself. Henry is forced to confront his feeling about his father's relatively unsuccessful career and his loss of faith resulting from the accident. (Upon the death of his parents, Henry had immediately left the seminary where he had been studying.) He can still recall his fear of and fascination with The Birdman during his childhood days in Council Grove. Now he quickly has to determine if he should attempt to enforce the provisions of a will that makes a multimillionaire of an apparently crazy man who has spent most of his life in the town park with a huge bird as his only companion and who had no known contact with Crandall. (I found Raymond Boyd to be a wonderfully drawn character, the gradual insights provided into his seemingly mad ravings with spiritual overtones were very well handled.) There are an several intertwined threads to the story; a full description would both be beyond the scope of this review and also impossible without spoilers. The reader is soon introduced to Amanda Ashton, whose efforts to convince the Kansas legislature that she should be allowed to investigate the environmental hazards which old oil wells pose to local groundwater has raised the ire of Carl Durand, a powerful state senator with ties to Crandall and his son Roger. How their lives all intersect become one of the major threads in this novel. Finally, as Henry attempts to balance his time in Council Grove with his job in Chicago, a crisis erupts which forces him to reexamine his goals in order to avoid his own potential "moral deconstruction". The latter part of this book gradually uncovers the mystery that has lain hidden below the surface of Council Grove for decades and caused the mental anguish of Raymond Boyd. It is about how the cancer of lies can kill souls and destroy lives, and major segments of the book involve Henry wrestling with the deep spirtual emptiness that followed his rejection of a role for God in his life following his parents' death. The author handles this element incredibly well and I believe that it is essential to the storyline and enhances the narrative, but it certainly separates this from the usual action thriller. This is a powerful story of how Henry's attempt to find redemption and perhaps even salvation for Raymond leads to new insights into his own life as well. There are some characters here who are as complex as the story itself; the reader comes to appreciate their struggles to overcome the roadblocks put in their way and the costly mistakes which they have made. My only minor criticism/caution is that while the action is almost continuous and often compelling, there are so many elements to this tale that it takes quite a while for them all to coalesce. Although this book is very differnt in plot construction than THE LAST GOODBYE. I found it every bit as enjoyable. The philosophical discussion of the characters' lives and the role of their ethical choices was an integral element in the richness of both stories; the major difference was the central role which the element of spirituality played in this book. Tucker Andersen
Rating:
Summary: clap clap clap (where is the icon?)
Review: this is a great book. it started off pretentious, but soon
developed into a good story (intriguing) that kept twisting
and turning. loved the dialogue, and the main character really did have an attack of conscience that was remarkable as he struggled between right and wrong. i hope reed arvin writes more books, i like his style.
Rating: 
Summary: Plodding pace, thin characters
Review: This is a small-town crime/mystery that is so slow that I was tempted to skip to the last cassette. The characters are mostly predictable. A few good twists make it passable, and it's neither vulgar (but what's with that strangely out-of-place lovemaking scene that seems dropped in from another book?) nor violent. But it's not enough story-telling.
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