Title:	The Summons
	Author:	John Grisham
	Published:	2002, Bantam Dell
	No. of Pages:	373
	Cover Price:	$7.99 US

---

John Grisham is a master of the Legal Suspense Genre, and The Summons is no exception. The story takes place in the small town of Clanton, Mississippi, where Judge Reuben V. Atlee, a respected judge who practiced over 40 years and was a respected leader in the community, issues a summons to his two sons, Forrest and Ray to travel back to their home town for a final meeting with him. The judge has terminal cancer, and is close to death; both sons assume the meeting is to discuss the will.

Ray is a newly divorced professor of law, and is honest, upstanding, and reliable. Forrest, however, marches to a different drum, is an unemployed drug addict, and is totally untrustworthy. Ray, plans to meet his father at the given time, but knows that his brother will be late, if he comes at all. When Ray gets to the house, his father is lying on the couch and has already died. As he searches the house, he finds a large stash of money – several millions of dollars – hidden in the judge’s cupboards. His dilemma is whether to tell his brother about it when he finally arrives, or keep it a secret until he finds the source and verifies that it is honest money.

Having the money brings new challenges to Ray; he needs to keep it hidden, and survive several attempts on his life while trying to find the source.

Grisham does an excellent job of spinning this tale, and, while there are several characters who are suspected not only by Ray, but by the reader, the ending is totally unexpected in the classic Grisham style. For fans of the legal thriller, this is an excellent book to pick-up. It is a fast read with unforeseen developments throughout the book and has an ending that will certainly surprise even the most savvy readers.

This book was purchased with personal funds and no promotion was solicited from the author or publishers.

This book may be purchased at Amazon: The Summons: A Novel