The Summons (Random House Large Print) - Hardcover

Grisham, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375431489 ISBN 13: 9780375431487

Publisher: Random House Large Print, 2002

Synopsis

For the first time since A Time to Kill, the author returns to Ford County, Mississippi, a place rich in colorful characters and dark family secrets, for his latest legal thriller. (Suspense)

About this title

Review:

An intelligent, low-key thriller, The Summons continues John Grisham's exploration of the common decencies of a strain of American commercial story-telling in literature and film that we often link to the work of Frank Capra or O Henry. He is not afraid of parable or of setting up situations that are at once archetypal and attractively specific. This is a tale of two brothers--one is righteous, more or less, and one is not--and a question of their inheritance. Ancient Mississippi judge Atlee summons his two sons to his deathbed, but dies before he can explain himself, leaving Ray, who arrives on time unlike his drunkard brother Forest with the difficult problem of the three million dollars in used notes which are lying around the house in shoe-boxes. Ray worries about his father's posthumous reputation, about the Inland Revenue Service and about how quickly Forrest could drink himself to death with unlimited funds.

Grisham is very acute indeed on how the best of intentions lead Ray not to any significant crime or atrocity but to quietly unconscionable behaviour. And then he realises he is being followed... Grisham can build suspense out of remarkably little and has a real gift for understanding the quiet anxieties of an ordinary man. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

‘Grisham spins out a compelling, beautifully written thriller . . . it’s all absolutely brilliant’ -- Independent on Sunday. Praise for The Brethren

‘a beguiling and gracefully constructed novel’ -- Sunday Times. Praise for A Painted House

‘his best work’ -- The Times. Praise for A Painted House

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Large Print
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0375431489
• ISBN 13: 9780375431487
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 464