Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
The Summons
by
John Grisham (Goodreads Author)
Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He's forty-three, newly single, and still enduring the aftershocks of a surprise divorce. He has a younger brother, Forrest, who redefines the notion of a family's black sheep.
And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atl...more
And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atl...more
ebook, 224 pages
Published
March 16th 2010
by Dell
(first published January 1st 2002)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
I'm surprised to see how many readers were disappointed with this book since I thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe the plot was a bit thin and predictable, but Grisham's writing style is so smooth and easy to read that I was able to consume this book in two sittings. It was like I was able to sit down and visit with an old friend. Perhaps some other readers confused this familiarity with boredom.
It all starts when law professor Ray Atlee and his prodigal brother, Forrest, are summoned home by their ai...more
It all starts when law professor Ray Atlee and his prodigal brother, Forrest, are summoned home by their ai...more
Boring. Predictable. Stupid. Read it only if you really hate yourself.
Everything about it is good, but the ending did not work well for me. It is Grisham all the way, with a little twist, as this time there was no case in court, no big time law office...The summons is a document of such, though called so with a sarcastic tone. There was the usual thrill and suspense and it wasn't quite late in the book when I figured out the culprit. I read somewhere that The King of Torts is a thematic sequel to The Summons, so I'm reading that next. Never mind that it's only "th...more
When I first looked at the book, I first noticed a dull scene of a car driving to infinity as the sun reached the end of the horizon. But, as I read through the book, I grew more interested in the plot and just couldn’t put down the book. I found this book unique in its content and also the characters seemed so life-like. The book I am talking about is “The Summons” by a wonderful author named John Grisham.
I give this book a decent four stars because of its surprising characters and powerful sto...more
I give this book a decent four stars because of its surprising characters and powerful sto...more
Every once in a while you have to read something that isn’t deep and you are just carried along from page to page. That is what the Summons is. I’ve only read a few of his books but they are all about lawyers and usually old lawyers who die in the first few pages of the book. Then there are surprises that come up through out the book that keep you guessing. At the end you are totally surprised. That is the formula for Grisham. But, having said that I did like the book. An old judge dies and leav...more
Feb 04, 2008
John Conrad
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people who like slow manipulative plots
Recommended to John by:
Luckily it was free
Grisham has thrilled in the past, but those days are over, it appears. While I appreciated the theme of two brothers conflict over a large inheritance, and the drug addiction part was interesting, I thought I would go mad if Ray Atlee went to one more casino or hotel or restaurant or old friend or law office or rich lawyer's yacht or storage unit or private detective.... ad nauseum... Grisham is not his old self. I recommend The Firm, A Time to Kill, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Runaway Ju...more
Judge Atlee is dying and has summoned both of his sons to his side. When Ray Atlee gets to the house his father is already dead. He had been dying of cancer and was in a great deal of pain. He wouldn't have lasted much longer and Ray seemed grateful that his father was no longer in pain. He becomes the executor of the estate and needs to deal with his brother who is constantly in and out of rehabs. [return][return]In preparing the estate he finds three million in cash in the house and isn't sure...more
And Grisham continues his downhill slide, unhindered.
Oh for the days of his earlier books, when the plots were intricately woven and I couldn't put the books down! You know what I thought when I read this book (and King of Torts, and The Broker)? I thought, OK, JG, we get it that you're a rich boy now, and now you want to explore your rich-boy interests in your fiction. Single malt whiskey, high-stakes gambling, yachts, piloting small aircraft... whatever. The reader can almost see the author's...more
Oh for the days of his earlier books, when the plots were intricately woven and I couldn't put the books down! You know what I thought when I read this book (and King of Torts, and The Broker)? I thought, OK, JG, we get it that you're a rich boy now, and now you want to explore your rich-boy interests in your fiction. Single malt whiskey, high-stakes gambling, yachts, piloting small aircraft... whatever. The reader can almost see the author's...more
Der alte Richter Reuben Atlee ist gestorben und hinterlässt zwei Söhne. Einer Juraprofessor (Ray) der andere ein drogenabhängiger Tunichtgut (Forrest). Als Ray in seinen Heimatort reist, um die Verlassenschaft zu regeln, findet er mehrere Kartons mit Geldscheinen. Er macht sich auf die Suche nach dem Ursprung dieses Geldes. Eine Suche die ihm seinen Vater neu kennen lernen soll. Der Hauptaspekt dieser Geschichte ist jedoch weniger die Suche nach dem Ursprung des Geldes, sondern die Veränderungen...more
Writing For the Money (2012)
Grisham, John (2002). The Summons. New York: Random House.
A lawyer in Mississippi finds three million dollars in cash in his father’s house after the old man dies. The money is not mentioned in the will, and indeed there is no obvious way the judge could have amassed that much cash. Should the lawyer declare it to the IRS and lose half in taxes, as the law requires, or quietly split it with his no-good, loser, drug-addict brother who would probably use it to overdose,...more
Grisham, John (2002). The Summons. New York: Random House.
A lawyer in Mississippi finds three million dollars in cash in his father’s house after the old man dies. The money is not mentioned in the will, and indeed there is no obvious way the judge could have amassed that much cash. Should the lawyer declare it to the IRS and lose half in taxes, as the law requires, or quietly split it with his no-good, loser, drug-addict brother who would probably use it to overdose,...more
It stands to reason that a large part of the appeal in a mystery novel is a desire to see the mystery solved. From that standpoint, "The Summons" fails quite badly. This book is just plain boring. It wasn't a bad book or badly written, but I found it very dry, lifeless, and a struggle to get through.
There's little to like about Ray, and that's perhaps a major reason why this book flops the way it does. I need to find some way to identify with the book's purported hero, and in Ray's case, he just...more
There's little to like about Ray, and that's perhaps a major reason why this book flops the way it does. I need to find some way to identify with the book's purported hero, and in Ray's case, he just...more
SUMMARY: Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He's forty-three, newly single, and still enduring the aftershocks of a surprise divorce. He has a younger brother, Forrest, who redefines the notion of a family's black sheep.And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years. No longer on the ben...more
The old south, the law and mystery. The Summons contains all the necessary ingredients of a good John Grisham thriller-mystery novel. If you are a fan you will not be disappointed. As other Grisham novels this is a New York Times bestseller.
This novel follows the same format as most (but not all) of Grisham’s novels. He starts with a unique opening and ties it all up in the end into a nice little package. The problem lies in the middle where the author drones way, just wasting your time as if to...more
This novel follows the same format as most (but not all) of Grisham’s novels. He starts with a unique opening and ties it all up in the end into a nice little package. The problem lies in the middle where the author drones way, just wasting your time as if to...more
MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. I DON'T HIDE MY REVIEWS, NOR DO I PROMOTE THEM VIA FEEDS.
I understand why not all John Grisham books get made into movies. If the protagonist is not wholly likable, it's sort of a downer.
That is the case with the main character in this book -- Ray Atlee, the older of two brothers who have grown up and grown apart from each other, as well as from their long widowed, now elderly dad. Both sons have made homes far from the small Mississippi town where their father, a widowed a...more
I understand why not all John Grisham books get made into movies. If the protagonist is not wholly likable, it's sort of a downer.
That is the case with the main character in this book -- Ray Atlee, the older of two brothers who have grown up and grown apart from each other, as well as from their long widowed, now elderly dad. Both sons have made homes far from the small Mississippi town where their father, a widowed a...more
So I'm at my mom's house drooling over her book collection...Okay, I'm lying. I'm looking over two shelves of either leftover college books in uninteresting subjects or my mother's extension collection of John Grisham books. They're all in hardcover. Let's just say she's a huge fan. I've avoided his books like I avoid anything I see on the bestseller's shelves assuming they are a bunch of crap because they are popular and popularity of most things literary tends to correlate with the number of i...more
Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He's forty-three, newly single, and still enduring the aftershocks of a surprise divorce. He has a younger brother, Forrest, who redefines the notion of a family's black sheep.
And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years. No longer on the bench, the J...more
And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years. No longer on the bench, the J...more
It seems like lately I've been on these benders. So I pick an author, you see, and then I'm sort of stuck on that author for a while (i.e., the Stephanie Plum series, the Spellman series, Jodi Picolt, Kate Morton, John Grisham...obviously...and I could go on...). I'm not sure why. Perhaps it is an obsessive compulsive disorder where I feel I must read everything an author has written if I happen to like anything else by that particular author. Sort of like my OCD about reading series books in OR...more
Mar 17, 2012
Linda
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
alcoholism,
family-relationships,
inheritances,
mississippi,
mystery,
siblings,
suspense,
brothers
When Ray Atlee receives a summons from his dying father, Judge Reuben Atlee, he immediately flies back home to Mississippi. When rhe arrives, he finds his father dead in his chair in his home office. Judge Atlee had been in the final stages of cancer and in severe pain, so Ray felt a mixture of grief and relief. His brother, Forrest, has been summoned also, so Ray decides to wait until he calls the coroner and the authorities, so Forrest can say goodbye in private. While Ray waits for his brothe...more
Professor Ray Atlee is 43, newly divorced and teaches law at the University of Virginia. He leads a simple life of simple pleasures: teaching, flying and jogging. His younger brother Forrest is a free-spirit addict living in Memphis, bouncing from job to job. The two "have nothing in common but a name and a father." They've both been summoned home to Clanton, Mississippi by their dying father, the legendary and honorable judge Reuben V. Atlee "to discuss the administration of my estate." They pr...more
Jan 25, 2011
Alex Telander
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-read-in-2002
It has been two books and some years since John Grisham wrote a novel involving a lawyer and his court. In that time something has happened to leave The Summons, his latest novel, clearly missing something.
The novel begins with our main character, law professor Roy Atlee, being summoned by his father, the infamous judge of Clanton, Mississippi. Along with his drug-addicted brother, Forrest, they are to decide the issue of the judge’s will before the old man dies.
Buy when Ray arrives at his child...more
The novel begins with our main character, law professor Roy Atlee, being summoned by his father, the infamous judge of Clanton, Mississippi. Along with his drug-addicted brother, Forrest, they are to decide the issue of the judge’s will before the old man dies.
Buy when Ray arrives at his child...more
Shabby ending spoils good first three-fourths of money story...
We see now why literally half a thousand reviewers either panned or expressed their disenchantment with Grisham's latest. Obviously his name and rep make it a best seller regardless - the book's been out a little while, which is why a bazillion people have weighed in. Indeed, at first, we were captivated and entertained, almost in the style of The Firm or The Partner. Grisham sinks a hook early with the discovery of three million in...more
We see now why literally half a thousand reviewers either panned or expressed their disenchantment with Grisham's latest. Obviously his name and rep make it a best seller regardless - the book's been out a little while, which is why a bazillion people have weighed in. Indeed, at first, we were captivated and entertained, almost in the style of The Firm or The Partner. Grisham sinks a hook early with the discovery of three million in...more
Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He's forty-three, newly single, and still enduring the aftershocks of a surprise divorce. He has a younger brother, Forrest, who redefines the notion of a family's black sheep.
And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years. No longer on the bench, the J...more
And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years. No longer on the bench, the J...more
Jan 13, 2010
Eric_W
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mysteries-and-thrillers
Grisham is an uneven writer, at least to my taste. Some of his books I really liked; others have been less entertaining. This one is excellent and doesn’t even have a murder.
Ruben Atley was a highly respected judge. He had two sons: Ray and Forrest. Ray was a legal ethics professor at the University of Virginia making a good salary; Forrest had been a serious thorn in the judge’s side since adolescence and wandered from one rehab program to another trying to kick assorted addictive habits.
Ray...more
Ruben Atley was a highly respected judge. He had two sons: Ray and Forrest. Ray was a legal ethics professor at the University of Virginia making a good salary; Forrest had been a serious thorn in the judge’s side since adolescence and wandered from one rehab program to another trying to kick assorted addictive habits.
Ray...more
Law professor, Ray, and his brother are summoned to Clanton, Ford County Mississippi by their father the Judge. When Ray arrives at the house he finds his father laying on the couch in his study. His father had terminal cancer. Ray finds that he is dead. Ray waits until his brother, Forrest, arrives to call the funeral house. Meanwhile he is looking in the judges study for a note or documents and finds 27 boxes letter envelopes full of 100 dollar bills. In total it is over 3million. He moves the...more
The Summons is a great book. This is one of the best work done by John Grisham. It was a number one new york times bestseller. Filled with excitement, and mystery the summons is a must read for all book lovers. I would definetly recommend this book to my friends.
The Summons is about a Judge that is well known in his city of Clanton Mississippi. Judge Atlee soon dies from sickness "there was no pulse Judge Reuben V.Atlee was dead". Since the judge knew that he was going to die he wrote a summon t...more
The Summons is about a Judge that is well known in his city of Clanton Mississippi. Judge Atlee soon dies from sickness "there was no pulse Judge Reuben V.Atlee was dead". Since the judge knew that he was going to die he wrote a summon t...more
I really didn't want to give this book 4 stars, but I had to. I'm much more of a "literature" or non-fiction type of guy, and if not one of those then it better be totally unrealistic. I knew before reading it that this book is "not my type," but it's been sitting on my book shelves for a couple of years now and it was really bugging me.
As with any good thriller, it's hard to put down almost from the start. And there's my problem. I don't like thrillers, I don't like stories that constantly leav...more
As with any good thriller, it's hard to put down almost from the start. And there's my problem. I don't like thrillers, I don't like stories that constantly leav...more
It's been a few years since I read a John Grisham novel. It gave me what I wanted, a simple transparent read with a mildly interesting plot that didn't require me to think too hard and didn't result in me pondering some important issue or idea.
The plot in this book was SO simple and there weren't really any subplots. A lawyer is called home to his father's home to settle the estate, finds him dead before they have a chance to settle, finds 3 million dollars hidden in the house, spends the rest o...more
The plot in this book was SO simple and there weren't really any subplots. A lawyer is called home to his father's home to settle the estate, finds him dead before they have a chance to settle, finds 3 million dollars hidden in the house, spends the rest o...more
Jul 30, 2010
Rebekkila
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
bookcrossing,
thrillers
Once Judge Atlee was a powerful figure in Clanton, Mississippi-a pillar of the community who towers over local law and politics for forty years. Now the judge is a shadow of his former self, a sick lonely old man who has withdrawn to his sprawling ancestral home. Knowing the end is near, Judge Atlee has issued a summons for his two sons to return to Clanton to discuss his estate. Ray Atlee is he eldest, a Virginia law professor, newly single and still enduring the aftershocks of a surprise divor...more
beyond a reasonable doubt
... I should have checked the Amazon ratings before picking up this novel. I was looking for a pleasant summer thriller - the kind that Grisham usually delivers. But this one disappoints small-time. The primary weakness is plot. Why does the smart protagonist forget the obvious solution of registering the troublesome money with probate? What possible motive does a money-grubbing lawyer have to give away $3M when the gift can only cause him trouble? And how did the drug-b...more
... I should have checked the Amazon ratings before picking up this novel. I was looking for a pleasant summer thriller - the kind that Grisham usually delivers. But this one disappoints small-time. The primary weakness is plot. Why does the smart protagonist forget the obvious solution of registering the troublesome money with probate? What possible motive does a money-grubbing lawyer have to give away $3M when the gift can only cause him trouble? And how did the drug-b...more
What i think about this book The Summons by John Grisham is that it went to slow and was about the same thing i didn't like it but if you like books that are about lawyers then you should read this book. This book is about a lawyer and him going though some family issues and personal stuff. The Main charecters father died and he was a lawyer to. His brother and his father didn't get along so when they had to see him at the hospital dead it was hard for both of them. His brother didnt get to see...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodreads Librari...: Please add cover and correct title | 3 | 27 | Nov 12, 2011 04:44pm |
"Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby—writing his first novel.
Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of...more
More about John Grisham...
Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of...more
Share This Book
1 trivia question
More quizzes & trivia...
Jun 17, 2011 07:32pm