Summary and Reviews of The Summons by John Grisham

The Summons by John Grisham

The Summons

by John Grisham
  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Readers' Rating (50):
  • First Published:
  • Feb 1, 2002, 384 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Dec 2002, 384 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Ray heads south, to his hometown to meet with his dying father but 'The Judge' dies too soon leaving behind a shocking secret known only to Ray and perhaps someone else.

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 No longer on the bench, the Judge has withdrawn to the Atlee mansion and become a recluse.

With the end in sight, Judge Atlee issues a summons for both sons to return home to Clanton, to discuss the details of his estate. It is typed by the Judge himself, on his handsome old stationery, and gives the date and time for Ray and Forrest to appear in his study.

Ray reluctantly heads south, to his hometown, to the place where he grew up, which he prefers now to avoid. But the family meeting does not take place. The Judge dies too soon, and in doing so leaves behind a shocking secret known only to Ray.

And perhaps someone else.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

USA Today - Deirdre Donahue
Some of my happiest, most relaxing reading moments have been spent in the entertaining company of John Grisham. And his new novel, The Summons, ranks as my absolute favorite in many years. After taking a break from writing legal thrillers to write the more literary A Painted House and the holiday fable Skipping Christmas, the prolific Grisham appears more fresh. First, there is an ending too delicious and morally instructive to give away. Second, the novel, Grisham's 14th, skillfully tours the New South of gambling casinos, endless self-storage centers and ultra-rich lawyers who sue multinational corporations.

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