Book Review 1- The Summons by John Grisham

The Summons is a classic novel by the legendary author John Grisham who tells a tale of how lawyers aren't always the advocate of justice, and how the end product isn't a reflection of the process. What do I mean? Read on to find out.

Main Characters- Ray Atlee (main character)
Forrest Atlee (Ray's younger brother, on-and-off drug addict)
Reuben V. Atlee a.k.a The Judge (Father of the Atlee brothers, strong advocate of the law)

Plot overview:
Ray Atlee is an average guy. He lives on his own, is single and teaches law at University of Arizona. His life is almost completely cut off from his father, Reuben, and maintains little contact with Forrest. All that changes when one day, his father sends him a typewritten letter arranging a meetup to discuss the selling of the family estate after his death as well as the proceedings. Ray expresses little emotion over it, but calls Forrest and tells him to be present on that day for the meeting knowing his brother's nonchalant attitude over his father.

Things, however, are not according to plan. When Ray arrives there the house is silent, and the Judge is still on the couch dead. Ray is surprised, but before anything else is done he searches the whole house. There are a stack of boxes hidden in his study, and in each of the boxes are stashes of thousand-dollar-bills totalling three million.

Thinking that Forrest does not have a single clue he is unsure of what to do with the money, soon he keeps it with hiself as he goes on a journey to find the cause for the stash of bills and why the Judge had not ever used it. However, the suspects on the list are few. The Judge hardly gambled, earned low wages and did not do other jobs other than a chancellor. There were people who seemed to be after the money too-primarily his subordinate, Claudia, although she proved to be clean.

After a long search he finally found a case his father had taken in Hancock County, a faraway place from the hometown. It rang a bell, and so he went there to their library of state affairs and looked at the file with the proceedings of the court case. His father had supervised a case about Ryax, a wonder drug that lowers cholestrol but destroys the kidneys. On the case was also Patton French, a rich lawyer who had won the case. Seeking some answers Ray looks this man up.

As the man reveals info Ray discovers this man, Patton French has taken on hundreds of Ryax cases and won all of them earning hundreds of bilions. And as thanks to the man who had kickstarted the spree of cases Patton French gave Reuben Atlee three million.

Meanwhile Forrest locks himself up in the drug rehab centre. He suddenly disappears and soon at the end of the story he has been transferred to another high security rehab centre. There Forrest reveals that all along he had known about the money and had replaced the will with his own to get half the money. This is a great shock, and the story ends here.