The Summons

infobox Book |
name = The Summons
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = John Grisham
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Legal thriller novel
publisher = Doubleday
release_date = 2002
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0385503822

"The Summons" is a legal thriller novel written in December 2002 by noted American author John Grisham.

Plot summary

The main character, Ray Atlee is a law professor with a good salary at the University of Virginia. He has a brother, Forrest, and a dying father, known to many as Judge Reuben V. Atlee. Ray is sent to his father's estate in Clanton, Mississippi, to discuss issues regarding the old man's will and estate. To do this, Ray had to go to Ford County, the setting for many of John Grisham's other books such as A Time To Kill. In this book, we get introduced to characters from the other books such as Harry Rex. When he finds his father dead in the study Ray discovers a sum of over three million dollars in the house, money which was not part of Judge Atlee's will. Ray immediately thought the money was "dirty" because his father couldn't possibly make so much money in his career.

Assuming that he was the only one who knew about the money, Ray decided he would take it without making it officially part of the estate, and did not tell anyone about it. He knew that if he made it a part of the estate, taxes will take most of the money. But later reality proves otherwise. Ray was being followed -- someone else knew about the money. After his own investigations into the roots of the money and the identity of his shadow -- investigations which include trips to casinos and shady meetings with prominent southern lawyers -- he discovers the truth about the money and his stalker.