Grisham Tale Blends Thrills and Literary Skills in Family Saga

THE SUMMONS

By John Grisham

Doubleday

342 pages; $27.95

John Grisham is at his best when he’s plotting heavily, tossing his characters into dire straits and then pulling out the stops to save them, all the while weaving in details of legal precedence, and playing with the gray area between the letter of the law and its spirit.

His last two novels, though, took different courses. “Skipping Christmas,” released just a few months ago, was an odd foray that parodied the holiday spirit. A complete divergence in writing style for Grisham, the tale disappointed those who turn to him for high-octane thrills. Last year’s “A Painted House,” however, succeeded. The book contained no lawyers but put a heavy focus on characterization and the quiet story development one finds in literary novels. With the requisite murder and fast-paced plotting to keep readers satisfied, the author explored deeper layers of the human experience than he had previously.

Perhaps in writing these two deviations, Grisham has grown more comfortable with his voice while expanding its range. In “The Summons,” he returns in all his Grisham glory, complete with lawyers both good and bad, legal issues to be pondered and the delightful suspense that keep us flipping the pages. The level of literary merit Grisham brings to the tale, though, seems to have clicked up a notch.

Set in the deep South, “The Summons” features law professor Ray Atlee, a divorced, stalled-in-midlife lone wolf. Ray is summoned by his father, the honorable Reuben Atlee--a highly respected judge--to return to his childhood home in Clanton, Miss., so he can help the judge straighten out his affairs. Battling aggressive cancer, the domineering judge wishes to clear up things between himself and his two sons before he dies. Ray and his black-sheep brother Forrest, an alcoholic/drug addict, dutifully comply with their father’s summons.

Ray is the first to arrive and finds a number of surprises. His father, who appears to be napping on the couch, is dead. There’s a brand-new will waiting on the desk. There’s also, Ray discovers, more than $3 million in cash hidden in boxes in the judge’s study.

For a man who earned a modest salary as a public servant, Judge Atlee couldn’t have come by the money honestly. Or could he? Within hours of this discovery, Ray realizes he’s not the only one aware of the treasure; someone else is after the money and plans to do whatever’s necessary to get it.

The quandaries are many, and Grisham plays with our sense of morality throughout. Should Ray tell his brother about the find, only to watch Forrest--who proceeds to get drunk within minutes of learning of his father’s death--kill himself with the cash? Should Ray, the estate’s executor, include the money in the probate proceedings, which would bring public scrutiny on the judge’s otherwise impeccable reputation? (Not to mention the inheritance taxes that will eat up at least half of the funds.) Is the money marked or counterfeit? And who is trying to get the fortune?

What follows are Ray’s intriguing machinations as he drives around the South, trying to solve the mystery and escape his pursuers, in his Audi TT roadster with the cash stuffed into trash bags and crammed into his tiny trunk. In Grisham’s great heart-pounding way, “The Summons” explores issues of family dynamics (what it’s like to have a father who’s highly respected in town but not much of a father figure to his own sons), questions of alcoholism and drug dependency within families (when is an addict beyond help?) and the effects of sheer, untempered greed.

“In the past few weeks,” Grisham writes of Ray, “he had become more curious about how much things cost, about what the money could buy, about how it could grow if invested conservatively, or aggressively.” Soon Ray, who previously would have considered himself immune to the lure of money, is sleeping in his car and eating in fast-food dives so he can keep an eye on the roadster and its hidden fortune.

With “The Summons,” Grisham has hit a pleasing midpoint between the whodunit legal thriller and the more literary attempts of his recent work. Here, his characters are three-dimensional and complex. Fleshed out, working through mucky issues, they compel us in a way that’s relatively new for Grisham.

The good guys aren’t quite so unquestionably good, and the bad guys are a little less clear-cut in their depravity. Yet there is enough plot drive to satisfy even the most hard-core Grisham fan.

“The Summons” is more than a long-awaited return to form; it marks out the rich literary territory Grisham has begun to occupy.