John Grisham: The Summons

By MARGIE THOMSON

Ray Atlee, a law professor, receives a letter from his dying father, demanding he return to the crumbling family home in Clanton, Mississippi for a final discussion of his father's will and testament, together with Ray's black-sheep brother Forrest, a seedy character who has been in and out of expensive rehab programmes for 20 years.

They duly turn up, but what they find is not, apparently, what they were expecting. Ray, in particular, finds something that looks set to change his life forever, if it doesn't get him killed. It's classic Grisham: corruption, malice, murder.

But it's more slow-paced than his earlier work - tedious, I thought - and predictable. Interestingly, though, the twist at the end is moral rather than plot-driven, as Grisham opts for grey complexity rather than sharp-edged black and white.

Century

$54.95