Author: John Grisham
Narrator: Frank Muller
Genre: Mystery, legal thriller, Suspense
First published February 5, 2002
Book description (from back cover): 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 No longer on the bench, the Judge has withdrawn to the Atlee mansion and become a recluse.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.
Review:
I have been trying to start this one for a few months, there is no real reason. I got this book in a second hand bookstore, but it just keeps getting added to my monthly TBR for the last few months. In the end trying to convince myself to get through it and because I had been falling behind on the yearly challenge the book was acquired from libro.fm as audio. My plan was to switch between audio and physical copy.
On audio format I got through it so quickly. This was a quick read, thrilling and full of people on the run.
We follow Ray, he is a divorced man, he is not your classic loveable character, or at least it didn't come off as too loveable for me. He is alone, hitting the middle of life crisis with questioning whatever decisions led him to the current state. The ex-wife, he still has feelings, not of grief about the marriage falling apart, not about missing her, or loving her and mourning the loss- his pride is the only thing affected. As a husband, as a person he is not the best- but it feels very realistic, he hates the fact that she left him with no hesitation and went over to a man who is considered better than him. Understandable, his pride took a hit and he has nothing to show for his side. Nothing to throw in her face and be like, "see this is what you're missing because of leaving me".
It starts with him arriving at his father's house- he has not being close to his father. They had differences since early on his adult life and they never quiet manage to fix it for real. So when he finds his father dead, he feels regret about what he didn't do for the aging man. A very common thing, mostly born of guilt not love.
Clearly Ray is not someone I care about too much, but oh well.
Ray is a bit upset that his younger brother who was supposed to show up after their father summons is not there. He reports the death of his father. He was an old man, so there is no red flags, it was a very expected death. The fun starts when Ray, finds an insane amount of cash in the house. There is no record of where it came from, no mentioned of it in any of the legal documents, bank statements, or the will.
He thinks his father might have had a big secret, but what was it? Where did the money come from and what should he do with it? His younger brother who has been fighting drug abuse for years, if the money makes it over to him, Ray is afraid - he will use it for drugs and pave his way to an early grave. He wishes to figure out where the money came from so he starts looking into the recent past of his father.
Also he wishes to launder the money in case its dirty, so he starts to go gambling with the intention of cleaning the money like that. It does not work, why?
There is someone following him, breaking and entering into his apartment, following him and the tension grows. He gets obsessed with the money, first trying to launder it, fearing the IRS, going to jail, tarnishing his father's memory if its dirty money. But then he starts to get obsessed with having it, with not losing it- the fear of losing it increases especially after he feels like someone is out to get it back.
This book was good, the whole ride of a man regular middle aged law school lecturer to a man hiding millions, running, hiding, investigating and then once he figures it all out. Well that final plot twist was one I did not see coming, enjoyable ride overall.
This was used for challenges:
Authors: John Grisham
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