The Summons cover art

The Summons

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Summons

By: John Grisham
Narrated by: Michael Beck
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He's 43, 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No longer on the bench, the Judge has withdrawn to the Atlee mansion and become a recluse.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.

©2002 Belfry Holdings, Inc. (P)2002 Random House, LLC Suspense Thriller & Suspense Law Thriller Fiction Crime

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Motion to Kill cover art
A Young Lawyer's Story cover art
The Brothers Karamazov [Naxos AudioBooks Edition] cover art
Crime and Punishment cover art
The Short Drop cover art
Iron Lake cover art
A Conflict of Interest cover art
Beach Lawyer cover art
Brothers and Bones cover art
Legend cover art

Critic reviews

"No one tells a story better than Grisham" ( Evening Standard)
All stars
Most relevant
Lacked a hook and was dragged out - not a satisfying read, follow was repetitive and tedious and I love this author.

Disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Having listened to most of the John Grisham’s books in this category, I found this story lacking suspense, you are waiting for something to happen which never does Also the end is disappointing, it just ran out steam.

Weak Story!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Somewhat predictable but ok
Story meandered and then a bit weaker . Expected better having read some of his other books.

Predictable but ok

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Having read reviews I thought it wouldn’t work. But it did. Good easy listen nice twist.

Better than expected.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Narrator excellent as always. However I found the story rather dull. Certainly not one of his best books.

Not Grisham’s best

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews