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The Testament
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Manufacturer: Island Books
Author: John Grisham
Publisher: Island Books
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $7.99
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Island Books
Author: John Grisham
Publisher: Island Books
Average Customer Rating:
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The Testament Description
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780440234746
ISBN: 0440234743
Label: Island Books
Manufacturer: Island Books
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 544
Publication Date: 1999-12-28
Publisher: Island Books
Product Release Date: 1999-12-28
Studio: Island Books
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780440234746
ISBN: 0440234743
Label: Island Books
Manufacturer: Island Books
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 544
Publication Date: 1999-12-28
Publisher: Island Books
Product Release Date: 1999-12-28
Studio: Island Books
Editorial Review of The Testament
Heart of darkness...
In a plush Virginia office, a rich, angry old man is furiously rewriting his will. With his death just hours away, Troy Phelan wants to send a message to his children, his ex-wives, and his minions, a message that will touch off a vicious legal battle and transform dozens of lives.
Because Troy Phelan's new will names a sole surprise heir to his eleven-billion-dollar fortune: a mysterious woman named Rachel Lane, a missionary living deep in the jungles of Brazil.
Enter the lawyers. Nate O'Riley is fresh out of rehab, a disgraced corporate attorney handpicked for his last job: to find Rachel Lane at any cost. As Phelan's family circles like vultures in D.C., Nate is crashing through the Brazilian jungle, entering a world where money means nothing, where death is just one misstep away, and where a woman--pursued by enemies and friends alike--holds a stunning surprise of her own....
In a plush Virginia office, a rich, angry old man is furiously rewriting his will. With his death just hours away, Troy Phelan wants to send a message to his children, his ex-wives, and his minions, a message that will touch off a vicious legal battle and transform dozens of lives.
Because Troy Phelan's new will names a sole surprise heir to his eleven-billion-dollar fortune: a mysterious woman named Rachel Lane, a missionary living deep in the jungles of Brazil.
Enter the lawyers. Nate O'Riley is fresh out of rehab, a disgraced corporate attorney handpicked for his last job: to find Rachel Lane at any cost. As Phelan's family circles like vultures in D.C., Nate is crashing through the Brazilian jungle, entering a world where money means nothing, where death is just one misstep away, and where a woman--pursued by enemies and friends alike--holds a stunning surprise of her own....
Customer Reviews of The Testament
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Legal Wrangling, Adventure, Sleaze, Redemption
Review: Grisham brings his page-turning style to a contested will. Aged billionaire Troy Phelan commits suicide, leaving behind a questionable hand-written will and angry heirs (six kids and three ex-wives) who get nothing beyond their debts erased. The beneficiary is Troy's previously unknown illegitimate daughter Rachel, who lives as a penniless missionary among the Indians somewhere in the vast wilderness of Brazil. Naturally, the greedy heirs and their unscrupulous lawyers contest the will (claiming Troy was insane), while the exector plucks an acoholic attorney (Nate) from rehab to seach for Rachel in Brazil. Grisham provides adventurous reading as Nate braves storms, floods, snakes, mosquito-borne diseases and hostile natives while traveling up the Pantanal River in search of Rachel. At the same time, we see how low the Phelan heirs and their sleazy lawyers will sink to grab part of that $11 billion estate. But lest you lose faith in human nature, some redemption is mixed in with the mounds of sleaze.
I like Grisham's page-turning style and legal adventurism, but felt finding Rachel was too easy, and he took too long to get to the tepid ending. Still, if this isn't the top Grisham effort, it still makes very good reading.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Had its Moments, Just Not Enough of Them
Review: I'm not sure what I was expecting from this. Someone told me that anyone familiar with the law would see how poor Grisham's books were, legally speaking. I've only had a year of law school, but I didn't notice anything glaringly wrong with the legal material. All of the problems were with everything else.
The story starts out interestingly enough - an eccentric billionaire commits suicide and leaves nothing to his spoiled children. He leaves everything to an illegitimate daughter who is working as a missionary in South America, but who wants nothing to do with the 11 billion dollars. What ensues is a legal battle for the ages.
The best parts of the story are all about the legal maneuvering. There is a 20 page span concerning the depositions where Grisham hits his stride. Essentially, anything relating to law is where the book is strong. Anything relating to character depth and anything emotional is poorly done, even formulaic. He did not even need to bother with the ending since it had been telegraphed for so long.
Gone are the days where Grisham was the master of the legal thriller. This book is one of the many that have grown a part of his slow descent...
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Nutty Billionaire, Hapless Heirs, Greedy Lawyers, a Brazilian Search for Livingstone, and Redemption
Review: Troy Phelan, worth $11 billion, loves his business and hates his ex-wives and children. Rumored to be suffering from terminal cancer, Phelan calls the family together to sign a new will. The heirs cooperate by providing psychiatrists to observe and verify that Phelan is in his right mind. That's the apparent game plan, but Phelan has a second and more shocking one. Thus opens The Testament.
Probate law isn't very exciting, and John Grisham decides to dress it up with a cast of characters that are almost parodies of parodies, so much so that they didn't resonate with me. As a result, the "exciting" beginning bored me.
The bulk of the story eventually shifts to recovering alcoholic and drug addict, attorney Nate O'Riley, who is sent straight from rehab to Brazil to find a missing heir, Rachel Lane, who is a medical missionary to the indigenous people there. His journey is harrowing and tests his limited strength to the limits. But the journey also is a beginning of his personal redemption through receiving Salvation for the Lord, Jesus Christ. As soon as the redemption part of the story begins, the book vastly improves. Without that element, I would have rated this as a one- or two-star effort.
It's unusual for a secular writer to put a major Christian theme in a popular work of fiction. I applaud Mr. Grisham for doing so.
May God bless you, Mr. Grisham!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A bit of a slow reader
Review: First, I'm not much of a lawyer book fan although I do like the grisham movies. About the middle of this book I wondered if I ever would finish it but did not dislike it enough to stop reading. It sped up after I got through the middle and it was ok. Not sure why I have such a hard time with these books, whether it is the lack of human development or the mass amount of detail. It had an ok story though and is a readable book.
A lawyer is getting out of rehab and is facing IRS issues so his firm sends him to the jungle to find an evangelist that just inherited millions despite the fact that she is an unknown illegitimate child of the miserly man that just died.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Very entertaining
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. It was fast paced, very descriptive, had interesting characters, held my attention throughout, and it had lots of drama. My kind of novel.
Review Summary: Legal Wrangling, Adventure, Sleaze, Redemption
Review: Grisham brings his page-turning style to a contested will. Aged billionaire Troy Phelan commits suicide, leaving behind a questionable hand-written will and angry heirs (six kids and three ex-wives) who get nothing beyond their debts erased. The beneficiary is Troy's previously unknown illegitimate daughter Rachel, who lives as a penniless missionary among the Indians somewhere in the vast wilderness of Brazil. Naturally, the greedy heirs and their unscrupulous lawyers contest the will (claiming Troy was insane), while the exector plucks an acoholic attorney (Nate) from rehab to seach for Rachel in Brazil. Grisham provides adventurous reading as Nate braves storms, floods, snakes, mosquito-borne diseases and hostile natives while traveling up the Pantanal River in search of Rachel. At the same time, we see how low the Phelan heirs and their sleazy lawyers will sink to grab part of that $11 billion estate. But lest you lose faith in human nature, some redemption is mixed in with the mounds of sleaze.
I like Grisham's page-turning style and legal adventurism, but felt finding Rachel was too easy, and he took too long to get to the tepid ending. Still, if this isn't the top Grisham effort, it still makes very good reading.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Had its Moments, Just Not Enough of Them
Review: I'm not sure what I was expecting from this. Someone told me that anyone familiar with the law would see how poor Grisham's books were, legally speaking. I've only had a year of law school, but I didn't notice anything glaringly wrong with the legal material. All of the problems were with everything else.
The story starts out interestingly enough - an eccentric billionaire commits suicide and leaves nothing to his spoiled children. He leaves everything to an illegitimate daughter who is working as a missionary in South America, but who wants nothing to do with the 11 billion dollars. What ensues is a legal battle for the ages.
The best parts of the story are all about the legal maneuvering. There is a 20 page span concerning the depositions where Grisham hits his stride. Essentially, anything relating to law is where the book is strong. Anything relating to character depth and anything emotional is poorly done, even formulaic. He did not even need to bother with the ending since it had been telegraphed for so long.
Gone are the days where Grisham was the master of the legal thriller. This book is one of the many that have grown a part of his slow descent...
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Nutty Billionaire, Hapless Heirs, Greedy Lawyers, a Brazilian Search for Livingstone, and Redemption
Review: Troy Phelan, worth $11 billion, loves his business and hates his ex-wives and children. Rumored to be suffering from terminal cancer, Phelan calls the family together to sign a new will. The heirs cooperate by providing psychiatrists to observe and verify that Phelan is in his right mind. That's the apparent game plan, but Phelan has a second and more shocking one. Thus opens The Testament.
Probate law isn't very exciting, and John Grisham decides to dress it up with a cast of characters that are almost parodies of parodies, so much so that they didn't resonate with me. As a result, the "exciting" beginning bored me.
The bulk of the story eventually shifts to recovering alcoholic and drug addict, attorney Nate O'Riley, who is sent straight from rehab to Brazil to find a missing heir, Rachel Lane, who is a medical missionary to the indigenous people there. His journey is harrowing and tests his limited strength to the limits. But the journey also is a beginning of his personal redemption through receiving Salvation for the Lord, Jesus Christ. As soon as the redemption part of the story begins, the book vastly improves. Without that element, I would have rated this as a one- or two-star effort.
It's unusual for a secular writer to put a major Christian theme in a popular work of fiction. I applaud Mr. Grisham for doing so.
May God bless you, Mr. Grisham!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A bit of a slow reader
Review: First, I'm not much of a lawyer book fan although I do like the grisham movies. About the middle of this book I wondered if I ever would finish it but did not dislike it enough to stop reading. It sped up after I got through the middle and it was ok. Not sure why I have such a hard time with these books, whether it is the lack of human development or the mass amount of detail. It had an ok story though and is a readable book.
A lawyer is getting out of rehab and is facing IRS issues so his firm sends him to the jungle to find an evangelist that just inherited millions despite the fact that she is an unknown illegitimate child of the miserly man that just died.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Very entertaining
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. It was fast paced, very descriptive, had interesting characters, held my attention throughout, and it had lots of drama. My kind of novel.