The Summons & The Brethren

By: John Grisham

Narrated by: Frank Muller, Michael Beck

Length: 20 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Two from the master of the legal thriller:

The Summons:

Once Judge Atlee was a powerful figure in Clanton, Mississippi; a pillar of the community who towered over local law and politics for 40 years. Now the judge is a shadow of his former self, a sick, lonely old man who has withdrawn to his sprawling ancestral home. Knowing the end is near, Judge Atlee has issued a summons for his two sons to return to Clanton to discuss his estate.

The summons is typed by the judge himself, on his handsome old stationery, and gives the date and time for his sons, Ray and Forrest, to appear in his study. But the judge dies too soon, and in doing so leaves behind a shocking secret.

The Brethren:

They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison.

Meeting daily in the prison law library, taking exercise walks in their boxer shorts, these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong.

Or they can use their time in prison to get very rich, very fast. And so they sit, sprawled in the prison library, furiously writing letters, fine-tuning a wickedly brilliant extortion scam...while events outside their prison walls begin to erupt.

©2002 The Summons, ©2000 The Brethren, John Grisham (P)2002 The Summons, ©2000 The Brethren, Random House Audio

Why the conspiratorial tone?

I enjoyed the story but found the narrator’s overly conspiratorial tone a huge distraction. He would read a sentence and then whisper the last word every single time. At one pint I pretended to be the narrator and tried to predict how he would finish a sentence. It was predictable.

Both books are good, audio needs "proof read"

What made the experience of listening to The Summons & The Brethren the most enjoyable?

Both were good stories and full of suspense.

What other book might you compare The Summons & The Brethren to and why?

Similar to all of Grisham's books. Great story, full of suspense, and always take place in the South.

What didn’t you like about Frank Muller and Michael Beck ’s performance?

Both read well, but I counted 9 times when the same line was read twice. I think they were all in The Brethren, but don't recall for sure. Someone needs to listen to them to catch these errors.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, because I needed to go to sleep but listened to it longer than I should have.

Muller!

Grisham is good, Muller is great. Decent story, excellent reading by Frank. Well worth it.

The Summons was great! The Brethren was terrible!

Any additional comments?

The Summons had a great storyline and I really enjoyed it. The Brethren lacked depth and I hated the ending.

Two for One Grisham

So I got two Grisham's for one credit!!! That in itself is just awesome. But, both of these stories are so well written, they held me from beginning till the end. The story lines were like no other I'd heard before. His characters are so well detailed and interesting and lots of Southern charm. The readers for both were superb! They had the different dialects and personalities down to a tee.

2 for 1

2 typical Grisham tales here for the price of 1-a very good deal. 2 very different narrators each with their own style-either you like it or tolerate it for the underlying story
The Summons- is the story of how greed can overtake an otherwise moral man- corrupting his thoughts.
The Bretheren- is a complex compilation of themes story of absolute power and the trade offs that a person with power will make in order to maintain his power. Likewise it is a tale of corruption and extortion. No good guys or heroes in this tale!

Audio repeats

The second book, The Brethren, has several audio repeats in the recording. Usually a line repeats. Happened throughout the book.

Grisham at his best

Good story. Little unexpected and naive ending . I enjoy it ( the Brethren )
Summons was very weak. One star for that.
I guess that's why it's a 2 for 1 price

Thrilling series that will keep you spellbound

Frank Muller is an exceptional narrator and combined with Grisham they make for a knockout punch in this series.

The Brethren...narrator was awful.

Hard to review as The Summons was great. Except the music in the beginning and end. Why? Michael Beck is really good while Frank Muller made me turn off The Brethren after 5 minutes. I can not imagine listening to 11 hrs of his whispery, breathy voice. Ugh. So, I would give The Summons 5 stars for overall, performance and story. The Brethren, I couldn’t get through it to rate overall or story as the performance was not even 1 Star. Gave the entire rating 3 stars because of the two different books. I figured it was a somewhat unfair average.