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    The Summons / The Brethren
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    The Summons / The Brethren
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    The Summons / The Brethren
    Audiobook20 hours

    The Summons / The Brethren

    Written by John Grisham

    Narrated by Frank Muller and Michael Beck

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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 forty 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 Now the judge is a shadow of his former self, a sick, lonely old man who has withdrawn to his sprawling ancestral home.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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 10, 2006
    ISBN9780739342787
    Unavailable
    The Summons / The Brethren

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    Reviews for The Summons / The Brethren

    3.5/5

    1,420 ratings39 reviews

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    • 3/5
      You have the three judges, who are locked away in a very low security prison in Florida. One for tax evasion, one for skimming bingo money and one for killing two hikers while driving drunk. Of the three, the only one that has any personality is the youngest, (in his fifties), Joe Roy Spicer. The other two, Finn Yarber and Hatlee Beech, play more of a supporting role. (I love the names!) The three collectively are known as "The Brethren" by the other inmates. These guys are smart and come up with a plan to extort gay men through letter writing and magazine adds with made up names. They find out their identities and the wealthy ones, then they begin to extort money in exchange for silence. Now, remember this is a low security Prison. But since they are in prison, they need an outside contact. Enter Trevor Carson. Trevor is a sleezy, lazy, and drunken, lawyer, who does not seem to do much in the way of law. He's a fun character though. You'll like and pity him.

      Then there is Senator Aaron Lake, and CIA Director Teddy Manyard. Early on, Teddy convinces Lake to run for President after the caucuses are settled. He tells him to preach one single message: America is dropping the ball and cutting too much money on the military. This is obviously well before the events of 9/11.

      So, how do the plots combine? It really takes only a minute to figure this one out. It is outlandish, but a fun read.

      I did not like the way it ended. I had my ending in my head, but it rather abruptly just ended. It was almost as if a Grisham intended to write a sequel.
    • 2/5
      Good story, weak ending.
    • 5/5
      An excellent story of a prison extortion scam, run by 3 ex-judges who now find themselves prisoners, that ensnares a far more powerful victim than they realise; an upcoming presidential nominee with powerful friends.I found it to be quite a scintillating tale following the unfolding of the extortion scam, how the victims were dealing with it as well as the seeming downfall of the alcoholic lawyer who acted as the outside contact for the ex-judges.
    • 4/5
      The plot is a good idea-three judges serving time start to run a scam on rich men who are coming out of the closet. I skipped the pages on the presidenital race as I found these pages boring. Over all this book is a good read but not great.
    • 3/5
      3 jailed judges running a scam
    • 2/5
      It was okay.
    • 2/5
      Pretty far fetched, even by Grisham standards. The actions of the CIA seem so improbable and illogical. Character developement weaker than usual.
    • 5/5
      The Brethren: A Novel by John Grisham- The book captivates from the beginning and it does not stop until the end. It is hard to put it down once you've picked it up. It is a creative and chilling story. It makes one stop to think about corruption within the system as this is not at all too far fetched. I recommend to anyone who enjoys thrillers. Grisham fans especially will not be disappointed.
    • 3/5
      Meh. I think I'm over Grisham. I liked several of his books, but once you've read a bunch of them, they're kind of all the same thing. Also, he tries to incorporate an element of international espionage/intrigue into this one, and it comes off as rather amateur. I don't think that's his forte. Domestic courtroom dramas he's great at.
    • 4/5
      Grisham has to be one of the most cynical authors writing legal fiction today. Everyone is corrupt, thinking only of himself, and money rules.

      The "Brethren" are three ex-judges who have been incarcerated in a minimum security federal prison for a variety of avaricious crimes. While in prison, they procure the services of Trevor, a greedy little lawyer who agrees to act as the go-between in a dirty scheme to extort money from gay men who are fearful of being outed. Trevor bribes the prison guards to look the other way while he "smuggles" in forbidden documents and deposits their ill-begotten proceeds in an off-shore bank account. It's all very sordid.

      A subplot, that becomes mixed with the affairs of the Brethren concerns Teddy Maynard, director of the CIA, who, appalled by the fall of communism and the concomitant reduction in military spending, conspires to find a candidate of suitable malleability, whom he can groom to be the next president. Aaron Lake, handsome, widowed, a light drinker, with no political baggage, seems the perfect choice. Just to be on the safe side, though, Maynard has Lake followed everywhere. By instigating terrorist actions at the appropriate time, and collecting huge amounts of money from weapons manufacturers who stand to reap huge profits from Lake's sole campaign promise: to double the defense budget; Maynard assures that Lake soon has a commanding lead over the vice-president, the previous front runner. Maynard will stop at nothing, including orchestrating a murder, to realize his dream of controlling the president.

      While following Lake, Maynard's agents discover he has a PO Box hidden away. They "borrow" the mail - notice the CIA has already been involved in several gross violations of the law, all in the name of national security - and discover to their horror that their "perfect" candidate is conducting a surreptitious correspondence with a young man looking for a wealthy male gigolo. We know that the young man, Ricky" is really the creation of the Brethren. The Brethren, always careful, learn who "AL" really is, and see a huge windfall in the making. What better extortion candidate than someone running for president. Soon they realize that there is a third party involved, a very powerful group of men, but they are determined to make the most of the situation. The ending, which I won't reveal, is less a blockbuster than a revelation of Grisham's sordid view of the world.
    • 5/5
      Another of my fave John Grisham novels!
    • 3/5
      Frankly I don't expect a lot from Grisham, but this one tends to be one of his more predictable books. Having once worked in the legal profession, I enjoy the milieu more than anything else. The scam the judges use is the best part of the book.
    • 3/5
      this one wasn't too bad. it is about 3 judges that were put in prison for one monetary reason or another and the scam they run from prison to bank some money if and when they get out. it also ties in the outside with a presidental election. the only thing that really sucked about this book was the ending. it just sort of stopped. i hate it when books do that. but is wasn't a bad read before that.
    • 4/5
      Great story, but let down by the unbelievable action of the CIA throughout.
    • 4/5
      This one was a new twist-judges in prison. Very entertaining.
    • 4/5
      Three incarcerated judges conceive of a money-making scam they are able to run from federal prison: enticing closeted gay men to write to the fictional "Ricky" and "Percy" and then extort money by threatening to expose their predilections. Meanwhile, Aaron Lake is a senator selected by the CIA to run for President on a platform of doubling the defense budget (this was clearly written prior to the 2000 elections). The intersection of these two stories is entertaining as well as suspenseful as the CIA is expending a multitude of resources surveilling three bumbling elderly felons trying to figure out what they know and attempting to contain the fallout.
    • 3/5
      Was a little confusing, too many characters for 2 different stories, that eventually became one. For me that is when it became more interesting. The ending was disappointing.
    • 3/5
      this one wasn't too bad. it is about 3 judges that were put in prison for one monetary reason or another and the scam they run from prison to bank some money if and when they get out. it also ties in the outside with a presidental election. the only thing that really sucked about this book was the ending. it just sort of stopped. i hate it when books do that. but is wasn't a bad read before that.
    • 3/5
      A crime reaches from inside prison to the outside world with potentially far reaching consequences. Unfortunately, once I got a little way into it, I found the story quite predictable.
    • 3/5
      At first I thought there were two different stories in the book. There were so many characters, I started getting mixed up. About 2/3rds along, the two stories merged and made sense. The ending was a surprise for me.
    • 4/5
      Another enjoyable story by Mr. Grisham. Again, Mr. Grisham has not disappointed me with this story. In the Brethren the author took me on a journey into a political campaign, and how the government can control an election. The characters of the three judges' and their activities were believable. What I appreciated about John Grisham is that each new book that he releases takes me into a new world and I always learn something from his stories. The Brethren is a super story. Enjoy it, it's a wonderful book.
    • 5/5
      In this, yet another John Grisham legal thriller, the author spins another exciting and exotic tale from the fringes of the American legal system. Telling the story of three former judges serving time in a federal prison, he paints an intriguing picture of the seedy underbelly of the prison system, where three people with legal know-how and moxie can perpetrate an extortion scheme under the disinterested noses of the minimum security guards.In Grisham's most satisfying book since "The Runaway Jury," "The Brethren" is a page-turner merging the story of these three disgraced judges with a partially rigged presidential election. Merging a tale of sex and politics, with the very active involvement of the CIA Director, the story moves at a fast clip, filled with twists and turns.Unlike some of Grisham's other books, this one is less tied to the intricacies of the law. In fact, the main catalysts for the story are decidedly out of legal bounds, focusing on manipulation and extortion. The characters are economically drawn, in the style of a thriller, with perhaps only an alcoholic attorney as an intriguing, three dimensional personality.Still, the book is entertaining and absorbing. If not Grisham's best, and it's hard to imagine that he'll ever top "The Firm," it is still an excellent book, a unique thriller with ominous overtones that heighten the suspense.
    • 4/5
      This book is well written. The author has weaved two story lines that are tied together extremely well and the the two premises are very interesting. Three imprisoned judges pulling off for them what appears to be a safe blackmail scheme. And the CIA buying the Next president of The USA. Finally Grisham is back on his game for thiss book is funny and easy to read. It is better than his last two.
    • 3/5
      The Brethren, by John Grisham, is a quick, easy read. It's classic Grisham in the sense that there's a lot of legalese and puzzle pieces that slowly come together throughout the story. It was intriguing, but not edge-of-your-seat exciting.This is the story of 3 ex-judges sitting bored in a federal prison, and one congressman who's just been selected by the CIA to run for President. The judges have started an extortion scheme, and it works best when they ensnare rich men with something to lose. The CIA is counting on Aaron Lake to win the election and double the US's military funding in order to stop an impending war. But is Lake as perfect as the CIA thinks? Or does he have secrets, just waiting to be found by the judges?While this was good and kept my attention, it's not one of my favorites. I kept coming back to the story, but not because I couldn't wait to find out what happened. It's just a good book to curl up with on a cold winter night.3 out of 5 stars.
    • 4/5
      One of Mr. Grisham's best. A good read.
    • 5/5
      A typical Grisham read . . . meaning riveting and thoughtful. What starts out as two seemingly disparate tales (a pen pal extortion scheme operated by three judges inmates of a federal prison and a Machivellian scheme by the director of the CIA to fix the nomination process and secure the election of a previously unknown hand-picked candidate who will be controlled by the CIA director) come together when CIA finds that their candidate has been ensnared by the extortion ring.
    • 4/5
      One of the better Grisham stories.
    • 3/5
      Good, fast, easy read for the middle of the night when you can't sleep and your mind is fuzzy.
    • 5/5
      Great book! One of my favorite Grisham novels, it's a really intriguing story that sucks you in.
    • 3/5
      Another solid effort by John Grisham. He knows how to write the legal thrillers very well, and always does a good job with them.