The Testament: A gripping crime thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of mystery and suspense

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Only seconds away now, and a faint ripple of fear goes through me. This will take more strength than I’ve mustered in weeks. The Testament is an adventure story by American author John Grisham. It was published in hardcover by Doubleday on February 2, 1999. [1] Characters [ edit ] My voice may be low and hollow, and I may look like a nut with my white silk robe, shriveled face, and green turban, but I’ve answered their questions.

Grisham's storytelling genius reminds us that when it comes to legal drama, the master is in a league of his own.' - Daily Record It’s between eleven and eleven and a half, depending on the markets.” I say this very slowly, but my words are sharp, my voice carries authority. No one doubts the size of my fortune. Stafford will run the show. When everyone is settled and the cameras are ready, he says, "My name is Josh Stafford, and I’m the attorney for Mr. Troy Phelan, seated here to my right." The following year in 1994 saw the adaptation of one more John Grisham novel: The Client. Once again it was another star-studded cast with Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. Brad Renfro was cast as the young main character, Mark Sway, because Grisham had final casting approval and insisted the actor hail from near Memphis. His second marriage is in a shambles, he is emerging from his fourth stay in rehab armed with little more than his fragile sobriety, good intentions, and resilient sense of humor. Returning to the real world is always difficult, but this time it's going to be murder. Rachel Lane is a young woman who chose to give her life to God, who walked away from the modern world with all its strivings and trappings and encumbrances, and went to live and work with a primitive tribe of Indians in the deepest jungles of Brazil. In a story that mixes legal suspense with a remarkable adventure, their lives are forever altered by the startling secret of The Testament.He was killed in an auto accident." I sit straight in my wheelchair, head high, eyes darting from one shrink to the next, projecting pure sanity for the cameras. I’m sure my children and my ex-wives are proud of me, watching the monitors in their little groups, squeezing the hands of their current spouses, and smiling at their hungry lawyers because old Troy so far has handled the preliminaries. Any more questions?” Stafford asks. We are not going to press them because we want them completely satisfied. Oh, Oh!!! and Braziiiiiil!!! I'm in love with this country!! I hope one day I'll make an adventure in Pantanal river just like Nate did and meet the alligators, the piranas, and the Ipicas.

But from here on in it all begins to sound a bit like a born again Christian revival meeting. Which is all well and good for the believers amongst us but, personally speaking, being hit over the head with a bible is not my idea of fun.While he is known only as Juror #2 within the trial, his life and his past has led him to this moment. A woman on the outside helped him plot and plan, but now as a corporate empire waits for a decision, the truth about Juror #2 will explode like wildfire. While The Firm is the second book that Grisham ever published, this is the book which solidified his name as one of the best legal thriller authors around. For many years the story of Mitch McDeere was a standalone, but in March 2023 came the announcement of a long-awaited sequel. The dialogue was bland, there was way too much legal jargon that no one cares about, his descriptions of scenes and people didn't really leave much to the imagination, and the plot was pretty weak. An old, reclusive, very rich man who hates everyone commits suicide in the lamest way possible and leaves his fortune to a long lost illegitimate daughter who's a missionary in some far away country, so a lawyer has to find her and give her the money. Big deal. And of course, it wouldn't be complete if the lawyer who has to find the Christian woman is a drunken, drug addicted slob whom she helps to find God and he is "reformed" simply because she taught him to say "Forgive me God. Kthnxbai" and your slate is wiped clean. The twelve members of the jury at the center of an enormous lawsuit against a giant tobacco company have been investigated and harassed by lawyers and consultants intent on a verdict. The civil trial is sure to be the most explosive of the century with everyone waiting to hear their decision. But the jury has a leader, and he will be the one who decides the verdict. We pass my office and I nod at Nicolette, my latest secretary, a darling young thing I’m quite fond of. Given some time, she might become number four.

To find this, now fantastically wealthy, daughter the legal firm sends one of their staff members, who just happens to be a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, off to the wilds of Brazil with the intentions of finding the daughter and giving her the good news. While his legal thrillers are what John Grisham is most well-known for, as we’ve already mentioned, he has also written non-legal stories. Standalone Books The Testament by John Grisham is an adventure novel filled with suspense, unexpected twists, legal matters, lawyers, and billions of dollars. This is my testament," I announce, taking a pen. "A holographic will, every word written by me, just a few hours ago. Dated today, and now signed today." I scrawl my name again. Stafford is too stunned to react. I take on the shrinks, one at a time, eye to eye, glare to glare, until each blinks or looks away. All three wear dark suits. Zadel and Flowe have scraggly beards. Theishen has a bow tie and looks no more than thirty. The families were given the right to hire anyone they wanted.However, the book is focused on Nate. He is the one whose struggles and identity are explored. You can see him change and evolve along with the book. Libbigail Phelan Jeter: The oldest daughter by Troy's first marriage with a long history of drug abuse. Currently married to her third husband, an ex-biker she met while in rehab. Then she meets a mysterious woman who is so frightened she uses a number of aliases. Jeri Crosby’s father was murdered twenty years earlier in a case that remains unsolved and that has grown stone cold. But Jeri has a suspect whom she has become obsessed with and has stalked for two decades. Along the way, she has discovered other victims. Sure. It’s in my head, the size of a golf ball, growing every day, inoperable, and my doctor says I won’t last three months."

So you can see why they’re here, shined, groomed, sober (for the most part), and eagerly watching the monitors and waiting and hoping that I, the old man, can pull this off. I’m sure they’ve told their shrinks, “Don’t be too hard on the old boy. We want him sane.” The story centers around the suicide of billionaire Troy Phelan. He has effectively lived a careless life of self indulgence treating those around him with contempt. He married three times and was believed to have had six grandchildren whose lives he also ruined by spoiling them with million dollar payouts at intervals. No longer able to bear the weight of living he chooses instead to plunge to his death triggering an inevitable fight over his will. But what if there was a mysterious illegitimate daughter serving as a missionary in a remote country.....? Total gifts to the families of approximately three billion dollars. After the government rakes off several billion the rest will go to charity. I have to be honest; I had never heard about John Grisham, and the fact that the book was written almost 22 years ago had me even more confused about what to expect.

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If everyone is so happy, then why bother with this psychiatric examination? Because I’m gonna screw ’em one last time, and I want to do it right. Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. It is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine years with the Board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption. This book has the legal intrigue of Grisham's other books, with some comical but also interesting heirs and their lawyers battling for control of billions of dollars. But it is in the characters that this book excels. Grisham shows the devastation that money and greed can bring in the lives of the three ex-wives and six heirs-apparent (whom I absolutely can't stand) to the Phelan fortune. And he does a great job of contrasting this with the contentment that can be found elsewhere. Rachel is a very authentic character, and adds great depth to the book. In my opinion, the best character proves to be Nate O'Riley. His journeys to Brazil parallel the searching in his own life, and his encounters with the Phelan heirs and with Rachel cause him to refocus his own life. He re-focuses his life with new purpose and meaning. His journey shows how painful the past can be, but also how liberating God's truth and forgiveness is. The journey isn't easy for him, but Grisham has cast it just right, to make it authentic without being shallow and moralizing or preachy.