THE TESTAMENT - John Grisham

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The Testament is a classic John Grisham novel. It involves a hard-pressed lawyer, an action-packed pursuit, a lot of money and the highest issues at stake.

One of the richest men in the world, Troy Phelan, writes the expected heirs (his six children by three failed marriages) out of his will and leaves everything to Rachel, an illegitimate daughter no one knew about, and jumps to a spectacular death. The wrinkle is that Rachel, a missionary in a remote part of Brazil, is totally out of touch with the outside world except for two phone calls a year. So Josh Stafford, Troy's long-time lawyer, sends Nate O'Riely, an associate, on a mission to find Rachel.

Nate is fresh out of drug rehab for the fourth time, and is yet to come to terms with the wreck his life has become, a failed marriage and kids he doesn't stay in touch with, federal charges that jeopardize his law practice, along with little hope of true sobriety and recovery. Josh sees this little trip as a chance to get Nate back on his feet, and also keep him away from trouble for a little while. So Nate goes to Brazil and into the Pantanal, a vast region of rain forest on the Brazil-Bolivia border. The story revolves around how Nate finds Rachel and what her opinion about the money is.

This book has the legal intrigue of Grisham's other books, coupled with a fine story. But it is the fun-to-read secondary characters in which this book truly fascinates. The comical but also interesting heirs-apparent and their lawyers, battling for control of billions of dollars, are pretty skilfully written. It shows the devastation that money and greed can bring in our lives, through the three ex-wives and six heirs-apparent to the Phelan fortune, and he does a great job of contrasting this with the contentment that can be found in peace with God, through Rachel.

The ending was unexpected, but I still liked it. It did not end as an expected love story with ‘...and they lived happily ever after’. It somehow seemed more realistic. However, I need to point this out. Although the beginning has one of the best pure storytelling impacts I have come across, the book does seem to get a little boring after the first few chapters. You have to drag through those pages. But once the real story starts, it absorbs you.

There really isn’t much to say about a Grisham novel. He is truly talented and shows no sign of wear and tear even after having writing the amount of books he has.

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