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The Testament
by John Grisham, Michael Beck (Reader: Frank Muller)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Random House Audio (1999-02)
ISBN: 0553502271
EAN: 9780553502275
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Audio Cassette
Edition: Unabridged
Release Date: 1999-02-02
Condition: Good
Comments: Cover is worn. All four tapes present and in good condition.
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Editorial Reviews
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Amazon.com Review
Troy Phelan, a 78-year-old eccentric and the 10th-richest man in America, is about to read his last will and testament, divvying up an estate worth $11 billion. Phelan's three ex-wives, their grasping spawn, a legion of lawyers, several psychiatrists, and a plethora of sound technicians wait breathlessly, all eyes glued to digital monitors as they watch the old man read his verdict. But Phelan shocks everyone with a bizarre, last-gasp attempt to redistribute the spoils, setting in motion a legal morality tale of a contested will, sin, and redemption. Our hero, Nate O'Riley--a washed-up, alcoholic litigator with two ruined marriages in his wake and the IRS on his tail--is dispatched to the Brazilian wetlands in search of a mysterious heir named in the will. After a harrowing trip upriver to a remote settlement in the Pantanal, he encounters Rachel Lane, a pure-hearted missionary living with an indigenous tribe and carrying out "God's work." Rachel's grave dedication and kindness impress the jaded lawyer, so much that a nasty bout of dengue fever leads him to a vision that could change his life. Back in the States, the legal proceedings drag on and Grisham has a high time with Phelan's money-hungry descendents, a regrettable bunch who squandered millions, married strippers, got druggy, and befriended the Mob. The youngest son, Ramble, is a multi-pierced, tattoo-covered malcontent with big dreams for his rock band, the Demon Monkeys. Will Nate get straight with Rachel's aid? Do the greedy heirs get theirs? What's the real legacy of a lifetime's work? The Testament is classic Grisham: a down-and-out lawyer, a lot of money, an action-packed pursuit, and the highest issues at stake. It's not just about great characters; it's about the question of what character is. --Rebekah Warren
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Product Description
Troy Phelan is a self-made billionaire, one of the richest men in the United States. He is also eccentric, reclusive, confined to a wheelchair, and looking for a way to die. His heirs, to no one's surprise--especially Troy's--are circling like vultures.
Nate O'Riley is a high-octane Washington litigator who's lived too hard, too fast, for too long. His second marriage in a shambles, and 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.
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Customer Reviews
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Great voice, so-so plot
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-09-30
Here's my review system--I score on four categories and average them together for the number of stars. The four categories are: character development (are the characters deep and complex, plot (is it interesting), voice (is the narration smooth and engaging) and cliche level (is it predictable.)
Characters: 5 stars-- I found the two main characters fascinating
Plot: 2 stars-- it went on an on to a predictable ending
Voice: 5 stars -- very smooth which I believe is Grisham's strong suit
Cliche: 3 stars -- good lawyers and greedy lawyers as JG does
Overall Score 3 stars
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Legal Wrangling, Adventure, Sleaze, Redemption
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-08-03
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.
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Had its Moments, Just Not Enough of Them
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-07-01
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...
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A Nutty Billionaire, Hapless Heirs, Greedy Lawyers, a Brazilian Search for Livingstone, and Redemption
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-06-21
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
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!
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A bit of a slow reader
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-05-10
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
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.
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