Product Description

Troy Phelen 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. Nate O'Riley is a high-octane Washington litigator who's lived too hard, too fast, for too long. Emerging from his fourth stay in rehab, he knows 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".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29596 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk 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, thei r grasping offspring, a legion of lawyers, several psychiatrists and a plethora of sound technician s wait breathlessly. However, the magnate shocks everyone with a bizarre, last-gasp attempt to redi stribute the spoils, setting in motion a legal morality tale of a contested will, sin, and redempti on.

Nate O'Riley--a washed-up, alcoholic lawyer with two ruined marriages in his wake and the taxman on his tail--is dispatched to the Brazilian wetlands in search of a mysterious heir named in the will . After a harrowing trip upriver, 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 so that a nasty bout of dengue fever leads him to a vision that could cha nge 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

Malcom Jones, Newsweek
‘A compulsory page-turner with a subterranean plot as old and potent as myth.’

Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday
‘The Testament is his best novel in the past five . . . a brilliant first chapter . . . you have to go on reading’

Customer Reviews

One of Grisham's best
In THE TESTAMENT, we have an obscenely wealthy businessman committing suicide after devising the perfect plan to vengefully deprive a flock of vulture-like heirs from inheriting his $11 billion estate. Rather, he leaves it all to an illegitimate daughter working as a missionary to the Indians in the remote outback of Brazil. Our hero, Nate, is a burned-out lawyer just out of alcohol rehab sent to find the will's sole beneficiary. Even though she doesn't want the money, he returns to the States to defend her interests against those of the money-desperate ex-heirs and their just-as-greedy lawyers, probably the largest school of razor-toothed sharks ever encountered in a single volume.

Suffice it to say that Nate is one of the most appealing characters conjured by Grisham in a long time. By the end of the book, he finds professional, spiritual and emotional redemption stemming from his surprisingly brief encounter with Rachel, the elusive missionary daughter, and a somewhat longer bout with dengue fever. That, in itself, makes this story worth reading. The fact that the truly avaricious get their just desserts is frosting on the cake. A delicious read!

A good but not great read - still worth the effort
This is a good book & classic Grisham, but not his best (which is still "The Rainmaker" as far as I'm concerned). The difference here is that it's refreshing to see the main character - Nate - removed from the usual seedy surroundings of the law, and sent to deepest, darkest South America to find the mysterious heir to an $11bn fortune. A recovering alcoholic and drug addict fresh from his 4th stay in rehab, Grisham concentrates on exploring the reasons for Nate's habitual self-abuse and his struggles with getting - and staying - clean just one last time. Even so, I felt this darker side could have been delved into much more. His South American adventures make gripping and sometimes amusing stuff, but the downside is that you also have to put up with is "reawakened spirituality", a plot twist which after a while becomes thin and tries your patience. The final chapters where Nate is deposing the ghastly Phelan tribe bring us sharply back to what Grisham is best at - courtroom drama. The story has as poignant ending which peters out somewhat, but don't let this put you off. Still worth the effort.

A Page Turner
John Grisham has done it again. I had read this book originally a year after release. And I just finished my second read. And though it all started to come back to me as I read it...It was still an exciting page-turner as it was the first time. That says a lot about this book.

A self-made billionaire, the tenth richest man in America, has all his heirs come in to prove he is sane and competent before signing his last Will and Testament. Which he does, right before he commits suicide in front of those still present. And of course as he leaves out each and every known heir from his will. And as you learn how greedy and selfish they are, you are pleased he did.

He does pay off all his children's debt and leaves the remainder of his holdings to his illegitimate daughter no one knew he had. Nor does anyone know where she is. His law firm sends a drug/alcohol addict just out of rehab for the fourth time to find her. He finds her an M.D. who has dedicated her life to God and is working deep in the jungles of Brazil.

I found the book a very fast read that has some plot twist and is well written. Well worth the read.