I acquired my first two John Grisham novels at the same time and, unfortunately, read _The Partner_ first. But I figured I owed Grisham one more chance before giving up on him completely. Luckily for us both, _The Testament_ is a much better book. I enjoyed the depictions of Brazil and the journies through the Pantanal, and the author managed to confound my expectations about Nate's encounter with Rachel.

If I have one nit to pick, it's that Grisham again introduces an event that makes no narrative sense, that seems to exist only as a contrivance to add a bit of mystery to the proceedings. Since he did something similar in _The Partner_, I'm wondering if this is a common problem in his books. What am I talking about? See below.

********* SPOILER WARNING! **************

When Rachel goes to Corumba and visits Nate in the hospital, he's not sure if he actually saw her or was just dreaming. He and Jevy search everywhere, but find no trace of her; Jevy, with his contacts and local knowledge, is finally convinced that Rachel has not entered the town.

But we learn that Rachel *was* in Corumba! And so we're forced to conclude that she snuck into town, carefully avoiding contact with any of the locals who could identify her. Why? There's no reason for such behavior in the story – it only exists as a plot device for the author to keep Nate – and his readers – guessing until the end. ( )

Loved it! The only bad part was that the story eventually ended. ( )

Nate has spent his career as a lawyer trying to find himself in a bottle. When he has to find a long long and unknown heir to a fortune, he finds more than the heiress, but himself sans that pesky bottle. ( )

This book is like eating a huge ice cream sundae: You're happy you ate it, but your stomach hurts afterwards. It was a good book, but I hated how (**Spoiler**) Nate only met Rachael once. I wish they could have had more interaction. But the heirs of Troy Phelan keep you laughing. Not my favorite ending, but it fit. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this Grisham tale. I spend many hours a week working on estate planning issues and more than once thought while reading The Testament that much of the story is plausible. A good read even though a billion dollars isn't what it once was . . . ( )