John Grisham keeps cranking out those bestsellers. It seems that anything with his name on it is an instant success. Rightfully so is his novel, Testament. Published in 1999 by Doubleday, Testament is John Grisham at his finest.
Nate O'Riley is a burnt out alcoholic lawyer. He has been in and out of treatment so much that he ought have a center named after him. He gets a chance to redeem himself and clean up his act. He is sent into the wilds of the Brazilian jungle to find an heiress.
Troy Phelan had made several fortunes He also made several families. Troy is now an old man. He is having a psychiatric evaluation done at the behest of his various families. Each family member is expecting to inherit a huge sum of money from Troy's estate.
After meeting with the families, their attorneys and the shrinks, Troy secretly destroys his will and signs off on another one. Then he leaps to his death. Troy's estate is now going to a daughter that nobody knew he had.
Finding the daughter, Rachel Lane, will prove difficult. She is a missionary in the western regions of Brazil. Nate's firm sends him to notify Rachel of her inheritance and to find out her intentions.
Nate has quite an adventure trying to find Rachel. It is not easy to get to her location. Over hill and dale and dangerous rivers Nate must travel to get to Rachel. As a servant of God, will Rachel take her father's money? Will she give it all away or come back into society and be a real rich woman?
Back on the home front, Nate's firm has to contend with all of Troy's other family members. They want to contest this latest will. But did Troy prove tricky enough to give them their due instead of what they wanted?
Testament is a great novel about greed and redemption. John Grisham has written another masterpiece.