The Testament

• Seventy-eight-year-old, three times married, three times divorced eccentric bazillionaire Troy Phelan takes his own life by taking a flying leap from a tall building in front of witnesses, but as he considers his brood of six offspring little more than parasites, he leaves his eleven billion dollar fortune to a woman named Rachel Lane, his illigitamate daughter. Josh, Phelan's, attorney and friend has to track down Rachel, not an easy task as Rachel is a missionary working with remote tribes somewhere in Brazil.
  
  Josh tasks one of his firm's best litigations lawyers, Nate O'Riley to find Rachel and deliver the news. O'Riley seems like the perfect choice for Josh as the man has been in and out of rehab and the firm is having a hard time dealing with him. This could be just the thing to help him get his life back together, plus it will give the firm time to figure out just what to do with him.
  
  However, even as O'Riley sets out for Brazil to track down Rachel, Phalen's six legitimate children decide to contest the will and they'll go to any lengths to prove that old Troy Phelen was out of his ever-loving mind when he did his Superman impression and left that crazy will.
  
  This is a typical John Grisham story. Lots of action. Lots of suspense. And the description of the Amazon river and Nate's quest are spine-tingling. Plus there is a scene that will have you never, ever wanting to go to a third world hospital in the back jungles of nowhere. Brrr. This is one fine book, one I couldn't put down.
  

• 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 comeuppance is frosting on the cake. A delicious read!