The Testament

A will is a 1999 Doubleday published under the title The Testament Roman ( Thriller ) of the American author John Grisham. It is about how one -weary lawyer makes up for his company on one last great adventure to find the only legitimate heir of a multi-billionaire.

Content

The multi-billionaire Troy Phelan is contrary to the idea that his three wives and six children just waiting for his death to go to his heir; he wants to trick them into a final dramatic act: it can be certified and signed in front of cameras a testament his testamentary capacity of a psychiatric Commission. After the psychiatrist and the witnesses to his lawyer Josh Stafford and his butler Malcolm Snead are gone, Phelan signing a holographic will, and then plunges from its rooftop terrace. The holographic will consider the heirs only to the extent that they inherit an amount sufficient to cover its liabilities at the date of signature. The trick in this clause is that the executor Phelan ( Stafford) instructs a month not to publish the will. He wants to ensure that his heirs who believe to inherit a large sum to spend a lot of money. At the same time determines a further clause that in a legal challenge of the will the legacy of the respective heirs completely eliminated. The rest goes to a all unknown illegitimate daughter named Rachel Lane, a missionary living in the Pantanal in the jungles of Brazil.

The wähnenden betrayed family members engage a pack of greedy lawyers to contest this will. The corrupt Snead, who throughout his life was the multi-billionaire to the side, should be a key witness and affirm that the old man was crazy. At the same time the executor sends his partner Nate O'Riley, a alcoholic who once again has delivered a withdrawal behind him, into the jungle to search for the heiress. Given the difficult search in the humid jungle, he finds it increasingly difficult to resist the bottle.

Finally he discovers the heiress. She lives as a doctor and a missionary to the Indians a humble, selfless existence. The money that she inherited, she's not interested. You will also sign nothing they auswiese as heir. O'Riley is fascinated by her person, and the environment in which it operates, the family sense of originality, he makes Lane even a marriage proposal. On the way back to the U.S. he has in a church almost like a religious enlightenment. During his stay in the jungle Nate ill with dengue.

Although nothing The signed exists, which guarantees the right of the heir, defend O'Riley and his partner 's heritage against the advocates of the opposite side. In particular, they dismantle their main witness, the corrupt Butler. At the same time O'Riley feels driven, with his family, to come especially his scattered children living in Pure. Given his own failings he feels the injustice of the multi-billionaire has done to his children by having ignored them and never let feel safety. A part of the inheritance, in a comparison with the lawyers the other side conceded the disadvantaged main branch of the family, enough so to start a carefree life. The main tranche but to go to the venerated by O'Riley doctor - missionary.

Hoping to be able to persuade them to accept this heritage, O'Riley moves again into the jungle. There, the heiress but has since died of a tropical disease. There are however a will. In this she declares herself ready to begin their heritage. It is to go into a foundation whose purpose is to spread the ideals that has lived the heiress. To the executor and trustee of the Foundation, she has O'Riley determined.

Expenditure

John Grisham: The Testament. Century Books, London 1999, ISBN 0-7126-7826-3.
John Grisham: The Testament. Translated by K. Schatzhauser. 4th Edition, Heyne, München 2001, ISBN 3-453-19002-5.
John Grisham: The Testament. Reading. Abridged reading version. Random House Audio, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89830-846-4 (5 CDs, read by Charles Brauer ).

Literary work
Literature ( 20th century)
Literature ( English )
Literature (United States)
Crime Fiction
Novel, epic
Work of John Grisham

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