What is it that after all these years that can keep a reader glued to a novel? What is it that keeps the pages of a novel flipping? What is it that can make an hour seem like ten minutes? The answer is suspense: each novel of this genre constantly repeats the same steps over and over, yet each novel is entirely different at the same time. The Summons by John Grisham is a suspenseful mystery. The suspense within the novel is created through the anticipation of the reader, action involving the main character, as well at threats and blackmail usually directed towards the main character.
             In order to maintain suspense throughout a novel the writer must follow a set of rules. One of which requires the author to cause anticipation for the reader. John Grisham does this in his suspense-thriller novel The Summons he makes the reader feel nervous, but at the same time curious about what is going to happen. These tricky ingredients are what concoct anticipation. Grisham uses these ingredients in his novel when the main character is moving money from his car to his apartment and runs into a gang: "As he entered the parking garage, he saw something that terrified him. At the far end of the mall passing under a street lamp, was a group of five or six black teenagers. They were moving slowly in his general direction, yelling, talking loudly, looking for trouble" (Grisham 147). In this excerpt alone, Grisham causes the reader to worry and to anticipate what will happen, and in doing this he creates suspense. Scholars have stated that "Suspense is largely an anxious curiosity- emotional, of course- to know what is going to result from certain given causes and what in turn will happen as a consequence of these results." (Play Writing- Suspense and Surprise), Grisham seizes this advice and imports it into his
             writing to effectively create suspense. Grisham's other tactic to arouse suspense within a reader is lettin...