This addictive tale of a young lawyer defending a black Vietnam war hero who kills the white druggies who raped his child in tiny Clanton, Mississippi, is John Grisham's first novel, and his favorite of his first six. He polished it for three years and every detail shines like pebbles at the bottom of a swift, sunlit stream. Grisham is a born legal storyteller and his dialogue is pitch perfect.

The plot turns with jeweled precision. Carl Lee Hailey gets an M-16 from the Chicago hoodlum he'd saved at Da Nang, wastes the rapists on the courthouse steps, then turns to attorney Jake Brigance, who needs a conspicuous win to boost his career. Folks want to give Carl Lee a second medal, but how can they ignore premeditated execution? The town is split, revealing its social structure. Blacks note that a white man shooting a black rapist would be acquitted; the KKK starts a new Clanton chapter; the NAACP, the ambitious local reverend, a snobby, Harvard-infested big local firm, and others try to outmaneuver Jake and his brilliant, disbarred drunk of an ex-law partner. Jake hits the books and the bottle himself. Crosses burn, people die, crowds chant "Free Carl Lee!" and "Fry Carl Lee!" in the antiphony of America's classical tragedy. Because he's lived in Oxford, Mississippi, Grisham gets compared to Faulkner, but he's really got the lean style and fierce folk moralism of John Steinbeck. --Tim Appelo


Amazon.com Audiobook Review
With a chillingly calm, even delivery, Michael Beck, a regular Grisham reader (The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury), turns the narrative of this disturbing tale of racism, ignorance, and brutality into an almost visceral experience. "Cobb strung a length of quarter inch ski rope over a limb ... he grabbed her and put the noose around her head." The story is frighteningly believable and expertly crafted around a horrible crime and the tragic consequences that follow. At times, Beck's character voices can be distracting, but his efforts are generally applied to good effect, adding another level of tension to this already suspenseful look at a small Mississippi town's struggle for justice. (Running time: 17 hourse, 12 cassettes) --George Laney


From Library Journal
In this lively novel, Grisham explores the uneasy relationship of blacks and whites in the rural South. His treatment is balanced and humane, if not particularly profound, slighting neither blacks nor whites. Life becomes complicated in the backwoods town of Clanton, Mississippi, when a black worker is brought to trial for the murder of the two whites who raped and tortured his young daughter. Everyone gets involved, from Klan to NAACP. Grisham's pleasure in relating the byzantine complexities of Clanton politics is contagious, and he tells a good story. There are touches of humor in the dialogue; the characters are salty and down-to-earth. An enjoyable book, which displays a respect for Mississippi ways and for the contrary people who live there. Recommended.- David Keymer, SUNY Coll. of Technology, UticaCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
"Grisham's pleasure in relating the Byzantine  complexities of Clanton (Mississippi) politics is  contagious and he tells a good story...An enjoyable book."  -- Library Journal.  

"Grisham excels!" -- Dallas Times  Herald.


Review
"Grisham's pleasure in relating the Byzantine  complexities of Clanton (Mississippi) politics is  contagious and he tells a good story...An enjoyable book."  -- Library Journal.  

"Grisham excels!" -- Dallas Times  Herald.

ANNOTATION

Available for the first time in a hardcover edition, this riveting novel of rape, murder, retribution, and justice set in rural Mississippi was Grisham's first novel and led to his subsequent bestsellers The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Client.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

John Grisham has become, in less than three years, America's most popular author. While The Firm first put him on bestseller lists across the country, and The Pelican Brief and The Client confirmed his status as the master of the legal thriller, it was A Time to Kill that launched his writing career. Originally published in a small print-run in 1989, and for years unavailable in hardcover, Doubleday is proud to publish a new trade hardcover edition of this gripping courtroom drama. Near the rural town of Clanton, Mississippi, little Tonya Hailey is brutally raped, beaten, and left for dead by two drunken and remorseless men. The rapists are almost immediately caught in a road side bar, where they have been bragging of their exploits. When the men appear in court days later, Tonya's father Carl bursts out of the courthouse basement, and executes them with an assault rifle. Murder or executions? Justice or revenge? Carl trusts his life to only one man in town - local criminal lawyer Jake Brigance, who dreams of famous cases, headlines, and the big time. Jake is about to face the fight of his life, and he knows it. Not only is he up against Rufus Buckley - a tough, ambitious district attorney who realizes that a murder conviction could help him gain higher office - but he has a much bigger problem: the rapists are white, the judge is white - and Carl is black. This is a trial sure to change forever the lives of everyone involved. A Time to Kill is a riveting novel that challenges everything we think we know about justice and equality.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal