book review a time to kill

A Time to Kill by John Grisham: Summary, Characters & Quotes

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If you’re a fan of legal thrillers, you’ve likely heard of John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill.” The novel explores themes of racism, justice, and morality and has become a classic in the genre.

Grisham’s “A Time to Kill” is fast-paced and suspenseful, keeping readers on the edge as the trial unfolds. The novel is told from multiple perspectives, including those of Brigance, Hailey, and the prosecuting attorney, giving readers a well-rounded view of the events unfolding. In addition to its thrilling plot, “A Time to Kill” is also known for its thought-provoking themes and memorable characters, making it a must-read for fans of the genre.

Key Takeaways:

• “A Time to Kill” by John Grisham is a classic legal thriller that explores themes of racism, justice, and morality.
• Grisham’s writing style is fast-paced and suspenseful, with multiple perspectives giving readers a well-rounded view of the events.
• The novel’s memorable characters and thought-provoking themes make it a must-read for fans of the genre.

Table of Contents

Summary of A Time to Kill

A time to kill book review, characters in the book “a time to kill”, film adaptation, stage play adaptation, faq’s, neha jhunjhunwala.

John Grisham’s ‘A Time to Kill’ takes place in the small town of Clanton, Mississippi. The book follows the story of a young lawyer named Jake Brigance, who is asked to defend a black man named Carl Lee Hailey. Carl Lee is accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, Tonya.

The story begins with the rape of Tonya, which sets off a chain of events that leads to the murder trial. Carl Lee takes matters into his own hands and shoots the two rapists in the courthouse as they are escorted to jail. Jake Brigance is then hired to defend Carl Lee in court, as the town is divided on whether he was justified in his actions.

Throughout the trial, Brigance faces many challenges and obstacles, including threats from the Ku Klux Klan, who want to see Carl Lee convicted. Brigance also faces opposition from the prosecutor, Rufus Buckley, who is determined to see Carl Lee put to death.

As the trial progresses, Brigance uncovers evidence that suggests the two rapists were guilty of raping Tonya and other heinous crimes. The difficulty comes to a dramatic conclusion, with Brigance delivering a powerful closing argument that sways the jury in Carl Lee’s favor.

JOHN GRISHAM WAS A RELATIVELY UNKNOWN AUTHOR when A Time to Kill was first published in 1989. However, the novel quickly gained popularity and became a bestseller. It was later adapted into a successful film in 1996, starring Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, and Samuel L. Jackson.

The novel’s success can be attributed to Grisham’s ability to create a compelling story that tackles critical social issues. A Time to Kill explores themes such as racism, justice, and the power of the legal system. The characters are well-developed, and their struggles and motivations are relatable.

Grisham’s writing style is clear and concise, making the novel easy to read and understand. He also uses vivid descriptions and dialogue to bring the story to life. Using multiple perspectives adds depth to the narrative and allows the reader to see the events from different angles.

The main characters in the story keep their readers more awaited for the next move. All the characters had distinctive roleplays in the story, which you will know about when you read. Here are the characters’ names that made it a massive success for Grisham as “A time to kill” went popular.

• Jake Brigance
• Carl Lee Hailey
• Ellen Roark
• Tonya Hailey
• Lucien Wilbanks
• Judge Omar Noose
• Sheriff Ozzie Walls
• Gwen Hailey
• Lester Hailey
• Harry Rex Vonner
• Cat Bruster

The quotes from ‘A Time to Kill’ provide insight into the characters’ personalities and beliefs. Jake Brigance is a dedicated lawyer who believes in the importance of the law, while Carl Lee Hailey is a man who has lost faith in the justice system. Rufus Buckley is a ruthless prosecutor willing to do whatever it takes to win. The quotes add depth to the characters and enhance the overall themes of the novel.

“Mr. Buckley, let me explain it this way. And I’ll do so very carefully and slowly so that even you will understand it. If I was the sheriff, I would not have arrested him. If I was on the grand jury, I would not have indicted him. If I was the judge, I would not try him. If I was the D.A., I would not prosecute him. If I was on the trial jury, I would vote to give him a key to the city, a plaque to hang on his wall, and I would send him home to his family. And, Mr. Buckley, if my daughter is ever raped, I hope I have the guts to do what he did.”

“This was Mississippi, where for years whites shot blacks for any reason or no reason and no one cared; where whites raped blacks and it was considered sport; where blacks were hanged for fighting back.”

“Make friends with fear, Lucien always said, because it will not go away, and it will destroy you if left uncontrolled.”

“Lucien had taught him that fear was good; fear was an ally; that every lawyer was afraid when he stood before a new jury and presented his case. It was okay to be afraid – just don’t show it.”

“Fear was good; fear was an ally; that every lawyer was afraid when he stood before a new jury and presented his case. It was okay to be afraid – just don’t show it.”

“My dad’s filthy rich, and even though we’re Irish Catholic, I’m an only child. I’ve got more money than you do, so I’ll work for free. No charge. A free law clerk for three weeks. I’ll do all the research, typing, answering the phone. I’ll even carry your briefcase and make the coffee. I was afraid you’d want to be a law partner. No, I’m a woman, and I’m in the South. I know my place.”

Adaptations

A Time to Kill has been adapted into two different formats: a film and a stage play. Here is a brief overview of each adaptation:

The film adaptation of A Time to Kill was released in 1996 and was directed by Joel Schumacher. It starred Matthew McConaughey as Jake Brigance, Sandra Bullock as Ellen Roark, and Samuel L. Jackson as Carl Lee Hailey. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $152 million worldwide. However, it received some criticism for handling the sensitive subject matter.

The stage play adaptation of A Time to Kill premiered in Washington, D.C., in 2011 and was written by Rupert Holmes. It has since been performed in various cities across the United States. The play follows the same basic plot as the novel and film but includes additional scenes and characters. The space received mixed reviews, with some praising the performances and others criticizing the pacing and structure.

What is the moral lesson in A Time to Kill by John Grisham?

The moral lesson in A Time to Kill by John Grisham is that the legal system does not always serve justice and that sometimes people must take justice into their own hands to protect what is right.

What are some of the best John Grisham books?

Some of the best John Grisham books include The Firm, The Pelican Brief, A Time to Kill, The Client, and The Rainmaker.

What is the order of John Grisham’s books?

The order of John Grisham books is as follows: A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, The Broker, Playing for Pizza, The Appeal, The Associate, The Confession, The Litigators, Calico Joe, The Racketeer, Sycamore Row, Gray Mountain, Rogue Lawyer, The Whistler, Camino Island, The Rooster Bar, and The Reckoning.

What are some movies based on John Grisham’s books?

Some movies based on John Grisham’s books include A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Rainmaker, Runaway Jury, and The Chamber.

The novel’s vivid portrayal of the racial tensions in the South during the 1980s is disturbing and eye-opening. Grisham’s use of descriptive language and dialogue effectively captures the emotions and motivations of his characters, making them relatable and believable.

The quotes from the novel provide insight into the characters’ perspectives and add depth to the story. They also serve as reminders of the novel’s central themes and message.

This is Neha Jhunjhunwala, one of the writers for this book review website. Her interest in this field is driven by her exposure to a plethora of books from a very early age. By sharing her observations and insights on different books with others on this website, she hopes to motivate and inspire people to read more and more books and help them better their knowledge of different genres and enrich their lives.

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Books of The Times

John Grisham Brings Back His Hero Jake Brigance for a Third Case

By Sarah Lyall

• Oct. 13, 2020
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Hello again, Jake Brigance! You’ve come back at the right time. It’s nice to return to the courtroom with someone we trust. It’s reassuring to remember that not everyone is crazy and unpredictable, and that books, even books about crime and punishment, can help restore our equilibrium in this season of high anxiety.

“A Time for Mercy” is the third John Grisham novel to feature Brigance, a small-town Mississippi lawyer specializing in unpopular, seemingly unwinnable cases. He first appeared more than 30 years ago in Grisham’s debut novel, “A Time to Kill” (1989), which began with a printing of 5,000 copies but became a runaway best seller (and a movie, starring Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock) after the explosive popularity of Grisham’s second novel, “The Firm” (1991), which didn’t feature Brigance.

Set in 1985 in the fictional town of Clanton, Miss., “A Time to Kill” described Jake’s defense of an undeniably guilty but very sympathetic client — a Black man on trial for killing the two white men who brutally raped his 10-year-old daughter. The novel is a nuanced, sensitive portrait of a particular time and place in a rural south still riven by racial discord and infected by the Ku Klux Klan, a fine work wrapped inside a legal thriller. Some readers like it best of all Grisham’s books.

Jake reappeared in “Sycamore Row” (2013), this time in the service of a recently deceased client with an idiosyncratic view of estate planning. (Among other things, this client left most of his considerable fortune not to his children but to his Black housekeeper, and not for the reasons you might think.) And now comes “A Time for Mercy.” You get the feeling that Grisham, who has written several dozen books by now, has returned to the place closest to his heart.

Thirty-one years have passed in the real world since we were first in Clanton, but only five in its fictional life. (How satisfying to see time plodding along at its own pace, back in those sleepy days before smartphones or the internet.) Jake is still living with the repercussions of the earlier murder trial. Once again, he is broke; once again, he takes on a case nobody else wants; once again, he finds himself saddled with a client whose excellent reasons for committing murder do not change the fact that he is indeed guilty.

Grisham lays out the grisly back story in the tense opening pages. A sheriff’s deputy comes home drunk and violent, and proceeds to beat his girlfriend unconscious while her two teenage children cower upstairs. As she lies there, apparently dead, her 16-year-old son, Drew, grabs the cop’s gun and kills him in a fit of fury and fear. He’s charged with capital murder, which carries the death penalty. Clanton reserves a special level of hatred for cop killers.

Jake knows that no good can come of his decision to represent Drew. He is already tens of thousands of dollars in debt, Drew’s family is indigent, and the work will pay next to nothing. Half the town, including the entire law-enforcement community, is furious at him. In the diner where he eats breakfast, longstanding acquaintances turn their backs.

But the judge in the case, with the Dickensian name of Omar Noose, all but orders him to go ahead. “The situation can get dicey and needs a steady hand,” the judge says. “I trust you, Jake, and that’s why I’m asking you to step in.”

The trial doesn’t come until three-quarters of the way through the book. This is a leisurely story, told by a master of plotting and pacing, and there’s no use in him or us rushing our way through it. Grisham puts us inside the heads not just of Jake and Drew, but also of an extended cast of characters — the lawyers, the cops, the prosecutors, the relatives, Judge Noose, Jake’s informal team of advisers. Clanton is a complicated town, a community of old grudges and deep connections driven by forces like race, class, religion, politics and family. Grisham helps us understand, if not quite sympathize with, most everyone in the book.

The trial is riveting, but don’t expect anyone to burst into the courtroom at the last minute waving a piece of paper that upends the proceedings. The jurors aren’t secretly sleeping with the lawyers; the judge is not being paid off by the local crime boss. But it’s striking how suspenseful the story is anyway, how much we’re gripped by the small details.

I was reminded, oddly enough, of the great Danish political TV drama “Borgen,” which derives excitement not from soap opera-ish, “House of Cards”-style developments but from the viewers’ investment in the outcome of carefully crafted, un-showy plotlines.

In “Borgen,” you become caught up in the suspense of whether the Danish Parliament can muster the votes to pass its farm bill. In “A Time for Mercy,” you care, very much, whether Drew’s mother can pay for a new transmission for her car; whether Drew’s schooling can continue in prison before the trial; and whether the judge will let Jake embark on a particular line of questioning. Not all the tangents are fully fleshed-out. Grisham is uncharacteristically insensitive in his portrayal of a pregnancy subplot, and there’s an ancillary court case involving a railroad that fades in and out of importance in a way that feels unsatisfying.

But I found this book so useful to my psyche. Reading can be difficult right now. It’s hard to escape the anxious noise in our heads, the sense that the world is falling apart right outside our doors. Every reader is different, and some people might well like to fall into flamboyant thrillers with high body counts, corrupt officials and preposterous plot twists.

Clanton is the wrong town for them. There’s a quiet goodness in many of its residents.

Sure, tension always shimmers beneath the surface. Not everyone is a decent person. Life is unfair. Neat resolutions are hard to come by.

But the lawyers believe in professional courtesy, and in acknowledging jobs well done. The sheriff believes in playing by the book. The ladies in the church believe that helping the struggling family of a teenage murderer is the right thing to do. Judge Noose is determined to see that justice, or some version of it, prevails.

And at a time when our opinions are terrifyingly polarized, Grisham reminds us that people aren’t one thing or another, but composed instead in shades of gray.

Toward the end of the trial, the jury is struggling to reach a verdict. Fights are breaking out.

The judge instructs them to try harder.

“I want each of you, regardless of how you now feel about this case, to begin anew from the position of accepting the opposing view,” he says. “We are in no hurry.”

A Time for Mercy By John Grisham 468 pages. Doubleday. $29.95.

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In this searing courtroom drama, best-selling  author John Grisham probes the savage depths of  racial violence... as he delivers a compelling tale  of uncertain justice in a small southern  town...

Clanton, Mississippi. The life of a  ten-year-old girl is shattered by two drunken and  remorseless young man. The mostly white town reacts  with shock and horror at the inhuman crime. Until  her black father acquires an assault rifle -- and  takes justice into his own outraged hands.

For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of  sniper fire spread through the streets of  Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as young defense  attorney Jake Brigance struggles to save his  client's life... and then his own...

A Time to Kill by John Grisham

• Publication Date: June 1, 1992
• Mass Market Paperback: 515 pages
• Publisher: Island Books
• ISBN-10: 0440211727
• ISBN-13: 9780440211723

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[Book Review] ‘A Time to Kill’ by John Grisham

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Ray Grisham Jr. is an American novelist, attorney, politician, and activist, best known for his popular legal thrillers . His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide. Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University and received a J.D. degree from the University Of Mississippi School Of Law in 1981. He practiced criminal law for about a decade and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from January 1984 to September 1990. His first novel, A Time to Kill , was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. As of 2012, his books have sold over 275 million copies worldwide. A Galaxy British Book Awards winner, Grisham is one of only three authors to sell two million copies on a first printing , the other two being Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling .

This was Mississippi, where for years whites shot blacks for any reason or no reason and no one cared; where whites raped blacks and it was considered sport; where blacks were hanged for fighting back.

A Time To Kill is the story of a black man (Carl Lee), who is on trial for killing his daughter’s rapists – who were whites. It follows the life of the lawyer (Jake Brigance, also a white), who is trying to secure the man’s acquittal at a trial before a predominantly white jury.

The book has a simple and straightforward plot, with detailed character traits and personalities. The events, the situations, the verbal exchange, and the emotional states have all been described meticulously. Grisham carefully balances his characters so that we get to see both sides of each argument in the trial, particularly on vigilantism and capital punishment.

While there’s a lot of sympathy for Carl Lee, especially among the black townsfolk, there is also a sizeable slice of opinion that vigilantism, whatever the provocation, is wrong; and then there’s the minority of white supremacists, who think that Carl Lee should be lynched. Throughout the story, Grisham doesn’t paint anyone as a complete hero, and only a select few characters are portrayed as truly evil.

Grisham builds on the lawyer’s initial skepticism of the racial tensions being an issue, then the dawning on him of the backlash that he and his family may have to endure if he continues to be involved in the case. The lawyer is only human, after all; he has a family to provide for and a job to do despite the difficulties it poses.

The author has acknowledged that such a heavy plot scheme needs some light humor in order to counterbalance the two diametrically opposite ideologies and arguments. For this, he ingeniously turns to the lawyer’s former mentor – a now disbarred lawyer with a sharp brain but a penchant for whiskey. He is a sidekick , in as much as he is a main character, without the downside of being involved in a head-to-head battle against a vociferous but influential minority.

Mr. Buckley, let me explain it this way. And I’ll do so very carefully and slowly so that even you will understand it. If I was the sheriff, I would not have arrested him. If I was on the grand jury, I would not have indicted him. If I was the judge, I would not try him. If I was the D.A., I would not prosecute him. If I was on the trial jury, I would vote to give him a key to the city, a plaque to hang on his wall, and I would send him home to his family. And, Mr. Buckley, if my daughter is ever raped, I hope I have the guts to do what he did.

However, the novel isn’t devoid of shortcomings. The most obvious one is its length, and although 515 pages ensure that no detail, however minute, goes unmentioned, they also make reading the book an arduous task. Secondly, the book has a few leads that start but either end haphazardly or do not end at all. Finally, even though it is difficult to come up with a legal thriller without using legal jargon, the book contains a lot of legal argot , which hinders a lucid reading experience.

All in all, A Time to Kill is an ambitious, sprawling book that presents an unbiased take on racism, ethics, fatherhood, friendship, politics, gender and, of course, law and corruption. Scoring a 4 out of 5, it is well written, both politically and emotionally, and makes the reader question the racial bias that was rampant back in the day and the price that one may have to pay in their relentless pursuit of justice.

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A Time to Kill by John Grisham Book Review & Summary

Here is a legal (and book summary) review of John Grisham’s A Time To Kill . This book is a classic legal thriller and made my list of top legal thriller novels . Overall, I found this book enjoyable with some implausible jury stuff. But, it is a good example of how an author can raise the stakes in a legal thriller without a lot of weird legal stuff. (Here’s looking at you, Season 2 of Goliath .) I give this book 4 out of 5 stars .

John Grisham’s A Time To Kill – Book Summary

[yasr_overall_rating]

Before I begin, this book review contains a lot of spoilers. So stop reading if you don’t want to be spoiled.

Ready? Here goes.

Unlike most of John Grisham’s books, this one starts with a bang. And when I say bang, I mean a Hiroshima-sized atomic bomb. Two white guys named Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard kidnap ten-year-old Tonya Hailey. She is beaten, raped, and left to die. Some Black men find her, call the only Black Sheriff Ozzie Walls. Carl Lee Hailey is her dad. Carl Lee’s brother was Lester, whose former defense attorney was Jake Brigance.

So Carl Lee kills the two white men with a M16 rifle that he obtained from his buddy Cat, and Jake takes over as his attorney. It’s going to make him famous. But before he becomes famous, he has to lose his house, possibly his wife, his secretary, and just about his sanity. The odds are stacked against him because the defense’s strategy is the affirmative defense of insanity. That means, the defendant admitted that he killed the two men, but he claimed that he was insane at the time he did it.

The case is almost thrown out in the grand jury. That’s the jury who decides whether there is enough evidence to move forward with a trial. We don’t usually have grand juries in Pennsylvania for county-led trials, but I guess Mississippi has them.

So, everyone involved in Carl Lee’s defense start getting threats from the KKK’s newest chapter in Ford County. Except they have a sympathizer (who ends up dying) named Mickey Mouse. Admist regular protests outside the courthouse, Jake’s house burning down, Ellen (Jake’s law clerk) gets kidnapped, an officer has his leg removed because Carl Lee accidentally shot him, Peter ends up getting shot instead of Jake, and Jake’s secretary’s husband is beaten.

Those are the rising stakes, my friend. And all too plausible in a racially-charged case like this.

Oh, and by the way, the case is almost thrown out because the psychiatrist that Jake “hires” was charged for statutory rape of a judge’s daughter.

The jury deadlocks for several days but returns with a not guilty verdict.

The book was also a movie, played by Matthew McConaughey . Oh, yeah, also Sandra Bullock. Who is she, anyway?

John Grisham’s A Time To Kill – Legal Review

I like to call John Grisham’s books “legal realism.” Meaning, he gets a lot of the courtroom dramas right, but Grisham tends to put unrealistic legal stuff in his book. What’s worse is that he hinges the outcome of his book on said legal stuff. In this instance, it’s about the jury pool.

The jury is picked from a random slot of people in the community. In this case, from Ford County (a made up county in Mississippi). And in his book, he has two different juries. The first is the grand jury. As I said up in the book summary, the grand jury decides whether there is enough evidence to go forward. It isn’t really a trial, but the District Attorney can present evidence, or at least enough evidence to get by to a trial.

And a man on the grand jury didn’t think it should go to trial, and the charges were very, very, very close to being thrown out.

Grisham then gets to the real jury, and to picking said jury. Everyone already knows who is on the jury list. And has researched and/or threatened each and every one of the jurors. Actually, I think that part might be accurate. Jury tampering and jury selection stuff goes on all the time, and this was the 80s.

What I don’t like is that the girlfriend/wife/roommate/friend of the man who almost got the grand jury to throw out the charge was the person (not only) selected for the trial jury, but she got the rest of the jury to throw out the case. Jury selection is much too random for something like that to happen. And it’s not the first time that John Grisham has used a similar technique of tampering with the jury. Does. Not. Happen.

If he had changed that one fact … that the woman was no where related to the man who almost got the charges thrown out … then the book’s outcome would have been 100% believable. And what I don’t understand is … why? Why make them related in any way? Why couldn’t they have figured out what they did after the trial? Like, the grand jury juror met up with the trial juror and bought a round?

And here’s something about perception. John Grisham is touted as a former trial attorney. That means his books must be accurate, right? Well, the public tends to think so, and they tend to overlook the parts that basically wouldn’t happen. In other words, because he’s the so-called expert, then the jury selection MUST be plausible.

Except it isn’t.

I like to call this the CSI effect. The public thinks CSI is accurate (most of the time, it isn’t). So everyone then becomes a criminal attorney by CSI education.

This book was set in the 1980s in the South (Mississippi) amongst racisms, protests, and the horrible rape of a young Black girl. I want to think we’ve gotten better as a society, but this flash from the past just might prove how very wrong I am. Here’s looking at you, Charlottesville, VA. Also, Grisham uses the epithets “nigger” and “redneck” a lot, which might not fly in today’s publishing market (especially from a white dude).

Before I end this review, all opinions are my own.

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A Time to Kill by John Grisham

• Publication Date: June 1, 1992
• Mass Market Paperback: 515 pages
• Publisher: Island Books
• ISBN-10: 0440211727
• ISBN-13: 9780440211723
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Time to Kill (Grisham)

A Time to Kill John Grisham, 1989 Random House 672 pp. ISBN-13: 9780440245919

Summary In this searing courtroom drama, best-selling author John Grisham probes the savage depths of racial violence as he delivers a compelling tale of uncertain justice in a small southern town.

Clanton, Mississippi. The life of a ten-year-old girl is shattered by two drunken and remorseless young man. The mostly white town reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime. Until her black father acquires an assault rifle—and takes justice into his own outraged hands.

For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of sniper fire spread through the streets of Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as young defense attorney Jake Brigance struggles to save his client's life...and then his own. ( From the publisher .)

Author Bio   • Birth—February 8, 1955 • Where—Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA • Education—B.S., Mississippi State; J.D., University of Mississippi • Currently—lives in Oxford, Mississippi and Albermarle, Virginia John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer, politician, and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers. He has written more than 25 novels, a short story collection ( Ford County ), two works of nonfiction, and a children's series. Grisham's first bestseller was The Firm . Released in 1991, it sold more than seven million copies. The book was later adapted into a feature film, of the same name starring Tom Cruise in 1993, and a TV series in 2012 which "continues the story of attorney Mitchell McDeere and his family 10 years after the events of the film and novel." Eight of his other novels have also been adapted into films: The Chamber, The Client, A Painted House, The Pelican Brief, Skipping Christmas, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury , and his first novel, A Time to Kill . His books have been translated into 29 languages and published worldwide. As of 2008, his books had sold over 250 million copies worldwide. Grisham is one of only three authors to sell two million copies on a first printing; the others are Tom Clancy and J.K. Rowling. Early life and education Grisham, the second oldest of five siblings, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Wanda Skidmore Grisham and John Grisham. His father was a construction worker and cotton farmer; his mother a homemaker. When Grisham was four years old, his family started traveling around the South, until they finally settled in Southaven in DeSoto County, Mississippi. As a child, Grisham wanted to be a baseball player. neither of his parents had advanced education, he was encouraged to read and prepare for college. As a teenager, Grisham worked for a nursery watering bushes for $1.00 an hour. He was soon promoted to a fence crew for $1.50 an hour. At 16, Grisham took a job with a plumbing contractor. Through a contact of his father, he managed to find work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi at the age of 17. It was during this time that an unfortunate incident made him think more seriously about college. A fight broke out among the crew with gunfire, and Grisham ran to the restroom for safety. He did not come out until after the police had "hauled away rednecks." He hitchhiked home and started thinking about college. His next work was in retail, as a salesclerk in a department store men's underwear section, which he described as "humiliating." He decided to quit but stayed when he was offered a raise. He was given another raise after asking to be transferred to toys and then to appliances. A confrontation with a company spy posing as a customer convinced him to leave the store. By this time, Grisham was halfway through college. He went to the Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, Mississippi and later attended Delta State University in Cleveland. Grisham drifted so much during his time at the college that he changed colleges three times before completing a degree. He graduated from Mississippi State University in 1977, receiving a BS degree in accounting. He later enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law planning to become a tax lawyer. But he was soon overcome by "the complexity and lunacy" of it. He decided to return to his hometown as a trial lawyer, but his interest shifted to general civil litigation. He graduated in 1983 with a JD degree. Law and politics Grisham practiced law for about a decade and also won election as a Democrat in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990 at an annual salary of $8,000. By his second term at the Mississippi state legislature, he was the vice-chairman of the Apportionment and Elections Committee and a member of several other committees. With the success of his second book The Firm , published in 1991, Grisham gave up practicing law. He returned briefly in 1996 to fight for the family of a railroad worker who had been killed on the job. It was a commitment made to the family before leaving law to become a full-time writer. Grisham successfully argued his clients' case, earning them a jury award of $683,500—the biggest verdict of his career. Writing Grisham said that, sometime in the mid-1980s, he had been hanging around the court one day when he overheard a 12-year-old girl telling the jury how she been beaten and raped. Her story intrigued Grisham, so he began to watch the trial, noting how members of the jury wept during her testimony. It was then, Grisham later wrote in the New York Times , that a story was born. Musing over "what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants," Grisham took three years to complete his first book, A Time to Kill . Finding a publisher was not easy. The book was rejected by 28 publishers before Wynwood Press, an unknown publisher, agreed to give it a modest 5,000-copy printing. It was published in June 1989. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill , he began work on his second novel, the story of an ambitious young attorney "lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared." The Firm remained on the the New York Times ' bestseller list for 47 weeks and became the bestselling novel of 1991. Beginning with A Painted House in 2001, the author broadened his focus from law to the more general rural South, but continued to write legal thrillers. He has also written sports fiction and comedy fiction. In 2005, Grisham received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust. In 2010, Grisham started writing legal thrillers for children 9-12 years old. The books featured Theodore Boone, a 13-year-old boy, who gives his classmates legal advice—everything from rescuing impounded dogs to helping their parents prevent their house from being repossessed. His daughter, Shea, inspired him to write the Boone series. Marriage and family Grisham married Renee Jones in 1981, and the couple have two grown children together, Shea and Ty. The family spends their time in their Victorian home on a farm outside Oxford, Mississippi, and their other home near Charlottesville, Virginia. The Innocence Project Grisham is a member of the Board of Directors of The Innocence Project, which campaigns to free unjustly convicted people on the basis of DNA evidence. The Innocence Project argues that wrongful convictions are not isolated or rare events but instead arise from systemic defects. Grisham has testified before Congress on behalf of the Project and appeared on Dateline on NBC, Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, and other programs. He also wrote for the New York Times in 2013 about an unjustly held prisoner at Guantanamo. Libel suit In 2007, former legal officials from Oklahoma filed a civil suit for libel against Grisham and two other authors. They claimed that Grisham and the others critical of Peterson and his prosecution of murder cases conspired to commit libel and generate publicity for themselves by portraying the plaintiffs in a false light and intentionally inflicting emotional distress. Grisham was named due to his publication of the non-fiction book, The Innocent Man . He examined the faults in the investigation and trial of defendants in the murder of a cocktail waitress in Ada, Oklahoma, and the exoneration by DNA evidence more than 12 years later of wrongfully convicted defendants Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz. The judge dismissed the libel case after a year, saying, "The wrongful convictions of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz must be discussed openly and with great vigor." Misc. The Mississippi State University Libraries maintains the John Grisham Room, an archive containing materials related to his writings and to his tenure as Mississippi State Representative. Grisham has a lifelong passion for baseball demonstrated partly by his support of Little League activities in both Oxford, Mississippi, and Charlottesville, Virginia. He wrote the original screenplay for and produced the 2004 baseball movie Mickey , starring Harry Connick, Jr. He remains a fan of Mississippi State University's baseball team and wrote about his ties to the university and the Left Field Lounge in the introduction for the book Dudy Noble Field: A Celebration of MSU Baseball . In an October 2006 interview on the Charlie Rose Show , Grisham stated that he usually takes only six months to write a book and that his favorite author is John le Carre. ( Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/6/2013 .)

Book Reviews ( Pre-internet books have few, if any, mainstream press reviews online. See Amazon or Barnes & Noble for helpful customer reviews .)

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, Utica Library Journal

Discussion Questions 1 . How would you describe Sheriff Ozzie Walls?

2. Why did Tonya envision her father running "desperately" through the woods?

3. Talk about the town's reaction to Tonya's rape. What role does race play in the way the townspeople respond?

4. Why does Carl Lee Hailey shoot Cobb and Willard? What are the chances that the two men would have been convicted and sentenced? What were your feelings when Hailey shot them?

5. Is Carl Lee Hailey sane...or insane?

6. Why does Jake Brigance decide to take Carl Lee Hailey's case? What, according to Brigance, would a similar case normally cost?

7. Why does Brigance hang a portrait of William Faulkner in his office? What does Faulkner represent to him? And what is implied by the fact that, as Brigance notices, no streets or buildings are named after Grant or Lincoln?

8. Talk about the three families: the Haileys, Cobbs and Willards. How different are they? Do they have anything in common?

9 . What do lawyers fight for—according to Chapter 10?

10. Describe Rufus Buckley. How do he and Jake Brigance compare with one another—in their beliefs, motivations and in the way they approach the law? Now compare Omar Noose. Why does Brigance liken him to Ichabod Crane?

11. How does Brigance's respond to Ethel's concern about the phone calls? What does this reveal about his state of mind?

12. What does Brigance reveal about himself during the New York Times interview?

13. Talk about the various decisions that Jake Brigance makes throughout the book? Are they ethical? Is Jake ethical?

14. What about Reverend Agee, who collects donations for the Hailey fund? Is he fair?

15. What is later revealed about Tonya? Has she recovered from her ordeal?

16. Talk about the role of court testimony by psychiatrists? How credible...or non-credible are they?

17. What have you learned in this book about way the legal system works? What are preliminary hearings, grand juries, and arraignments? Does the system work the way you believe it should?

18. Talk about the volunteer/pro bono team that assists Brigance. What do you think of Ellen Roark, for instance? What assets and liabilities does each team member bring to the Hailey case?

19. What is the significance of Jake's vomiting and weeping? How is this trial changing him? What is the (non-literal) meaning of the sentence, "Jake sipped his beer and searched for daylight through the window"?

20. Talk about the Ku Klux Klan and its role in the trial.

21. Examine Brigance's closing argument: how does he endear the jury to Dr. Bass and reestablish the relevance of the doctor's testimony? How does Brigance portray Buckley as a father figure? What part of Looney's testimony does he call to mind? Does his recalling the rape scene from Tonya's perspective help the insanity plea?

22. Talk about the jury...and the way in which it reaches its decision. Why are members unwilling to deadlock? How does Wanda Womack's proposal sway them?

23. After reading this book, has your attitude toward the legal system changed in any way? ( Questions adapted by LitLovers from Scholastic Inc.'s Teacher's Guide .) top of page

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A Time to Kill

48 pages • 1 hour read

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Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-20

Chapters 21-30

Chapters 31-44

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Summary and Study Guide

John Grisham’s 1988 novel A Time to Kill tells the story of attorney Jake Brigance and his infamous client, Carl Lee Hailey . Set against the backdrop of racially charged Mississippi, the legal thriller examines themes of inequality, intolerance, and retribution.

The novel begins when two white men, Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard, abduct and rape a ten-year old black girl named Tonya Hailey. They throw her off a bridge, thinking the fall will kill her, but Tonya survives. Sheriff Ozzie Walls, the first and only black sheriff in Ford County, arrests the two men after they are overheard in a bar bragging about the crime. Days later, as the alleged rapists are leaving a courtroom, Carl Lee Hailey, Tonya’s father, bursts from a janitor’s closet and kills the men with an illegally obtained M-16 rifle. 

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Thirty-two-year-old Jake Brigance, a white attorney practicing out of a solo firm in the small town of Clanton, agrees to represent Carl Lee. Despite the low odds of winning the case, Jake is ambitious and hungry for the publicity the trial will bring. As the case progresses, Jake confers frequently with his mentor, a wealthy and former (that is, disbarred) lawyer named Lucien Wilbanks . Jake also consults with a divorce attorney named Harry Rex Vonner and hires a University of Mississippi law student named Ellen Roark . A group of black community leaders raises money for Carl Lee’s defense and urges him to hire attorneys from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) instead; Carl Lee decides to trust Jake and stick with him.

Early on, Jake and his family begin receiving threatening phone calls from white community members who don’t want to see Carl Lee acquitted. The threats eventually escalate into violence as the trial progresses. The Ku Klux Klan incorporates a new chapter in Ford County to deal with those involved in Carl Lee’s defense. One night dynamite is placed beneath Jake’s bedroom window, and it’s only thanks to an anonymous tip that Ozzie is able to warn Jake in time. Jake sends his wife and daughter away to stay with family until the trial ends.

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Tensions continue to grow. Black protesters and Klan members regularly gather outside the courthouse. One day a riot erupts between the two groups when a firebomb is thrown at the feet of Stump Sisson, the Klan’s Grand Dragon. Stump’s robe catches fire, and he later dies of his wounds. In the aftermath, the National Guard is summoned to keep the peace. The Klan retaliates by burning down Jake’s house and then abducting and violently assaulting his legal aide, Ellen. A marksman takes a shot at Jake but misses and hits a National Guardsman standing nearby; the man lives but is paralyzed.

Jake’s trial strategy is to claim that Carl Lee was insane at the time of the shooting. However, Jake begins to believe he will lose the case when the testifying psychiatrist turns out to both lack credible expertise and have been charged with statutory rape charge in his past. During deliberation, the jury is deadlocked for several days. Eventually the jury returns a verdict of not guilty, after one juror, Wanda Womack, asks the others to vote on a single question: If their own daughter had been raped, would they have killed the rapist, given the chance? They all answer “yes” and vote to acquit Carl Lee. Jake earns only $900 for the case but is thrilled with the victory and the opportunities it will bring.

Critics liked A Time to Kill . Grisham practiced law for ten years, and the legal scenes demonstrate authenticity and accuracy regarding the way lawyers and defendants experience a criminal trial. The novel was later adapted into a major motion picture, which also received positive reviews.

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Movie Reviews

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“A Time to Kill,” based on the first novel by John Grisham , is a skillfully constructed morality play that pushes all the right buttons and arrives at all the right conclusions. It begins with the brutal rape of a 10-year-old black girl by two rednecks in a pickup truck. The girl's father kills the rapists in cold blood on their way to a court hearing and cripples a deputy in the process. The local white liberal lawyer agrees to defend him. The Klan plots to gain revenge. Good of course triumphs--but we'll get back to that in a moment.

I was absorbed by “A Time to Kill,” and found the performances strong and convincing, especially the work by Samuel L. Jackson as Carl Lee Hailey, the avenging father, and Matthew McConaughey as Jake Brigance, the lawyer. This is the best of the film versions of Grisham novels, I think, and it has been directed with skill by Joel Schumacher .

But as I watched the film, other thoughts intruded. Grisham recently attacked director Oliver Stone , alleging that Stone's “ Natural Born Killers ” inspired drugged-out creeps to murder a friend of Grisham's. Stone should be sued by the victim's family, Grisham said, offering the theory that “NBK” was to blame under product-liability laws.

Well, Grisham is a lawyer, and lawyers exist to file suits. But one might reasonably ask whether the creeps would have committed the murder without taking the drugs. One might also ask if Grisham forfeits his right to moral superiority by including a subplot in “A Time to Kill” that gives the Ku Klux Klan prominence and a certain degenerate glamor. Yes, Klan members are the villains. But to a twisted mind, their secret meetings and corn-pone rituals might be appealing.

However, if you leave out everything that might inspire a nut, you don't have a movie left--or a free society, either. Artists cannot hold themselves hostage to the possibility that defectives might misuse their work. Grisham should simply be honest enough to recognize that he does the same things he says Stone shouldn't do.

As a story, “A Time to Kill” works effectively. (I will have to discuss certain plot points, so be warned.) Everyone in the county knows Carl Lee Hailey killed the two men who raped his daughter, and many of them share his feelings. (Even the crippled deputy blurts out, under oath, that he would have done the same thing.) But can a black man get a fair trial after murdering two white men, even in the “new” South? The movie milks this question for all it's worth, which isn't much, unless the average audience thinks Hollywood will allow Klan thugs to prevail over the hero. “You're my secret weapon,” the black man tells his white lawyer. “You see me the way the jury will see me. What would it take, if you were on the jury, to set me free?” As Brigance prepares his case, crosses are burned on lawns, anonymous phone calls are made, and his wife ( Ashley Judd ) moves their family to safety.

That's well-timed to clear space for another character, the young lawyer Ellen Roark ( Sandra Bullock ), a rich Northerner who studied law at Ole Miss and wants to be Brigance's unpaid aide. He discourages her, but she turns up with useful leads, and he needs someone to help him counter the expert local district attorney ( Kevin Spacey ).

The movie climaxes with the obligatory courtroom scenes. Brigance's summation is well-delivered by McConaughey, but his tactics left me feeling uneasy. He describes the sadistic acts against Hailey's daughter in almost pornographic detail, then asks the jury, “Now imagine she's white.” That's an odd statement, implying that the white jury wouldn't be offended by the crimes if the victim was black.

Yet the movie itself has trouble imagining its black characters. The subplots involve mostly Brigance's white friends and associates: his alcoholic old mentor ( Donald Sutherland ), his alcoholic young mentor ( Oliver Platt ), his alcoholic expert witness (M. Emmet Walsh), his secretary ( Brenda Fricker ), his wife (Judd), and his unpaid assistant (Bullock). Another strand involves the plotting of the Klan, led by the vicious Cobb ( Kiefer Sutherland ). There are a few scenes involving the NAACP's legal defense people, who persuade the local pastor to hold a fund-raiser for Hailey's legal defense--but insist the money be used for a black lawyer. Hailey turns them down, in an awkward sequence intended, I think, to equate the NAACP lawyers with figures like the Rev. Al Sharpton.

One wonders why more screen time wasn't found for black characters like Hailey's wife. Maybe the answer is that the movie is interested in the white characters as people and the black characters (apart from Carl Lee Hailey) as atmosphere. My advice to the filmmakers about the black people in town: Try imagining they're white.

The ending left me a little confused. (Again, be warned I'll discuss plot points.) A child bursts from the courtroom and tells the waiting crowd that Hailey is “innocent.” A cheer goes up. There is joy and reconciliation. But hold on. Hailey's own defense admits he killed those men. The jury probably found him not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. But “innocent?” Maybe the device of the shouting child was used to avoid such technicalities, and hasten the happy ending.

This review doesn't sound much like praise. Yet I recommend the film. What we have here is an interesting example of the way the movies work. “A Time to Kill” raises a lot of questions, but they don't occur while you're watching the film. The acting is so persuasive and the direction is so fluid that the material seems convincing while it's happening. I was moved by McConaughey's speech to the jury, and even more moved by an earlier speech by Jackson to McConaughey. I cared about the characters. And then I walked out, and got to thinking about the movie's choices and buried strategies. And I read about Grisham's attack on Stone. And I thought, let he who is without sin ...

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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A Time To Kill (1996)

Rated R For A Rape Scene and Occasional Strong Language

145 minutes

Matthew McConaughey as Jake Brigance

Samuel L. Jackson as Carl Lee Hailey

Sandra Bullock as Ellen Roark

Kevin Spacey as Rufus Buckley

Patrick McGoohan as Judge Noose

Kiefer Sutherland as Freddie Cobb

Donald Sutherland as Lucien Wilbanks

Produced by

• Michael Nathanson
• John Grisham
• Arnon Milchan
• Akiva Goldsman

Directed by

• Joel Schumacher

Based On The Novel by

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