Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22732 in Books
• Published on: 1992-12-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Synopsis
When Carl Lee Hailey guns down the hoodlums who have raped his ten-year-old child, the people of Clanton see it as a crime of blood and call for his acquittal. But when extremists outside Clanton hear that a black man has killed two white men, they invade the town, determined to destroy anything and anyone that opposes their sense of justice. Jake Brigance has been hired to defend Hailey. It's the kind of case that can make or break a young lawyer. But in the maelstrom of Clanton, it is also the kind of case that could get a young lawyer killed. 'The best thriller writer alive' - Ken Follett, "Evening Standard". 'Grisham is a natural storyteller' - "Daily Telegraph". 'A giant of the thriller genre' - "Time Out". 'Leaves one eager for more' - "Spectator".

From the Publisher
John Grisham's bestselling backlist newly repackaged with fantastic new covers

From the Back Cover
When Carl Lee Hailey guns down the hoodlums who have raped his ten-year-old child, the people of Clanton see it as a crime of blood and call for his acquittal.

But when extremists outside Clanton hear that a black man has killed two white men, they invade the town, determined to destroy anything and anyone that opposes their sense of justice.

Jake Brigance has been hired to defend Hailey. It’s the kind of case that can make or break a young lawyer. But in the maelstrom of Clanton, it is also the kind of case that could get a young lawyer killed.

‘The best thriller writer alive’ Ken Follett, Evening Standard

‘Grisham is a natural storyteller’ Daily Telegraph

‘A giant of the thriller genre’ Time Out

‘Leaves one eager for more’ Spectator

Customer Reviews

A Visceral Look at Small-Town Justice in an Imaginary South

A Time to Kill is not for those with weak stomachs. In his first novel, John Grisham holds nothing back in describing man's inhumanity to man. If you like reading about violence that would make those with weak stomachs miss a meal, this is your book.

The premise of the book is a thought-provoking one: How would a Southern small town treat a crime by an African-American perpetrated with malice aforethought that it would have permitted a white southerner to get away with?

The book's best qualities are exploring the roots of racial prejudice.

For those who like legal thrillers where there's some action, this is far more than your usual courtroom drama. It comes closer to the kind of taut threat that permeated To Kill a Mockingbird. The only difference is that Grisham conjures up an intersection in time between the old and new South that never happened.

I found that the book was predictable in its over-the-top treatment of what would have made for good drama. But the extreme situations weakened the plot by making it seem unlikely. I suspect it was a writing method used to be sure that those who didn't know about the old South would appreciate the delicate nature of the emotions involved.

If you want to get a sense of how far Grisham has come, read this book and then The Client. Fortunately, Grisham learned how to back off from writing over the top and has become an excellent novelist.

You'll keep turning the pages of this book. I doubt if very many people put it down unfinished.

Good but the film is better
After watching the film version of "A Time to Kill" for about the thirteenth time on TV I decided I decided to turn to the book to see how Grisham tells the story. I was expecting a more or less one-to-one correspondence between the two, but was surprised to find a number of differences, most of which to redound to the advantage of the film. This is an entertaining read and I recommend it to Grisham fans, but I can just picture Grisham watching the film version and thinking to himself "why didn't I think of that?" on so many occasions. This is especially true toward the end where the film finishes with a dramatic climax brought about by the skill and dedication of the story's protagonist lawyer, whereas in the book we simply seem to stumble from coincidence to coincidence, with the main resolution brought about by a completely incidental character who is only introduced a few pages before the end of the book. In many film adaptations the writers, pressured for concision, omit relevant and illuminating parts of the book, often at the expense of depth. With "A Time to Kill" this is entirely reversed. Grisham has a tendency to include too much detail, not so much in his descriptions, but in the minutiae of the legal process, so much so that I often felt the plot losing its bite as the same scenes were repeated a few too many times (eg Jake visiting Lucien and getting drunk, or everyone getting drunk at Jake's office). By virtue of its brevity, the film condenses these revealing yet ultimately redundant scences and keeps a much tighter pace. I admit that I read this book with the bias of knowing the film very well, but since there is a 2 hour, more polished, more gripping, more refined and more witty film version of the very interesting premise of this book I find it hard to rate it very highly.

padlpalda;l
i share the same thoughts regarding this book as the previous reviewer. dispite this i still found it to be a quite an entertaining read