A Time to Kill (Grisham novel)

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A Time to Kill
OCLC
26089618
Followed bySycamore Row 

A Time to Kill is a 1989 legal thriller and debut novel by American author John Grisham. The novel was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press eventually gave it a 5,000-copy printing. When Doubleday published The Firm, Wynwood released a trade paperback of A Time to Kill, which became a bestseller. Dell published the mass market paperback months after the success of The Firm, bringing Grisham to widespread popularity among readers. Doubleday eventually took over the contract for A Time to Kill and released a special hardcover edition.

Setting

The story takes place in the fictional town of Clanton, in the equally fictional Ford County, Mississippi. This setting is also featured in other John Grisham novels. A passage in The Chamber reveals that the events of A Time to Kill took place in 1984.[1]

Three of the characters, Jake Brigance, Harry Rex Vonner, and Lucien Wilbanks, later appear in two sequel novels, 2013's

Ford County
.

Inspiration

Grisham has described the book as "very autobiographical" in that the novel's "young attorney is basically me" and the drama is based on a case he witnessed.[2] In 1984 Grisham witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim at the DeSoto County courthouse in Hernando, Mississippi.[3] Two sisters, Julie Scott, 16 years old, and Marcie Scott, her twelve-year-old sister, had both been raped, brutally beaten, and nearly murdered by Willie James Harris.[4] Unlike Grisham's depiction, however, the Scotts were white and their assailant was black.[5]

According to Grisham's official website, Grisham used his spare time to begin his first novel, which "explored what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants."[3] He spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987.

Grisham has also cited Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird as an influence.[citation needed] Another stated inspiration was the success of Presumed Innocent.[6]

Plot

In the small town of Clanton, in fictional Ford County,

African-American girl named Tonya Hailey is violently raped by two neo-Confederates, James "Pete" Willard and Billy Ray Cobb, shortly after stealing a Confederate Flag from a local college exhibition. Tonya is later found and rushed to the hospital while Pete and Billy Ray are heard bragging at a roadside bar about their crime. Tonya's outraged father, Carl Lee Hailey, consults his friend Jake Brigance, a white attorney who had previously represented Hailey's brother, on whether he could get himself acquitted if he killed the two men. Jake tells Carl Lee not to do anything stupid, but admits that if it had been his daughter, he would kill the rapists. Carl Lee is determined to avenge Tonya, and while Pete and Billy Ray are being led into holding after their bond hearing, he kills both men with an M16 rifle
.

Carl Lee is charged with

white supremacist
element--a fact given further credence when, despite having no history of racist inclinations in his rulings, Noose refuses Jake's request for a change of venue, even though the racial make-up of Ford County virtually guarantees an all-white jury, which later becomes the case.

Billy Ray's brother, Freddy, seeks revenge against Carl Lee, enlisting the help of the Mississippi branch of the

National Guard
is called to Clanton to keep the peace during Carl Lee's trial. The KKK shoots at Jake one morning as he is being escorted into the courthouse, missing Jake but seriously wounding one of the guardsmen assigned to protect him. Soon after, Ellen Roark is abducted and assaulted. They burn down Jake's house. During trial deliberations, the jury's spokesman is threatened by a KKK member with a knife. Eventually, they torture and murder "Mickey Mouse", one of Jake's former clients who had infiltrated the KKK and subsequently gave anonymous tips to the police, allowing them to anticipate most KKK attacks.

Despite the loss of his house and several setbacks at the start of the trial, Jake perseveres. He badly discredits the state's psychiatrist by establishing that he has never conceded to the insanity of any defendant in any criminal case in which he has been asked to testify, even when several other doctors have been in consensus otherwise. He traps the doctor with a revelation that several previous defendants found insane in their trials are currently under his care despite his having testified to their "sanity" in their respective trials, at which point the flustered doctor blurts out "You just can't trust juries,"--thus alienating the jury he was testifying to. Jake follows this up with a captivating closing statement, ignoring Lucien's advice to use a pre-prepared statement he had written for Jake.

On the day of the verdict, tens of thousands of black citizens gather in town and demand Carl Lee's acquittal. After a long and contentious deliberation, in which the jurors have to contend with one particularly racist member of the panel who openly insists on using the "N"-word routinely during the deliberations, a unanimous acquittal by reason of temporary insanity is finally achieved when one of the jurors asks the others to seriously imagine that Carl Lee and his daughter were white and that the murdered rapists were black, and polling the jury by secret ballot on the question of whether they would kill the rapists in such a case. After finding this question to be answered with a unanimous "yes," the jury finally acknowledges that they must hold a black father to the same, equal standard of justice and mercy. Carl Lee returns to his family and the story ends with Jake, Lucien and Harry Rex having a celebratory drink before Jake holds a press conference and leaves town to reunite with his family.

Adaptations

Sequels

Two sequel novels involving the same characters and setting have been published. The first, titled Sycamore Row, was published on October 22, 2013, and the second, A Time for Mercy, was published in October 2020.[11]

References

  1. ^ John Grisham, The Chamber, Doubleday, 1994, p.251
  2. The Charlie Rose Show (Interview). Interviewed by Charlie Rose. New York City: PBS
    .
  3. ^ a b "John Grisham: The Official Site - Bio". Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  4. ^ Mitchell, Jerry. "A 'cold blooded' crime in Mississippi inspired 'A Time To Kill,' John Grisham says". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  5. ^ "Harris v. State of Mississippi". Retrieved 2016-08-29.
  6. ^ DuChateau, Christian (2011-10-28). "Grisham talks ambulance chasers, eBooks". CNN. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
  7. ^ Jones, Kenneth. "Grisham's A Time to Kill Will Premiere at Arena Stage Before NYC; Letts, Morton Join Season". Playbill. Archived from the original on 14 March 2010. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
  8. ^ Gans, Andrew (October 20, 2013). "John Grisham Novel Comes to Life in 'A Time to Kill', Opening on Broadway Oct. 20". Playbill. Archived from the original on November 4, 2013.
  9. ^ Gans, Andrew (November 6, 2013). "'A Time to Kill', Based on John Grisham Novel, Sets Broadway Closing Date". Playbill. Archived from the original on November 7, 2013.
  10. ^ "'A Time to Kill' Broadway". Playbillvault.com. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
  11. ^ "John Grisham sequel to 'A Time to Kill' to be published". Entertainment Weekly. May 1, 2013. Retrieved October 15, 2021.

External links

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