Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-5% $9.46$9.46
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
$8.00$8.00
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: ACEnosaran
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Audible sample Sample
A Time to Kill: A Jake Brigance Novel Mass Market Paperback – June 23, 2009
Purchase options and add-ons
“John Grisham may well be the best American storyteller writing today.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
The life of a ten-year-old black girl is shattered by two drunken and remorseless white men. The mostly white town of Clanton in Ford County, Mississippi, reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime—until the girl’s father acquires an assault rifle and takes justice into his own hands.
For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of sniper fire spread through the streets of Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as defense attorney Jake Brigance struggles to save his client’s life—and then his own.
Don’t miss John Grisham’s new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!
- Print length672 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVintage
- Publication dateJune 23, 2009
- Dimensions4.2 x 1.51 x 7.5 inches
- ISBN-100440245915
- ISBN-13978-0440245919
- Lexile measure770L
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
More items to explore
- The Pelican Brief: A NovelMass Market Paperback
- Make friends with fear, Lucien always said, because it will not go away, and it will destroy you if left uncontrolled.Highlighted by 1,076 Kindle readers
- Blacks had an excuse for being worthless, but for whites in a white world, there were no excuses.Highlighted by 317 Kindle readers
- Billy Ray Cobb was the younger and smaller of the two rednecks.Highlighted by 293 Kindle readers
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Grisham excels!"—Dallas Times Herald
“Grisham is an absolute master.”—Washington Post
“Grisham enraptures us.”—Houston Chronicle
About the Author
Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
When he's not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.
John lives on a farm in central Virginia.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
He studied the darkness up and down Adams Street, then turned and admired his house. Two homes in Ford County were on the National Register of Historic Places, and Jake Brigance owned one of them. Although it was heavily mortgaged, he was proud of it nonetheless. It was a nineteenth-century Victorian built by a retired railroad man who died on the first Christmas Eve he spent in his new home. The facade was a huge, centered gable with hipped roof over a wide, inset front porch. Under the gable a small portico covered with bargeboard hung gently over the porch. The five supporting pillars were round and painted white and slate blue. Each column bore a handmade floral carving, each with a different flower—daffodils, irises, and sunflowers. The railing between the pillars was filled with lavish lacework. Upstairs, three bay windows opened onto a small balcony, and to the left of the balcony an octagonal tower with stained-glass windows protruded and rose above the gable until it peaked with an iron-crested finial. Below the tower and to the left of the porch, a wide, graceful veranda with ornamental railing extended from the house and served as a carport. The front panels were a collage of gingerbread, cedar shingles, scallops, fish scales, tiny intricate gables, and miniature spindles.
Carla had located a paint consultant in New Orleans, and the fairy chose six original colors—mostly shades of blue, teal, peach, and white. The paint job took two months and cost Jake five thousand dollars, and that did not include the countless hours he and Carla had spent dangling from ladders and scraping cornices. And although he was not wild about some of the colors, he had never dared suggest repainting.
As with every Victorian, the house was gloriously unique. It had a piquant, provocative, engaging quality derived from an ingenuous, joyous, almost childlike bearing. Carla had wanted it since before they married, and when the owner in Memphis finally died and the estate was closed, they bought it for a song because no one else would have it. It had been abandoned for twenty years. They borrowed heavily from two of the three banks in Clanton, and spent the next three years sweating and doting over their landmark. Now people drove by and took pictures of it.
The third local bank held the mortgage on Jake’s car, the only Saab in Ford County. And a red Saab at that. He wiped the dew from the windshield and unlocked the door. Max was still barking and had awakened the army of bluejays that lived in Mrs. Pickle’s maple tree. They sang to him and called farewell as he smiled and whistled in return. He backed into Adams Street. Two blocks east he turned south on Jefferson, which two blocks later ran dead end into Washington Street. Jake had often wondered why every small Southern town had an Adams, a Jefferson, and a Washington, but no Lincoln or Grant. Washington Street ran east and west on the north side of the Clanton square.
Because Clanton was the county seat it had a square, and the square quite naturally had a courthouse in the center of it. General Clanton had laid out the town with much thought, and the square was long and wide and the courthouse lawn was covered with massive oak trees, all lined neatly and spaced equally apart. The Ford County courthouse was well into its second century, built after the Yankees burned the first one. It defiantly faced south, as if telling those from the North to politely and eternally kiss its ass. It was old and stately, with white columns along the front and black shutters around the dozens of windows. The original red brick had long since been painted white, and every four years the Boy Scouts added a thick layer of shiny enamel for their traditional summer project. Several bond issues over the years had allowed additions and renovations. The lawn around it was clean and neatly trimmed. A crew from the jail manicured it twice a week.
Clanton had three coffee shops—two for the whites and one for the blacks, and all three were on the square. It was not illegal or uncommon for whites to eat at Claude’s, the black cafe on the west side. And it was safe for the blacks to eat at the Tea Shoppe, on the south side, or the Coffee Shop on Washington Street. They didn’t, however, since they were told they could back in the seventies. Jake ate barbecue every Friday at Claude’s, as did most of the white liberals in Clanton. But six mornings a week he was a regular at the Coffee Shop.
He parked the Saab in front of his office on Washington Street and walked three doors to the Coffee Shop. It had opened an hour earlier and by now was bustling with action. Waitresses scurried about serving coffee and breakfast and chatting incessantly with the farmers and mechanics and deputies who were the regulars. This was no white-collar cafe. The white collars gathered across the square at the Tea Shoppe later in the morning and discussed national politics, tennis, golf, and the stock market. At the Coffee Shop they talked about local politics, football, and bass fishing. Jake was one of the few white collars allowed to frequent the Coffee Shop. He was well liked and accepted by the blue collars, most of whom at one time or another had found their way to his office for a will, a deed, a divorce, a defense, or any one of a thousand other problems. They picked at him and told crooked lawyer jokes, but he had a thick skin. They asked him to explain Supreme Court rulings and other legal oddities during breakfast, and he gave a lot of free legal advice at the Coffee Shop. Jake had a way of cutting through the excess and discussing the meat of any issue. They appreciated that. They didn’t always agree with him, but they always got honest answers. They argued at times, but there were never hard feelings.
He made his entrance at six, and it took five minutes to greet everyone, shake hands, slap backs, and say smart things to the waitresses. By the time he sat at his table his favorite girl, Dell, had his coffee and regular breakfast of toast, jelly, and grits. She patted him on the hand and called him honey and sweetheart and generally made a fuss over him. She griped and snapped at the others, but had a different routine for Jake.
He ate with Tim Nunley, a mechanic down at the Chevrolet place, and two brothers, Bill and Bert West, who worked at the shoe factory north of town. He splashed three drops of Tabasco on his grits and stirred them artfully with a slice of butter. He covered the toast with a half inch of homemade strawberry jelly. Once his food was properly prepared, he tasted the coffee and started eating. They ate quietly and discussed how the crappie were biting.
In a booth by the window a few feet from Jake’s table, three deputies talked among themselves. The big one, Marshall Prather, turned to Jake and asked loudly, “Say, Jake, didn’t you defend Billy Ray Cobb a few years ago?”
The cafe was instantly silent as everyone looked at the lawyer. Startled not by the question but by its response, Jake swallowed his grits and searched for the name.
“Billy Ray Cobb,” he repeated aloud. “What kind of case was it?”
“Dope,” Prather said. “Caught him sellin’ dope about four years ago. Spent time in Parchman and got out last year.”
Jake remembered. “Naw, I didn’t represent him. I think he had a Memphis lawyer.”
Prather seemed satisfied and returned to his pancakes. Jake waited.
Finally he asked, “Why? What’s he done now?”
“We picked him up last night for rape.”
Product details
- Publisher : Vintage (June 23, 2009)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 672 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0440245915
- ISBN-13 : 978-0440245919
- Lexile measure : 770L
- Item Weight : 12.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.2 x 1.51 x 7.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #24,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #121 in Legal Thrillers (Books)
- #544 in Political Thrillers (Books)
- #3,365 in Suspense Thrillers
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
John Grisham is the author of forty-seven consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include The Boys From Biloxi, The Judge's List, Sooley, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series.
Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
When he's not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.
John lives on a farm in central Virginia.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Thank you John Grisham for a truly marvelous read.
One dreadful day while returning from the grocery store, Tonya was abducted by two racist white `rednecks' named Billy Ray Cobb and James Louis Willard. They brutally rape and beat Tonya and dump her in a nearby river after a failed attempt to hang her. She is rescued by fishers and survives. Both the rapist are arrested.
Both men now indicted in rape and attempt to murder of Tonya but Carl Lee fearing all jury members will be white and acquitting - he kills both the accused using a M-16 machine gun by executing a well thought out plan.
Carl Lee is charged with capital murder. Despite efforts to persuade Carl Lee to retain high-powered attorneys, he elects to be represented by his friend, white attorney Jake Brigance. Jake Brigance who once acquitted Car Lee's brother Lester in a capital murder case in Clanton.
The book is set in fictional town named Clanton, Missisipi. Clanton is the mixture of both blacks and whites but city has 76% of whites whereas blacks consists only 26% of total cities population. The marrow-deep racism still exists in Clanton and white people getting acquitted in criminal cases compared to blacks are very common in Clanton as majority of jury(or most of the time all jury) member are white.
This case of Carl Lee becomes a national sensation and every lawyer in the country wants to take this case for free. The quiet looking Clanton city is now filled with reporters and strangers. And to make things more complicated to defense lawyer Jake Brigance, the long forgotten and believed to be lost hundreds of years ago - Ku Klux Klan comes back to life in Clanton. The marrow-deep racism and presence of Klan members are handled pretty well in this book. The brutal attacks of the Ku Klux Klan on those who directly or indirectly involved in the defense of Car Lee Hailey puts them on par with the rapists.
All the characters in this book are well thought and well-developed, specially the Jake's character. You can feel the tension mounting up as the trial date comes near and near. Though trial of Car Lee won't take place until the climax of the book. But the events which happens in Clanton before Car Lee trial either the coming Ku Klux Klan or NAACP lawyers who want to take the case from Jake are handled really well.
Dialogues are well crafted and is crackling, specially dialogues between Jake and Roark. How the rape and aftermath of the murders effect the folks of the city both white and black is handled well. The psychological effect of rape on victim and victims family is handled well. It's really heart-braking when doctor tell Tonya's mother that Tonya will not have any child in the future.
The way the legal system works in criminal cases and how people try to twist these systems either by purchasing one of the jury member to result in hang jury or by choosing all white jury or by presenting false witness or by using insanity defense to defend the victim very well handled and described in such way that even a novice to law can understand it pretty well.
This book is well written and at times hard to follow as it has more description than dialogues but once you start reading - it's really hard to put this book down.
A sequel named `The Sycamore Row` will be released next month written after 25 years of publication of A Time To Kill. Can't wait to read it.
A Time To Kill is highly recommended for anyone who want's to read a good thriller.
The other giant social obstacle that Grisham tackles (to some degree) is racism in the deep south. The intolerance is shocking at times, that these attitudes remain prevalent into this time period. It would be more believable in the 1950’s. Throughout the book and the characters within Grisham’s writing displays the indifferent insolence in some characters, extending to outright bigotry in others. In today’s world all of this is unacceptable, of course, but in this world of rural Mississippi even the good guys profess racial detriments while the antagonists are downright haters.
POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD
In the end Grisham offers no positives to this social enigma. The ending of the book, although expected, seems rushed, even contrived. Better to trim some of the fluff from the middle and lengthen the uncertainty at the end. At any rate, I would not have expected the jurors to be so easily persuaded. So, I think this is a really good book, but it isn’t perfect by a country mile.
Top reviews from other countries
He is a master writting novels which involves trials and lawyers, but also everythin I have read from him.