A Time To Kill

A time to kill

The author

John Grisham was born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas. As a child he dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn't have the right stuff for a pro career, he began to study accountancy1 at Mississippi State University. After graduating at the University in Mississippi School of Law in 1981, he went on to practise law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal law and civil law. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990. Now he lives with his family in Virginia, Mississippi.

Since first publishing "A Time to Kill" in 1989, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are 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, and The King of Torts) and all of them have become bestsellers. There are currently over 60 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 29 languages. Seven of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, and A Painted House).

History of origin

One day at the Dessoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony2 of a twelve-year-old rape victim. He was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her rapists. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before continuing to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1988. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood press, who gave it a modest 5,000 copy printing and published it in June 1989.

Plot

The story takes place in Clanton, Mississippi. A young black girl named Tonya is on her way back home from the grocery store when she is followed by two drunken white men in a car. They aggressively grab her and rape her. Then they drop the girl from a bridge where she is left for dead in a creek3. But a group of fishermen find her and her father Carl Lee Hailey takes her to the hospital just in time. The two criminals are caught by the cops and