A promise of things to come (A Time to Kill - John Grisham)

Name: NikkiH

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Product:	A Time to Kill - John Grisham
Date:	05/05/01 (272 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great story, Talented writer

Disadvantages: Graphic attack section

A Time To Kill was the debut from John Grisham, and this was the book that made him decide whether to continue with a career in law, or to become a full time author.

A lot of Grisham books are set in the deep south of America, as is this one. It is set in Mississippi, in a small town with a tight knit community.

While running an errand, a 10 year old girl is brutally raped and savaged by two white men, known in that area as rednecks. They are captured, but the little girls father is not convinced justice will be done, so he deliberately goes out to shoot and kill and the two men.

After this event, we are introduced to the main character, a lawyer called Jake Brigance. He is not keen to take the case at first, but then he puts himself and his family at risk in order to defend a black man, which has never been seen before, as hateful groups such as the Ku-Klux-Klan still have a very strong presence.

Grisham makes even the most mundane events worth reading, and he brings race and class issues to the forefront, and shows how truly disadvantaged black people were in the south of America, as they were still seen as slaves.

Jake is still not without fault. He knows that his client is guilty, but he is lured to take the case by the temptation of fame and fortune, so he uses the race issue just as much as the attackers did, just in a different way.

This book has now sold 9 million copies, and even if only a small percentage got the true message behind the story then it was a success.

This book is a great piece of writing, and it catapulted Grisham to popstar type fame.

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