A Time to Kill

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Summary: Life tragedy made into art ,by Grisholm
Review: A Time to Kill is a masterpiece of interwoven tragedies, ongoing dangers, social injustice, racism, all set to a central theme of one of the most heartbreaking dramas imaginable: an innocent child is viciously raped and left for dead. The crime itself was perpetrated by white men, upon a little black girl living in a racist town. Although racism is a powerful force in the plot, the most compelling conflict enacted in this human drama, is that of the heartwrenching dilema the father of this child finds himself in when the court system fails him and his wounded family. It becomes 'A Time to Kill'.
Although this was one of Grisholm's earlier books, I feel it is his best, simply because of the rawness of human emotion revealed in his writing. A Time to Kill is human drama at its finest.

Rating:
Summary: A Time To Kill
Review: A TIME TO KILL
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc, 1989
515
Young attorney Jake Brigance is in the nations spot light for the nation's biggest case in decades that has conveniently been given to by Carl Lee Hailey. The book revolves around the case of the vigilante Carl Lee who acquires an assault rifle who kills two men for a heinous crime against his family. The town of Clanton, Mississippi is divided between black and white, not guilty and guilty. As Jake struggles to help his client conflicting forces nearly clam his life and the life of his family. While the National Guard is called in to calm this at odds town the Klan and its supporters start to burn crosses of intimidation and nearly start an all out battle of races. Will the jury of twelve impartial voters vote to guilty or not guilty in this crime of redemption? Find out in A Time To Kill.
John Grisham has written many books about lawyers and courtrooms and the drama that enfolds in them. The book is a page turner you wish to turn the corner and see what is on the next page even after it is done. The book main conflict opens your eyes to a time when these things happened constantly and you were powerless to stop them. When reading this book readers that I think would enjoy this book are readers that want to be lawyers or wish to read about courtrooms and there drama. I also recommend this book for anyone that enjoys crime television shows and mystery novels.

Real life drama, courtroom drama **** Reviewed by Bobby Sane

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Summary: Suspense with a purpose
Review: A Time to Kill by John Grisham is truly a 5-star book. Grisham tells the story of a young lawyer fighting for the life of a man who murdered his daughter's rapists. Being a unique story line, any reader could be grabbed by a description but the book itself is what truly shines. Every detail is crisp and accurate. Grisham's characters are incredibly life-like and he makes you pray for their best resolution. Every page makes you want to read the next. Every chapter brings you closer to the resolution but doubles the suspense. Once I started reading this book I could not put it down. Grisham truly shows that he is a master of courtroom suspense and that he knows what he's talking about. Along with having an incredible plot, Grisham also sends a great message with this book. He reminds people that even though slavery has been abolished in the U.S., racism still exists all over the world. Jake, the lawyer defending Carl Lee, sets out not only to get a boost in his career, but also to prove that a black man can recieve a fair trial in a predjudiced court.

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Summary: Not bad... Not bad at all!
Review: Despite the basic plot being strikingly similiar to "To Kill a Mocking Bird", Grisham's "A Time to Kill" just simply rocks. The characters stand out and are just amazing. Twists and turns at every corner. Interesting plot developments. Only fault I find is that the ending, although well written, is very predictable.

Very good book for Grisham, and it's not long winded like his recent work.

- Delaney

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Summary: Hard to read once you've seen the movie...
Review: I don't know, maybe it's me- but A Time to Kill is one of my favorite movies and one that I've watched often- which made reading this book a bit tedious. I kept comparing it to the movie, picturing scenes from it, but when I was finally able to get beyond that- I did enjoy the book- one that I've always been meaning to read.

If you don't know, the story takes place in rural Mississippi where a 10 year old black girl is brutally raped and tortured. She survives, but the event was too much for her father- who took a gun and shot and killed the two boys who did that to her. Now, he's on trial for his life, facing the gas chamber. And while many juries might be sympathetic to his ordeal, where the racial lines are drawn, it's not easy for a white jury to sympathize with a black man who has just killed their own...

Overall I did enjoy the book. The last 200 pages really picked up the pace, while the first 200 or so dragged a bit for me. As the forward by Grisham says, he does ramble a bit, but some of his description and story are priceless. The overall theme of the book is commendable and unforgettable.

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Summary: A Wonderfully Gripping Novel
Review: In the rural town of Clanton, Mississippi, Tonya Hailey, a ten-year-old, girl is brutally raped by two drunken young men. The men are arrested, but before their trial, the girl's father, Carl Lee, takes justice into his own hands with an M-16 rifle. In John Grisham's best selling novel, A Time To Kill, Carl Lee's attorney and friend, Jake Brigance, must come up with a plausible defense in order to save his clients life. After all, some might consider Carl Lee's actions completely justified. There's one serious problem however--Carl Lee is black, and the two men he murdered were white. This doesn't fly in the moderately racist county, and soon the Ku Klux Klan is threatening Jake's life. Grisham's novel is wonderfully gripping. At 515 pages, it may seem a bit intimidating to some, but the action and development is constant. I myself generally prefer a quick read, but there is so much fascinating depth to this story that I had no problem with reading it over the course of a few weeks. Granted, it was so powerful I would have loved to just sit down and read it straight through, if only I had the free time. I would recommend this book to almost everyone, as it is truly a remarkable book. If you are a southerner who is easily offended by being considered racist, you may have some qualms with this book. Other than that, I can think of little reason for anyone to not read it.

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Summary: A Time To Kill
Review: John Grisham is at his best in this novel. His works have defined the modern legal thriller. In this novel, Carl Lee Hailey's ten-year-old daughter, Tonya, was brutally raped and beaten by two young, drunk red-necks by the names of Billy Ray Cobb and his slightly dim sidekick Pete Willard. Things head south in a hurry when Carl Lee decides to procure an M16 from an old buddy of his from Vietnam. All of a sudden the sleepy little town of Clanton, Mississippi, becomes the media hot-spot of the nation when, in a carefully planned out and calculated act of vengence, the girls incensed father takes justice into his own hands. The entire country wacthes and waits to see what will happen next as defense attorney Jake Brigance attempts to pull off the mother of all acquitals. For the next week-and-a-half, the young lawyer battles against the judges, the jury, and the Ku Klux Klan, to win his clients freedom, and keep him from the gas chamber.

This novel ia a master piece, definitely one of his better works. Recently I have also read The Client and The Chamber, but this book blows them away. His mastery of dialogue certainly ranks up there with the all time greats. His settings and use of vivid sensory details enable you to mentally transport yourself dead into the heart of Ford County. I think what impressed me the most was that John Grisham got the idea for this book from actual events. He is an excellant fiction writer, but some how stories that are based on true events have such a deeper and more personal feel to them. I would highly recommend this book, but consider yourself warned when i tell you that it is not for everyone. I believe that a limited understanding of the legal system is a necessity to fully comprehend these novels, other wise some parts, such as the appeals process or a writ of Habeus Corpus, will fall upon deaf ears.


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Summary: A Time to Kill review
Review: On a scale of 1to 10 I rate John Grisham's A Time to Kill a very enthusiastic 10. Grisham is the absolute master when it comes to courtroom suspense. He brought out a problem in America that most choose to ignore. He also kept me turning the pages with the intrigue of A Time to Kill. But the characters were my favorite part; Jake Brigance and Carl Lee Hailey were to die for. A Time to Kill focused on the issue of racism in this country. Throughout the whole book they compared whites to blacks. It was said that if Carl Lee was white man and he killed two black men for raping his daughter, the killings would have gone unnoticed. This book brought out the truth. There are a lot of people who aren't racist, but there are a lot that are too. Like there is still the KKK and people who disrespect people who are different them. In the beginning the cased seem impossible to win, but Jin turns out alright. I hope this book will help everyone see the truth. I read this book in less then a week and it was a long book, but I couldn't put it down. There was always something going on and to find out. Grisham did a great job of keeping you interested. The drama never stops. The trial was the best part; you kept wondering what was going to happen tomorrow. Every witness had something interesting to say. Grisham definitely is the best at keeping all this law stuff interesting. Jake Brigance had to be my favorite character, he was absolutely perfect. A young lawyer facing a deadly problem in America. He had all the skill to take the case, but not the reputation. Carl Lee had my heart from the very beginning. He was an inspiration to everyone. Another one of my favorite characters was Jake's mentor Lucien who was supposed to be brilliant, but I thought he was funny. Sandra Bullock's character named Ellen Roark didn't make an entrance in to the book until the third half. I liked that better because that way she wasn't counted as a main character. Anyway, I just loved all the characters. They all seemed to fit together nicely by the end of the novel. So I absolutely give A Time to Kill a 10 because it was brilliant and suspenseful. It is now one of my favorite books of all time. A highly suggest that people read it because it gives you different perspectives about the whole racist issue and I know don't anybody who wouldn't enjoy this book.

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Summary: Grisham's best
Review: Street lawyer Jake Brigance is thrust into the national spotlight when he takes a case defending a black man who has murdered two white men for raping his twelve year old daughter. Brigance is the center of a legion of competing pressures and concerns, including escalating involvement in the case by the Mississippi population of blacks, and by the Ku Klux Klan. We get an intimate look at the legal process, as Jake fights off other lawyers seeking to represent his client, attempts to manipulate the press, the judge, the prosecution, and the jury, and faces problems dealing with practicing law on a tight budget. He walks a fine moral line as the situation escalates, and eventually finds himself hiding out at a friends house while the Klan tries to murder him.
The Good and the Bad:
After reading two or three other novels by this author (including The Firm), I've been talking down John Grisham for years, but this book has made me revise my opinion of him. A preface tells us that this is Grisham's most personal work, and his first; I think that those two factors may be what makes this book stand out to me.
This book has a lot going for it. The pacing is well-done, mixing violence and action scenes in with the also-exciting twists and turns in the legal arena. The book slowly builds to a natural climax with the jury decision, and the obstacles and situations Jake faces are varied and inventive. The language and writing are also very serviceable, with appropriate amounts of description and dialogue (although there seems to be a near-obsessive tendency to include detailed descriptions of every meal and drink consumed by the characters). This writing gives the author the air of a seasoned professional rather than the first-timer he was at the time.
The book also contains enough nuanced ethical considerations to be the focus of a college ethics course. Time and again, Jake is confronted with moral decisions, and his decisions are all over the place ethically. At times, I was impressed with his morality; often, I was shocked at his immorality. The other characters are also instruments of moral dilemmas, not the least of which is Carl Lee's murder of the two rapists.
Another great aspect of the book was the authority with which the legal profession is presented. As a lawyer, Grisham clearly knows the ins and outs of the profession, and his insider view of jury selection, expert psychiatric testimony, and the way that lawyers compete for a desirable case are all fascinating.
On the down side, I have two major criticisms, and they both cropped up so frequently that they inhibited my ability to lose myself in the story. I didn't like Grisham's other novels because I felt that the characters weren't flawed enough to make them interesting. Jake is flawed, all right, and his flaws make him kind of detestable. Detestable might be too strong of a word, but certainly, he was less than sympathetic in many ways. He hungers for media attention, putting it above his client's best interests. He threatens to sever a friendship with a court administrative aid if she doesn't give him a list of prospective jurors that the judge has ordered her not to give him. He flirts with his beautiful legal assistant, and keeps her existence a secret from his wife. In fact, he keeps a lot of secrets from his wife, including the fact that the Klan has burned down their house. He stands idly by while a sheriff literally breaks the legs of a Klan member, and then jokes about it the next day. He seems to use the word nigger interchangeably with black man, and states prejudiced views, such as "nigger are unpredictable, especially when they're in trouble." I could go on, but you get the point. This is a main character that's hard to root for. The other characters are generally interesting, but sometimes cartoonish, especially the prosecutor, a fat political aspirant whose main function seems to be getting blustered at Jake's shot-from-the-hip one liners.
That leads to my other criticism, which is that too often, Grisham turns to the camera and winks, asking us to chuckle or give an affirming cheer. Every time we see Brigance confront Buckley, the exchange ends in Jake getting the last word in, and it infuriating Buckley. Things like this, extending to several plot points, are just a little too pat.
Overall, an enjoyable novel that should help you burn some midnight oil.


Rating:
Summary: Bravo
Review: The movie was great, but the book is excellent. Also, please read the novel, LUST OF THE FLESH by Beverly Rolyat, about a district attorney who finds himself in a web of deceit of lies, betrayal, love, lust, murder, mystery, suspense, romance and sex galore. Is he really the biological father of his wife's promiscuous teenager? Or has he been setup? Read and find out and much, much more! It offers a different, enlightening type read that you're gonna enjoy. Happy reading!