Rating: 
Summary: An Amzing Story That Sounds So Real
Review: Even though you don't know Carl Lee Hailey at the beginning of this story, you become him with what you read.
In the beginning, a little black girl in a southern community is brutally raped and almost murdered by two drunken white men. What happens? The two men get caught and are sent to trial. Then it happens - the little girls father gets hold of an AK-47 and takes justice into his own hands.
What happens from this event is spellbinding. The little community is the focus of the country. It becomesinvaded with the press, activists, and the KKK. Attorney Jake Brigance is choosen to represent the defendant in a capital murder case that is only the side focus of this story.
All hell breaks loose in the town as everybody agress and disagrees over what has been done.
This book holds it all, from obs, to burning crosses, to destruction and threats, it is a masterpiece of fiction that goes to the heart of one question: can a black man reeive a fair trial in the south? Mitigating circumstances surround this question, and you are left to decide if what has happened is right. The first is always the best, and this will always remain my Grisham favorite. Don't speed read it, but take time to become the characters, because when you put the book down, you will never forget them.
Rating:
Summary: Which should prevail, Justice or Street Justice?
Review: "A Time to Kill" freaked out one of my professors so much that he put it down after the second page, vowing never to return. It then became the last of the currently published Grisham books for me to read; if it appalled an attorney, would *I* be able to read it?This was such an incredible story that I was surprised to read this was John Grisham's first book. The premise is simple: two drunks repeatedly rape a ten year old girl, crushing her poor little body and mind. She's hurt so badly that, even when she's out of critical condition, the damage control assessment is that she'll never bear children. An arrest is quick. When the prisoners are being moved, the irate father shoots them down, injuring an officer of the court in the process. The underlying story isn't quite so simple. The book is set in the South. The little girl is black. The rapists are white. On the one hand, it did disturb me that the father wanted a fair trial, one that never came to fruition for the rapists (who were dead long before a trial date). On the other hand, while reading, an old Twisted Sister lyric repeated over and over in my head: "Now before you shake your head/Think if it was your child instead!"* Those lyrics haunted me in the mid-80s when I first heard them, and I'd never forgotten. Another major aspect of this book is the amount of prejudice there appears to be in the South. I'm from a middle-class family in New England, and I honestly didn't know that things were still this bad. We have prejudice, sure, but I've only heard of one Klan rally up here. I'm not sure if my parents did a disservice to me by raising me to judge people by their actions and not by the color of their skin, because I was shocked by what I read. (How can we human beings expect world peace when our own country is at war with itself?) "A Time to Kill" will stay with me for a long, long time. It made me think a lot. I'm glad I got over my fear, and that I read it. Frightening though it is, it is VERY real, and it's an eye-opening book for parents. *from "Street Justice," part of HORROR-TERIA (The Beginning) by Twisted Sister, 1984
Rating:
Summary: His first and one of the best!!
Review: Despite being this, his first book, I can say it is one of the most entertaining, deep, and detailed of all. It is really easy to get involved with the characters, and Jake Brigance is the typical cool lawyer we all want to win a trial. The challenge of having an all white jury in a case where a black killed two whites makes the story reach its climax very strongly. Grisham has achieved something great in portraying the times of racial discrimination in the US. Prepare to feel disgusted, to cry, and to feel sick when you start reading this non-stop action novel.
Rating: 
Summary: A Time To Kill
Review: John Grisham was born in Arkansas in 1955. He grew up to be a lawyer in a small Missippi town. His writing of legal dramas began after hearing the testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim, which inspired his first novel A Time to Kill.
In A Time to Kill a southern black man is on trial facing the death penalty for the murder of the two white men who brutally raped his young daughter. Now his lawer, Jack Brigance, is faced with the challenge of freeing him along with all of the social problems that came with it.
In the novel Grisham thoroughly depicts the life and social staus of a small southern town. The reader is able to feel the racial tension and the fear spread throughout the town as problems begin to arise. The strong personalities of his characters develop with the story and give you a personal feel for their situation. To not root for their defense would be impossible.
Grisham is able to find the balance of being descriptive without being too wordy and thorough wihtout becoming boring. A Time to Kill is realistic, exciting, and suspenceful, keeping you interested the whole way. One of the greatest of his books, I would recommend it to anyone with interest in this genre.
Rating:
Summary: Grisham's Best!
Review: "A Time to Kill" is my all-time favorite work by John Grisham. (And the movie ranks up in my all-time favorites as well) The tale is set in the deep south, where racial divides are glossed over, but are quickly brought to the surface when Carl Lee steps onto the scene. Carl Lee (powerfully portrayed by Samuel L Jackson in the movie) realizes that his daughter is not going to receive justice at the hands of an all-white jury. (Carl Lee and his daughter are African-Americans and the little girl was raped and tortured by two white men.) When Carl Lee decides to take the law into his own hands and kills the two men enroute to their trial, all hell breaks loose. Jake Brigance, a young, idealistic, white attorney is persuaded to defend Carl Lee and the courtroom drama begins. Jake's former professor, disgraced and disbarred though he be, adds the legal expertise that is needed to an attorney still wet behind the ears. The drama outside the courtroom is no less spectacular as the KKK and NAACP descend on the town. To many, Carl Lee is a hero, but to the KKK, he is vigalante gone wild. As is always true with John Grisham's works, in the end right and justice prevail, and Carl Lee is set free. A great story and my favorite of Grisham's works.
Rating:
Summary: a novel of morality versus legality.
Review: Grisham has long been criticized for extensive attention to legal matters that tend to bore the common reader. A Time To Kill has them, as does as of his works. But the value within A Time to Kill lies not in the actual writing, but more within the plot, the legal versus moral dilemna, and the fascinating way in which the court system is manipulated. The last one is the most important, to me. Law & Order genre books / movies / television shows have long ago lost their novelty, and are now firmly integrated into American popular culture. Because of this, the public tends to think of themselves as highly educated in legal matters, and the way the American court system works. This book, among other things, proves very definitively to us that the system of trail-by-jury has a lot more layers than are usually presented to us. A Time to Kill wastes little time with the question of guilt; this is a novel that from the get-go sympathizes strongly with the defendent. Instead, Grisham uses most of the 300+ page build-up to the trial to expose the less pleasant side of big criminal cases. He skillfully introduces all the characters and sets them going in their own paths, which may or may not be entirely legal. Unlike the faultless lawyers of television, Grisham's characters have little aversion to doing what they need to get the verdict they want. Intimidation, leakage of information, and bribery are all fair game, as each side struggles to build the stronger case. Young street lawyer Jake Brigance and polished politician Rufus Buckley butt heads continually throughout the book, but more interesting is Jake's relationships with his colleagues - the booze-soaked Lucien Wilbanks, Harry Rex the divorce lawyer, and Ellen Roark (Row Ark), the young law student with more than a professional interest in Jake. Less interesting, unfortunately, is the plight of Carl Lee, the case's defendent. The reader is given little interaction with the focal point from which this entire case turns, and thusly is left feeling rather apathetic towards him. Though I'm sure the movie version does a much better job of garnering sympathy for the father who took vigilante justice to the extreme, the book version is strangly unmoving. Regardless, A Time to Kill is still an extremely enjoyable courtroom yarn.
Rating:
Summary: A Time To Kill
Review: In John Grisham's first novel, A TIME TO KILL, he did a wonderful job of giving the reader a vivid mental picture while at the same time pulling you into the story and giving every reader an emotional attachment to Carl Lee Hailey and his ten year old daughter, Tanya. After his daughter was brutally raped and beaten by two redneck hillbillies, Carl Lee Hailey was so deeply affected by the violation of his daughter that he took matters into his own hands and killed both of the rapists in the courthouse after their hearing.
One of Mississippi's finest defense lawyers, Jake Brigance, takes on nearly impossible odds. He agrees to defend a black man who killed two white men and injured a white police officer. Brigance has to defend Hailey to an all white jury also. On top of the struggle for what is morally right, Brigance and Hailey are often visited by the Ku Klux Klan, which also adds to the community disturbance.
Throughout the course of this novel I was troubled by the extent of hatred one human could have for another simply based on the color of skin. I am deeply troubled by some of the actions and moral conflicts that take place in Grisham's novel A TIME TO KILL due to my high moral standards. However, that edge that he so carefully smudges across each page keeps your hands tightly grasped to the book page after page.
Rating:
Summary: Great ending
Review: I'm writing this review to voice a basic disagreement I have with what I believe is popular opinion. This is not Grisham's best work. Grisham had me wrapped around his Mississippi finger for the last 100 pages of the book, but up until then it was only interesting enough to read. This may be the result of having criminal justice entertainment crammed down our thoughts with 20 different Law and Order shows, plus however many other trials (fictional and not) that grace our T.V. and movie screens. I'm sure when it came out, this book blew people away, but by now the story has become stale. If you haven't read his books before, I recommend The Firm as your first. It trancends courtroom drama in a way that A Time to Kill just can't.
Rating:
Summary: A TIME TO KILL
Review: Near the rural town of Clanton, Mississippi, little Tonya Hailey is brutally raped, beaten, and left for dead by two drunken and remorseless men. The rapists are almost immediately caught in a roadside bar, where they have been bragging of their exploits. When the men appear in court days later, Tonya's father Carl bursts out of the courthouse basement, and executes them with an assault rifle. Murder or execution? Justice or revenge? Carl trusts his life to only one man in town - local criminal lawyer Jake Brigance, who dreams of famous cases, headlines, and the big time. Jake is about to face the fight of his life, and he knows it. Not only is he up against Rufus Buckley - a tough, ambitious district attorney who realizes that a murder conviction could help him gain higher office - but he has a much bigger problem: the rapists are white, the judge is white, the jury is white - and Carl is black. This is a trial sure to change forever the lives of everyone involved. A Time To Kill is a riveting novel that challenges everything we think we know about justice and equality.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm Lost
Review: The gripping suspense through out the book kept you turning. After reading most of the book, I realized that I had yet to come upon the conclusion. "Why" you ask? Well the last 15 pages were the conclusion. The verdict, his wife, Lucien, his law clerk was all answered in these 15 pages but left many holes! I wanted to hear how Carl Lee lived his life, what his wife's reaction was about her house, and what ever happaned to Row Ark! Yes we all know that she was in the hospital with her father by her side, but what now? Overall, for a first novel of a successful auther, the book was awesome. I just wish the conclusion would have been longer to fill in the gaps.
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