Rating: 
Summary: A Time to Kill
Review: A Time to Kill, a story of a distraught father of a 10-year-old rape victim who takes justice into his own hands, will have you unable to put it down.
It's mid-summer in Clanton, Mississippi in the 1990's. Carl Lee Hailey opens fire on the two rapists in the town courthouse. Everyone knows he did it. It's up to Jake Brigance, a young, beginner lawyer, to save Hailey from the gas chamber. The small town already has its problems with racism and this magnifies the hatred.
The blacks of the town praise Hailey for his heroic action and show their support by forming picket lines, holding marches, and shouting "Free Carl Lee!" The whites of the town show their opinion of Hailey by also forming picket lines and shouting just the opposite, "Fry Carl Lee!" Some even go to the extreme of forming a Clanton chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and burning crosses. The tension in the town causes a riot in the town square and the National Guard to come in. Jake, and his team of a drunk, disbarred ex-lawyer, a young, beautiful female law student, and a sleazy divorce lawyer whom Jake calls best friend, work together on the biggest case ever to hit Clanton.
Grisham did such a good job in getting me involved that I was constantly pullinh for Jake. I grew to despise the prosecuting team, and I kept getting angry when an obstacle got in the way of Jake's success. At one instance in the story where Jake's best friend is a smart mouth to the prosecutor, I found myself laughing out loud.Written in an episodic style A Time to Kill succeeds in keeping my attention. With a simple and easy plot to follow and no symbolism in sight, this book will have you reading for hours. Grisham does a delightful job on his first novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic--one of Grisham's best.
Review: This is one of Grisham's best works. I haven't really liked his recent stuff--hated The Painted House--but reading his old stuff is really enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Grisham's first, and possibly Grisham's best
Review: While not short at over 500 pages, this is still a vert fast read. Even though the defendant Carl Lee Hailey clearly committed the crime, you find yourself rooting for his acquittal throughout the entire book. With the other storylines the Grisham works in (i.e. - the KKK vs. the African-American contingent, the attacks on Brigance, etc.), every page becomes crucial to the storyline. Grisham's language skills are near perfect and his style of writing keeps you reading and reading and reading...and before you know it you've burned up two and a half hours! I fully recommend this book. My first Grisham, but certainly not my last. FREE CARL LEE!
Rating: 
Summary: Make time to read A Time To Kill
Review: A Time To Kill, John Grisham's first novel, is a remarkably compelling, bold, fearless, lofty achievement for a new writer. While the book was picked up and published in small numbers at first, it was not until The Firm placed Grisham squarely on the map that this earlier effort was republished and made available for the masses of his new fans. What impresses me most about A Time To Kill is the way in which Grisham grabs your attention and sucks you right into the story immediately every time you pick it up; my interest and fascination was retained throughout the whole 500+ pages. I'm generally not a fan of lawyer or police novels, but the criminal events forming the crux of this novel are visceral right from the start, as little 10-year old Tonya Hailey, a black girl, is brutally raped and assaulted by two cruel white men. Grisham doesn't wait around to throw his best stuff directly at the reader. The two men are arrested and put on trial, but Carl Lee Hailey, Tonya's father, gets hold of an M-16 and blows both guys away (along with a deputy's lower leg) in the very halls of the courthouse. Jake Brigance, our protagonist, is determined to get his new client acquitted, a very tough task when everyone knows how the man planned and carried out the murders in cold blood. Naturally, some folks think Carl Lee should be declared a hero for what he did, while others argue that vigilante justice cannot be permitted. Since a black man killed two white men for raping his black daughter, race quickly becomes the big tent under which a legal and social circus is performed in the small town of Clanton, Mississippi. The black churches organize to support Carl Lee, calling in the NAACP and urging blacks from all over that part of the state to come to the courthouse demanding Carl Lee's release. The defunct Klan reemerges in the town and goes well beyond simple intimidation of jurors and Jake Brigance himself. Needless to say, there is a lot of human drama contained in these pages. As eminently readable as this novel is, though, a few things about it bother me enough for me to take away one star from my rating. The action is just not real enough. Carl Lee is given unimaginable privileges by the black sheriff while being held in jail, for one thing. The most prominent black preacher in the county has a number of sinful ways about him. The judges seem to behave inappropriately at times, and some of the antics of Jake and the D.A. during the trial provide sources of humor that seem inappropriate. As for Jack, I found it impossible to ever really like the man. All he cares about is keeping this client and getting all the publicity for defending this man before the eyes of the nation. He tells his wife he will drop the case if it looks like he or his family is in danger, but that is pledge is proven quite false. He is rather unethical at times, proves himself to be less than careful in his trial preparation, and he spends the better part of the crucial days drinking like a fish. John Grisham says there is a lot of himself in Jake Brigance, and maybe all lawyers really are as superficial as the protagonist, but I hope that is not the case. As compelling a read as this book is, much of its fate naturally hinges on its conclusion. Will Carl Lee be freed or sentenced to death? I can accept the climax of these events as it is written, but it does feel somewhat rushed. After oftentimes slowly and carefully picking over every bit of action and dialogue, things just happen too quickly in the end. The judgment of the case also belies events in the courtroom, and one main character is all but forgotten at the end. No first novel should be perfect, and this one certainly isn't, but it is nevertheless one of the most amazing first novels I have read from an author. Grisham keeps your hands glued to the pages from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Savor it................
Review: Ten year old Tonya Hayley from Clanton, Mississpppi is walking home from the store one day when two rednecked thougs capture her. They throw her in the back of their truck and take her deep into the woods and violate her several times. After they attempt to hang her, they drop her off a cliff and she lands where some black men are fishing. They take her home, where her father, Carl Lee is waiting for her with the rest of her family. He then contacts his brother in law, also the sheriff of the town, and they arrest the two boys. After a trial hearing is organized,and gived and the two convicts are leaving the courtroom, a vengeful Carl Lee takes out his revenge by shooting the two mens brains out and onto the floor. Meanwhile, local lawyer Jake Brigance is called to defend his friend carl lee. But as the protests begin and a vengeful KKK shows up to join the fun, and a beautiful woman shows up who could ruin his marriage, Brigance realizes he may be way over his head................. I am warning you right now SAVOR THIS BOOK. It is marvelously gripping and more than fantastic fun to read. But even if it will get you hooked, (like it happened to me) the books of John Grisham have only gotten poorer and poorer.
Rating:
Summary: A Time to Kill
Review: A Time to Kill was emotionally disturbing. It tells a tale of the narrow minded existance in a southern white town. When ten year old Tonya Hailey is sent to the store only one mile away from her home she is abducted by two white men Billy Ray Cobb and Willard Scott. A Time to Kill tells the story of her rape and how it shattered her life. When Tonya was left for dead by a lake. She was discovered by some men who were fishing near by who immediatly contacted the sheriff Ozzie Walls who knew the Haliey family and rushed to the scene. When ozzie visited the tonya in the hospital she gave him an exact description of her perpetrators Billy Ray Cobb and Willard Scott. They were immediatley taken into custody but the trial didn't look positve because tonya is black and the men are white.Carl Lee Hailey Tonya's father is devastated by the violent rape of his little girl so he contacts his lawyer Jake Brigamce for advice. When things don't look good Carl Lee takes matters into his own hands. Deciding Carl Lee's Punishment will be a test of fate to see how far people will go to put themselves in another persons position.
Rating:
Summary: More Then Just To Kill Time
Review: The masteries of work are about a ten year old Negro girl whom gets rapped and beaten by two white men. Before we get a chance to see if justice will be served the father takes matters into his own hands, by killing both men. At a time when racism, segregation, and prejudice is at its greatest the book follows Jake, a lawyer as he struggles to save his client from death roe.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Grisham By Far
Review: A Time to Kill has significant structural problems. There are simply way too many loose ends at the end of the book. What happens to his Roak, his law clerk? What happens to the Clan? And What Happens to Jake Himself? It is not hard to tell that this is a first novel. I am giving this book 5 stars because although Grisham may not have the plot right, he has the feel right. This novel took him the longest to write, and it shows. Grisham wrote this novel while he was still practicing law, and it shows. Grisham knows northern Mississippi and does a brilliant job capturing the tension of a racially charged trial in a small southern town. In fact the best character in this book is by far the town of Clanton itself. In A Time to Kill Grisham is writing what he knows and it works beautifully.
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
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