I loved this book like I love most of Grisham's novels! Extremely fast paced, twisting and emotional plot, and humor that comes out of nowhere to catch you off guard and laughing despite yourself. Since everyone knows this story I won't get into that, all I'll say that this is a MUST for every Grisham fan and a great one to start with if you aren't.
What else could you expect from Grisham? Grisham takes on hard, and sometimes, harsh storyline and makes you stop and think....can you take justice in your own hands? As always, Grisham's deep detail makes you become a "part" in the book. Meaning you can sit back and say would I do the same thing? This was a page turner from the first page.
A Time to Kill by John Grisham is his first and best book. This is the story of Carl Lee Hailey who gets his revenge on some white trash who attacked his daughter and it is about the lawyer, Jake Brigance, who defends him. It is a page turner that will have you glued from the 1st page.
Though the story is about a trial, it is not a courtroom story. This book is about motive and how race figures into motive. An excellent plot with get dialogue and in-depth characterizations.
2 cassettes - Abridged
Amazon.com
This addictive tale of a young lawyer defending a black Vietnam war hero who kills the white druggies who raped his child in tiny Clanton, Mississippi, is John Grisham's first novel, and his favorite of his first six. He polished it for three years and every detail shines like pebbles at the bottom of a swift, sunlit stream. Grisham is a born legal storyteller and his dialogue is pitch perfect.
The plot turns with jeweled precision. Carl Lee Hailey gets an M-16 from the Chicago hoodlum he'd saved at Da Nang, wastes the rapists on the courthouse steps, then turns to attorney Jake Brigance, who needs a conspicuous win to boost his career. Folks want to give Carl Lee a second medal, but how can they ignore premeditated execution? The town is split, revealing its social structure. Blacks note that a white man shooting a black rapist would be acquitted; the KKK starts a new Clanton chapter; the NAACP, the ambitious local reverend, a snobby, Harvard-infested big local firm, and others try to outmaneuver Jake and his brilliant, disbarred drunk of an ex-law partner. Jake hits the books and the bottle himself. Crosses burn, people die, crowds chant "Free Carl Lee!" and "Fry Carl Lee!" in the antiphony of America's classical tragedy. Because he's lived in Oxford, Mississippi, Grisham gets compared to Faulkner, but he's really got the lean style and fierce folk moralism of John Steinbeck. --Tim Appelo
--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
With a chillingly calm, even delivery, Michael Beck, a regular Grisham reader (The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury), turns the narrative of this disturbing tale of racism, ignorance, and brutality into an almost visceral experience. "Cobb strung a length of quarter inch ski rope over a limb ... he grabbed her and put the noose around her head." The story is frighteningly believable and expertly crafted around a horrible crime and the tragic consequences that follow. At times, Beck's character voices can be distracting, but his efforts are generally applied to good effect, adding another level of tension to this already suspenseful look at a small Mississippi town's struggle for justice. --George Laney
--This text refers to the Unabridged Audio Cassette edition.
A Southern town is shocked when a 10-year-old black girl is raped by two white men--until the girl's father takes the law into his own hands.
the cardboard box this audiobook comes in has gotten wet and is very worn as it has traveled a lot but the tapes work great
Clanton, Mississippi. The life of a ten-year-old girl is shattered by two drunken and remorseless young men. The mostly white town reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime. Until her black father acquires an assault rifle--and takes justice into his own outraged hands.
For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of sniper fire spread through the streets of Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as young defense attorney, Jake Brigance struggles to save his client's life...and then his own...
