A Time to Kill

A Time to Kill is a 1989 legal thriller and debut novel by American author John Grisham. The novel was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press eventually gave it a 5,000-copy printing. When Doubleday published The Firm, Wynwood released a trade paperback of A Time to Kill, which became a bestseller. Dell published the mass market paperback months after the success of The Firm, bringing Grisham to widespread popularity among readers. Doubleday eventually took over the contract for A Time to Kill and released a special hardcover edition. In 1996, the novel was adapted into a namesake film, starring Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey, and Samuel L. Jackson. In 2011, it was further adapted into a namesake stage play by Rupert Holmes. The stage production opened at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in May 2011 and opened on Broadway in October 2013. The novel spawned two sequels currently, Sycamore Row, released in 2013, and A Time for Mercy, released in 2020. Setting The story takes place in the fictional town of Clanton, in the equally fictional Ford County, Mississippi. This setting is also featured in other John Grisham novels. A passage in The Chamber reveals that the events of A Time to Kill took place in 1984. Three of the characters, Jake Brigance, Harry Rex Vonner, and Lucien Wilbanks, later appear in two sequel novels, 2013's Sycamore Row and 2020's A Time for Mercy. Harry Rex Vonner and Lucien Wilbanks also appear in Grisham's 2003 novel The Last Juror, which is set in Clanton in the 1970s. Harry Rex Vonner also appears in the 2002 Grisham novel, The Summons, and in the short story "Fish Files", in the 2009 collection Ford County.