Publisher about the book:
A superb crime drama, the first from the pen of the great American writer John Grisham, known for his novels Company, Client and Pelican message.
A drunk and hurt white man brutally destroys the life of a ten-year-old black girl. The residents of the predominantly white town of Clanton, Mississippi are shocked and horrified by this inhuman crime. Then her father acquires a machine gun, takes justice into his own hands, and punishes his daughter's rapist.
Will the father receive sympathy and understanding? If he were white, he probably wouldn't have been convicted at all. But he is black - and he killed two white people. Clanton, a sleepy rural town where black and white residents coexist peacefully, instantly transforms into a whirlwind of racial conflict and occupies the headlines of every major media outlet in the country. In the following weeks and months, burning crosses appear on the town's lawns and gardens, the National Guard marches into town, the Ku Klux Klan gets involved, and even sniper shots can be heard. The entire country watches and waits, as young lawyer Jake Brigance tries to save his client's life - and then his own.
Will the father receive sympathy and understanding? If he were white, he probably wouldn't have been convicted at all. But he is black - and he killed two white people. Clanton, a sleepy rural town where black and white residents coexist peacefully, instantly transforms into a whirlwind of racial conflict and occupies the headlines of every major media outlet in the country. In the following weeks and months, burning crosses appear on the town's lawns and gardens, the National Guard marches into town, the Ku Klux Klan gets involved, and even sniper shots can be heard. The entire country watches and waits, as young lawyer Jake Brigance tries to save his client's life - and then his own.