Originally published in 1989, A Time To Kill is an intense courtroom drama written by the bestselling writer, John Grisham. The novel probes the barbarian depths of racial violence. The story is set in a small southern village in Clanton, Mississippi.

The novel begins with a brutal crime in which a ten-year old child is raped by two monsters. Her life is left shattered as the two drunken and ruthless white young men brutalize her. It has been emphasized in the novel that the main reason why thi...s girl child is assaulted is because she is black. However, though it is a mostly white town, yet people are shocked at this inhuman crime. Everybody reacts with horror till the childs father Carl Lee Hailey takes the case in his hands to seek justice.

Her father manages to get hold of an assault rifle and guns down the two criminals. The entire town considers it a crime of blood and demands acquittal. However, some extremists outside the town get to know about this crime. When they come to know that a black man has killed two while people, they invade the town with a determination to seek justice and in the process destroy anything that causes hindrance.

Jake Brigance is the official lawyer of Hailey who has been hired to defend him. Brigance is aware of the fact that this is such a case that can make or break his future but he does not know that in a town like Clanton this could be the case that could get him killed too.

A Time To Kill has now become another bestseller novel of John Grisham and has been re-released numerous times. It was also adapted into a feature film in 1996.