A Time To Kill

 A Time to Kill is a 1989 legal suspense thriller by John Grisham. It was Grisham's first novel. The novel was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press (located in New York) eventually gave it a modest 5,000-copy printing. After The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Client became bestsellers, interest in A Time to Kill grew; the book was republished by Doubleday in hardcover and, later, by Dell Publishing in paperback, and itself became a bestseller. This made Grisham extremely popular among readers.In the small town of Clanton, Mississippi, a ten-year old black girl, Tonya Hailey, is on her way back from the market about a mile from her house when two white men kidnap her, Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard. Tonya was brutally raped and beaten to death. Fortunately, Tonya manages to survive and identify the men and have the two suspects arrested. Days later, as both rapists leave the courtroom, Tonya’s father Carl Lee Hailey, kills them with a Ml6 rifle. Faced with the consequences, Carl Lee hires the white and ambitious lawyer Jake Brigance to defend him.