Grisham doesn’t give any easy answers and doesn’t paint anyone as a complete hero (and only the rapists and the KKK are seen as wholly villainous). Soon the town is plunged into fear as the Ku Klux Klan take the opportunity to resurrect the days of burning crosses and worse. While there’s a lot of sympathy for Carl Lee, especially amongst the black townsfolk, there is also a sizeable slice of opinion that vigilantism, whatever the provocation, is wrong and then there’s the minority of white racists who think Carl Lee should be lynched. When he is in turn arrested and charged with murder, he asks Jake Brigance to defend him. However, Carl Lee Hailey, the father of young Tonya, is not ready to let justice take its course and sets out to take his own revenge. The two men are quickly arrested and there is no doubt about their guilt. The story begins with the horrific gang-rape and beating of a young black girl by two white men. As it turns out, I haven’t read it before, though I’ve certainly seen the film. I couldn’t remember if I’d read it, and even if I had, the plot had faded completely from my mind, so a refresher seemed in order. (Somewhat annoyingly, so will Donna Tartt’s new one, The Goldfinch, but Grisham will get priority.) In it, he revisits the people of Ford County who appeared in his first book A Time to Kill all of 24 years ago in 1989. Tonight around 1 a.m., Grisham’s new book Sycamore Row will appear on my Kindle as if by magic.
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