Sycamore Row

A Time to Kill, published in 1989, was John Grisham’s debut novel. After two white men abduct, rape, and attempt to kill a 10-year-old Black girl named Tonya Hailey in Ford County, Mississippi, Tonya’s father, Carl Lee Hailey, kills both men. When Carl Lee is charged with murder, an ambitious young attorney named Jake Brigance agrees to defend him. The trial amplifies tensions originating from the county’s legacy of racial prejudice and inequality. This prejudice is epitomized by the Ku Klux Klan, who are determined to perpetuate a racist, white supremist ideology through acts of terror and violence. After a failed attempt to bomb Jake’s home with his family in it, they succeed in burning down his house and killing his dog. They also abduct and violently assault Jake’s legal aid and paralyze a National Guardsman in an attempt to shoot Jake.

Jake’s legal strategy—claiming Carl Lee was temporarily insane—crumbles when his expert witness is discredited on the stand. However, moved by Jake’s stirring words during closing arguments, the jurors ask themselves what they would do if their own (white) daughters had been raped, and they return a verdict of not guilty. Despite a payment of only $900 for the case, Jake is optimistic about the opportunities this win will bring him and upbeat about his career prospects.

More than 20 years later, Grisham decides to revisit the characters and setting of A Time to Kill, still his best-selling book despite having 30 others under his belt by that time. Sycamore Row, published in 2013 and the sequel to A Time to Kill, is again set in the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi, three years after the Hailey trial. Its story was inspired not by real events, but by its characters, who Grisham couldn’t help but wonder about and long to catch up with (450-51). Jake Brigance returns as Sycamore Row’s protagonist. His mentor, Lucien Wilbanks, and his colleague and friend Harry Rex Vonner also return to add humor, create tension, and support theme development, as do several other minor characters.

Both books take on thematic explorations of racism, inequality, and the pursuit of justice. Both examine and criticize flaws within the legal justice system and feature portrayals of violence. Compared to A Time to Kill, Sycamore Row leans more into procedural aspects of the justice system and relies less on thrilling drama and life-or-death stakes. The trial in Sycamore Row, a probate case over a contested will, determines who inherits the county’s largest fortune. Both cases rile public sentiments regarding matters of race and probe the influence of historical context on an individual’s actions.

In an ironic contrast, both trials introduce the concept of sanity: In A Time to Kill Jake tries to prove his client’s insanity, whereas in Sycamore Row he must prove the opposite; that his client was sane—and therefore had testamentary capacity—when he wrote his will. Jake’s career optimism at the end of A Time to Kill has turned to cynicism by the start of Sycamore Row. Only a small portion of the Klansmen who terrorized him, his family, and their community during the Hailey trial have been convicted, and his insurance company refuses to give a sufficient payout for his destroyed home. Despite these differences, both stories culminate in victories for justice and racial equality, offering messages of hope.

In the third novel of the series, A Time for Mercy (2020), Jake defends a 16-year-old boy charged with murdering a law enforcement officer and facing the death penalty if convicted. Once again, Jake’s pursuit of justice requires him to defend an unpopular client in a highly divisive trial. It explores thematic concepts similar to those in A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row, including violence and abuse, Southern attitudes and prejudices, and ethics within the legal justice system.