The Runaway Jury

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, addiction, and substance abuse.

John Grisham is a prolific author, lawyer, and former politician. He practiced criminal law and personal injury litigation for a decade before running for the Mississippi House of Representatives as a Democrat. He served in the House for seven years, from 1983 to 1990. Grisham published his first book, titled A Time to Kill, in 1989. The original printing of A Time to Kill only ran 5,000 print copies, but after the success of Grisham’s second novel, The Firm, the publisher ran a trade paperback of A Time to Kill, which then became a bestseller. After The Firm became a best-selling novel, Grisham gave up law and politics to instead focus on his writing. Since the publication of The Firm, Grisham has published over 50 novels and nonfiction books, with 37 consecutive #1 bestsellers. His books have sold more than 300 million copies globally.

Most of Grisham’s writing falls into the legal genre, as he draws on his experience as a lawyer to inform his novels. For example, the entirety of The Runaway Jury covers a high-profile tobacco trial.