• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2020 October #2
  *Starred Review* Set five years after the events of Grisham's first novel, 1989's A Time to Kill (and a couple of years after its sequel, 2013's Sycamore Row), this new Jake Brigance novel finds the Mississippi lawyer roped into defending a 16-year-old boy charged with the murder of a police deputy. The reader knows from the beginning the circumstances surrounding the fatal incident: there is no doubt who did what to whom and why. And, yet, the book is impossible to put down because we're fascinated by how Jake will overcome the many obstacles in his path to discovering what we already know. It's really a very clever setup; the story's structure bears a slight resemblance to an episode of Columbo, in which the viewer knows more than the detective at the beginning of the episode. Grisham builds a complex, surprising, and, in places, emotionally devastating story around Jake and his teenage client. A Time for Mercy isn't a whodunit. It's not even really a courtroom drama, although, of course, Grisham delivers some seriously intense courtroom scenes. Ultimately, it's a story about a community that values its secrets more than it values the truth, and Grisham tells it with great power and style.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Nearly everything Grisham writes draws readers by the millions, but his Jake Brigance mysteries are in a category all their own. This third Brigance outing will continue the pattern. Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.

JOHN GRISHAM is the author of thirty-five novels, one work of non-fiction, a collection of stories, and seven novels for young readers.