Book Review: A Time for Mercy

John Grisham brings back Jake Brigance, the legal hero of his acclaimed 1989 debut A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row, for a third time in A Time for Mercy. Set five years after Brigance managed to acquit Carl Lee Hailey in a historic verdict in the fictional Mississippi hometown of Clanton, it's undoubtedly topical in its exploration of violence committed by law enforcement officials even if the narrative and the ensuing courtroom proceedings fail to adequately prop up the morally complex story involving a 16-year-old Drew Gamble, who is charged with shooting his mother's drunken boyfriend, deputy sheriff Stu Kofer. But for the most part, A Time for Mercy is classic John Grisham — a well-written tale that unfolds in an unhurried manner with no preposterous plot twists or last minute surprise reveals, while also capturing the small town's racial tensions in the early 90's, in a way that's more intimate and less of a harangue.