A Time for Mercy: A Jake Brigance Novel

In John Grisham’s third novel featuring small-town attorney Jake Brigance, a mother’s lifetime of poor choices has devastating consequences for her two teenaged children and draws Jake into a case that he does not want to handle. The story opens with the nightmarish events that unfolded inside a darkened Ford County home very early one morning. Josie Gamble and her children have been living in the home with Stuart Kofer, a local sheriff’s officer, for about a year. With nowhere else to go, they have stayed while enduring Kofer’s increasingly violent abuse. His dark side was mostly hidden at work and he was well regarded by his fellow officers, with Josie’s few attempts to report episodes of abuse being swept under the rug. On the night in question, when Kofer came home after hours of extremely heavy drinking, this dark side roared to life and Josie was in its path. The beating she suffered was so severe that her children thought she had been killed. Traumatized by this unimaginable horror, as 14-year-old Kiera cowers on the floor cradling her mother’s head in her lap, 16-year-old Drew finds Kofer’s loaded service weapon and fires one shot that instantly kills Kofer. It turns out that Josie was not dead, only very badly injured. Drew is taken into custody by a hostile sheriff’s department and the DA charges him with capital murder, in spite of his youth and the circumstances of the shooting. The presiding judge assigns the case to Jake, promising that it will be temporary until another defense attorney can be assigned. Jake reluctantly agrees to the temporary assignment. However, with no other qualified defense attorney willing or available to handle the case and against his better judgment, he finds himself increasingly compelled to stay on. This causes friction between Jake and his partner, Harry Rex, who is worried that defending an accused cop-killer will put a chilling effect on their business. He is particularly worried about the impact on a pending wrongful death lawsuit against the railroad where the partnership could win a substantial judgment. In trying to salvage the possibility of a big settlement from the railroad, Jake makes a questionable choice that will come back to haunt him. Several of the colorful characters from the previous two Brigance novels are back to lend continuity, wise counsel and, sometimes, comic relief. I have a feeling that we will see more of these in future Grisham novels. Like all of Grisham’s novels, A Time for Mercy, was engrossing, entertaining and enlightening, with a positive underlying message about supporting the underdog and doing the right thing. I loved this and can hardly wait to read his next novel.

Josie Gamble has had a tough life, especially for someone that was attractive, looked great in tight jeans and was in her early 30s. She made a lot of bad moves. She has two children, from different fathers. Her son Drew is 16-years old, but looks like 13. Her daughter Kiera is 14-years. The children do not know their fathers. Her children have had a tough life as well, because of Josie’s decisions. Josie does not have an education. Josie works menial jobs. Josie has done jail time. Josie makes bad decisions about men. When a relative kicks her and the children out of a small camper, she tries to find a place to stay. She meets Stuart Kofer in a bar. She learns that Stuart is divorced and owns his own home. Josie is easy, and soon she and her children are living in his house. Stuart hates the children. During the day, Stuart is a well-respected police officer in the small town of Clanton, Mississippi. During the night, he is often beyond drunk. He beats Josie frequently. He hits and abuses her children. The children are scared of Stuart. After a year living in his house, they beg their mother for them to leave. The last night they are with Stuart he comes home late, once again beyond drunk. He beats Josie. He breaks her jaw. She is unconscious. Stuart goes into the bedroom and passes out. The children see their mother on the kitchen floor and believe that she is dead. The daughter is holding the mother’s head and crying. Drew calls 911. Drew leaves the kitchen. Shortly a gun shot is heard. Stuart is dead. The police arrive and an ambulance is called for Josie and Drew is arrested for murder. Attorney Jake Brigance is assigned the murder case. He is the defense. He does not want the assignment. This is a small town and Stuart Kofer was well liked. Soon the small-town hates Jake for being the attorney of the cop killer. How could Jake ever win when the case goes to trial. Thirty-five novels ago, this reader absolutely loved “A Time to Kill” by author John Grisham. While this reader has all 35 of Grisham’s novels, there probably are a few that he has not yet read. No rush, his novels are like a fine wine. Recently released “A Time for Mercy” is the 35th Grisham novel, and it just well might be his best. It was an incredible 464 pages of pure reading enjoyment. This reader felt like he was in Clanton, observing the story he was reading. The author appears to leave the story open to a sequel. This reader would enjoy that just fine!

I love almost all of Grisham books & this one was no different. Lots of interesting twists & also some story lines not completely tied up. All in all it was a fun read; I found myself unable to put the book down in the last half of the book. I am curious about some of the things I feel weren’t quite resolved & wonder if there’s a sequel in the works.

First I have to tell you that after I read page 57 of this book, there was no page 58. It skipped to 60, then 59, then 62, 63, 62, and jumped to chapter 7. The rest of the book was an assortment of missing, repeated, and out-of-order pages. Unreadable. I checked Amazon's reviews, and lots of people got misprinted books. How does Doubleday screw up like that? If I were Grisham, I'd be ticked off. To Amazon’s credit, it replaced my book with a perfect one within 24 hours of my bringing the defective copy to the UPS store. The third book about lawyer Jake Brigance (the first was A Time to Kill, Grisham’s first book; the second was Sycamore Row) begins with Stu Kofer, an off-duty deputy sheriff, coming home drunk and beating his girlfriend to death—or so it seems to her two teenaged children. Drew, the son, distraught and afraid, shoots the passed-out Kofer with his service pistol, killing him. This is a case no lawyer in Ford County, Mississippi, wants. The family is indigent. Judge Omar Noose assigns it to Jake Brigance, and he can’t refuse; he agrees to take it on for the preliminaries, but begs the judge to find someone else to take the case to trial. That doesn’t happen. Brigance has another trial coming up, a big one that he expects to win, one that should result in a big award, his first. He’s an excellent lawyer, but not a perfect one. He makes a decisive error. There are lots of surprises in both cases. Grisham skillfully unfolds several intertwined storylines while fleshing out his characters. The tension is palpable all the way through. The story comes to a satisfying ending, though neither of the cases is neatly resolved. I’m hoping that means that there will be a sequel to A Time for Mercy, because I’m invested; I want to know what happens to all these characters. One of his best. Grisham made his reputation on his legal thrillers, and this one does not disappoint.

Grisham’s first novel, A TIME TO KILL, remains my favorite of his works. Originally published in 1989, it tells the story of a black father seeking revenge on the two white men who repeatedly raped and brutalized his young daughter, and the trial that ensues after he kills them. It’s set in rural Mississippi where racial tensions run high. It brings the reader into a world of legal drama and leaves them with questions of what is just and fair in tragic situations such as these. Like its predecessor A TIME FOR MERCY deals with a murder involving moral ambiguities. In this instance, the killer is a sixteen-year-old boy who kills his mother’s abusive boyfriend after he beats her, possibly to death. The boy and his sister have also been physically abused and the boy is mentally traumatized. Enter Jake Brigance, the defense lawyer from A TIME TO KILL. He’s pulled in reluctantly by the presiding judge and ordered to take the case. What follows is an emotionally and morally riveting tale. Grisham grants us the opportunity to see several different perspectives on the level of guilt involved in the boy’s acts and brings it all to a satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed the novel thoroughly. A great read for anyone who enjoys legal thrillers.

I remember reading “A Time to Kill,” many years ago and was excited about this new author who created characters that were sensitive and smart. I couldn’t put the book down. We return to Mississippi again in 2020 and become reacquainted with the small-town lawyer, Jake Brigance. He specializes in defending impossible cases whether he wants them or not. Judge Omar Noose (you have to love his last name) asks him to take this case, but he is really telling Jake that he must defend this 16-year-old boy Drew Gamble, who is accused of killing a cop, a sheriff’s deputy, Stuart Kofer. The opening chapter is a blockbuster. Grisham tells us all we need to know about his main characters. The reader can almost touch desperation, poverty and blatant sexual power. We are introduced to Josie and her two children, Kiera and Drew and the murder victim, Stuart. It was a perfect chapter, actually the best one in the novel. There was no doubt how the indignity of no money, worldly goods and living out of the mainstream leaves one vulnerable with little hope. Jake is defending Drew who murdered Stuart with his own Glock. Set in 1985, racism is prevalent, not even covered up and the rural South is rife with discord and prejudice. There is nothing like a Southern novel. The white Kofer family are mean stereotypes, always ready for revenge. Jake is again burdened with financial pressures, no money with much debt. His law practice is suffering but he has loyal employees, wonderful wife and daughter. All the other characters, of which there are many, are carved out carefully. From the prosecutor, Dyer, to 14-year-old Kiera, Grisham has created an enduring novel, one of his best in years.

Five years have passed since Jake Brigance found himself handling the most controversial and consequential case of his career to date. Carl Lee Hailey, out of his mind with shock, outrage, and grief after his little ten-year-old daughter was ruthlessly, brutally attacked by two shiftless, callous young men, sought justice on his own terms. In the process of defending him, Jake nearly lost everything -- his home, his legal practice, his family, and his own life. But after the verdict was announced, the television news crews left to chase other stories, the people of the little town of Clanton, Mississippi calmed down, and things pretty much went back to normal, and Jake, Carla, and their daughter, Hanna, were able to put their lives back together. Jake is still practicing law, Carla is teaching, Hannah is growing and thriving. And for the business folks in Clanton, life still pretty much begins anew every morning in the local Coffee Shop where the waitresses don't have to ask anyone what they want to order. Everyone there is acquainted and news is shared long before it's published in the local paper. But after 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday night, in a nondescript little house six miles south of Clanton "on an old country road that went nowhere in particular," Josie "took a deep breath, said a quick prayer, and eased to the window to watch" Stuart Kofer's car as it pulled into the driveway. Josie braced herself as she tried to discern if the car was weaving or under control. Clad in a negligee that had pleased him once before, Josie watched Stuart stagger into the house as her children, Drew, age 16, and Kiera, two years younger, hid upstairs. The three of them have nowhere else to go, so Josie has endured the beatings that invariably come after Stuart has been drinking. In a mesmerizingly horrifying first chapter, Grisham describes what ensues after Stuart bursts through the door and finds Josie still awake. After a row in the kitchen as the children listen, the house suddenly goes quiet. Stuart stumbles up the stairs and appears to be headed for the room in which they have attempted to blockade themselves. Instead, he moves on to his own room. But Drew has had enough. Believing Stuart has finally killed Josie, like Carl Lee Hailey, Drew seeks justice on behalf of his mother, sister, and himself. He puts the tip of Stuart's nine-millimeter Glock -- his duty weapon -- one inch from Stuart's left temple . . . and pulls the trigger. Ozzie Wells is still the Sheriff of Ford County, having been elected in 1983. It was a historic election because Ozzie is the first black sheriff and he is deeply shaken at losing a deputy for the first time. Carl Lee Hailey shot DeWayne Looney and caused him to lose part of his leg, but DeWayne remains on the force. But now Ozzie has to call in the Mississippi state police to investigate the murder of one of his own. He warns his deputies to handle the case by the book and put Drew in mechanical restraints (handcuffs), opting to transport Drew and Kiera to the jail himself, accompanied by his chief deputy, Moss Junior Tatum. Kiera has already told Tatum that Drew shot Stuart. She is taken in by Reverend Charles McGarry, a 26-year-old pastor leading the fundamentalist Good Shepherd Bible Church that Josie and her children attended a few times. Now 37 years old, six days a week Jake is in the Coffee Shop by 6:00 a.m. On Sundays, the family enjoys breakfast before proceeding to church together. But Harry Rex Vonner, a divorce attorney and Jake's best friend, calls at 7:05 a.m. to warn him to leave town for a couple of days. The Honorable Omar Noose is sure to call Jake and appoint him to represent Drew, despite Jake's involvement in a large wrongful death case going to trial soon involving malfunctioning railroad crossing warning lights. "Listen to me, Jake, you do not want a dead-cop case. The facts are against you. The politics are against you. There's not a chance in hell the jury will show any sympathy," Harry Rex cautions. Sure enough, Judge Noose appoints Jake and he has no choice but to defend Drew for the paltry fee of $1000. Once again he is in the middle of a controversial case, and starts avoiding the Coffee Shop and the hostility directed at him by many Clanton citizens, especially members of law enforcement, many of whom are his friends and neighbors. Stuart was a popular deputy in a town that respects law and order. Indeed, Stuart's family members take possession of the house and angrily burn the pitifully few items of personal property Josie and her children owned. Jake soon learns about Josie's troubled history, and the way she has raised Drew and Kiera. Jake quickly realizes that Josie and Kiera have no voice and no one to protect them, either. Jake's investigation also unearths facts about Stuart that enrage and disappoint Ozzie, and figure prominently into Jake's defense of Drew. Despite the financial and familial strain caused by his defense of Drew, and the potential negative impact on the wrongful death case, Jake soon finds himself squaring off against Lowell Dyer, the district attorney Jake supported in his bid to defeat Rufus Buckley, the man who unsuccessfully prosecuted Carl Lee Hailey. And to make matters worse, Dyer announces he will prosecute Drew in accordance with the 1988 Death Penalty Enhancement Act making it a capital offense to murder a peace officer whether he or she is on or off duty. With no ruling on its constitutionality by a higher court, Judge Noose is not inclined to strike the indictment. Grisham deftly and compassionately details the progress of Jake's preparation for Drew's trial, as well as developments in the railroad crossing case. Although he was a pariah in his own little town during the Carl Lee Hailey trial, it is still hurtful and difficult to find himself in that situation again, and it causes strife for his family, as well. And places Jake in grave danger. But Jake literally has no choice once he is appointed, and his sense of duty, coupled with his humanity, compels him to put his client's best interests first. Grisham's affection and empathy for his characters and their circumstances is evident on every page. (He makes no secret of the fact that A Time to Kill remains his favorite book.) At issue is the question of Drew's state of mind when he pulled the trigger, killing Stuart, and how the legal system should determine what is just. How is it fair to try any 16-year-old as an adult? While Stuart was passed out drunk when Drew killed him, he had just abused Josie yet again, terrifying her children who feared he had finally killed their mother and they would be his next victims. Drew is a particularly young 16 -- small, underdeveloped, and unsophisticated. Was he capable of what Dyer characterizes as "coldblooded murder?" Yet again, Jake finds himself at the center of an ethical conundrum: Was Drew's action justified? The story moves at an unrelenting pace, compelled forward by shocking developments and the crisp, pointed, and sometimes ironically witty dialogue of Grisham's beloved characters. In addition to the others, Lucien Wilbanks, Jake's alcoholic, disbarred mentor appears, again offering advice, support, and other assistance. As always, Grisham's story asks more questions than it answers which is, of course, the point. In addition to the legal quagmire illustrated by Drew's case, Grisham explores societal issues, including the appropriateness of the death penalty, abortion, the manner in which poverty impacts a defendant's ability to receive competent representation and a fair trial, and faith. Racism also figures into the story, as Jake is assisted by Portia, a brilliant African-American paralegal who will soon start law school and become a trial attorney herself. He does so by telling his characters' stories, never letting his narrative lapse into a preachy or judgmental tone. On the contrary, as is his habit, Grisham wants his readers to draw their own conclusions. That is more clearly evident in A Time for Mercy than in Grisham's other work. Not all readers will find the ending satisfactory. Grisham again proves that he is unequalled when it comes to engrossing and thought-provoking courtroom dramas populated by colorful, fascinating, and sympathetic characters. A Time for Mercy will delight Grisham fans who are familiar with the inhabitants of Clanton, Mississippi, and surely make fans of those who get to know them through this volume, which can be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel. Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.

Book Review - I thoroughly enjoyed John Grisham’s latest legal thriller, “A Time for Mercy.” It was the continuation of the Jake Brigance character from A Time to Kill and Sycamore Row. Although Brigance is the leading character in the two other legal thrillers, it is not necessary to read them before reading this one. This book can be read as a standalone. Grisham’s narrative of the story is just remarkable. It is another solid Grisham ‘legal adventure’ of Deep South, Southern-culture idiosyncrasies. It is a well worth the time to read but not as gripping as previous legal thrillers but has plenty of court room drama and feel-good moments along with the heart wrenching ones. As always Grisham builds a page turner. This story gives the reader plenty of characters and scenes to simply love and even more to loath. A Time for Mercy pulls at your heartstrings, makes you mad, sad, laugh out loud and even made me argue for Jake on a couple occasions. Grisham does a good job drawing the reader into the story and making you feel the weight of the trial and the struggle of the characters and what they are going through. Before you know it, you’re questioning your own personal convictions and beliefs. A very gripping story that makes you wonder what is correct and what is justified. Another thrilling adventure into the world of law by John Grisham.

How does Grisham do it - another fantastic plot and entertaining story. I love his books as seems to hit it out of the park every time. This novel no exception and it leaves itself open to the next book in the series. He is beyond a doubt my favourite author.

Avec Grisham les avocats deviennent sympathiques et le système judiciaire s'humanise.

No hesitation in highly recommending this title. With its incredible twists and turns the reader will be totally absorbed until the last sentence.

A relative newcomer to John Grisham’s novels, I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the Jake Brigance series, but A Time for Mercy was. next level, a totally enthralling and immersive experience, I couldn’t put it down. The depth of the characters and the plot made this book a truly captivating read. I’ve never visited America’s South, but having read this book, I feel (rightly or wrongly) I have gained a level of understanding of the culture of a small town in Mississippi. The detail of the courtroom proceedings made me feel as if I were actually there. I highly recommend this novel and I’ll be downloading my next Grisham novel in about five minutes time. I’m hooked.

Ein super Buch, so wie man es von Grisham gewöhnt ist.