A Time to Kill is a 1989 legal suspense thriller by John Grisham. Grisham's first novel, it was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press eventually gave it a modest 5,000-copy printing. After The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Client became bestsellers, interest in A Time to Kill grew; the book was republished by Doubleday in hardcover and, later, by Dell Publishing in paperback, and itself became a bestseller. In 1996 the novel was adapted into a film of the same name, starring Matthew McConaughey and Samuel L. Jackson. In 2011 it was further adapted into stage play of the same... name. The pre-Broadway production began previews at Arena Stage on May 6 2011, and opened May 22. The story takes place in the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi, which is also featured in other John Grisham novels. Two of the characters, Harry Rex Vonner and Lucien Wilbanks, later appear in Grisham's 2003 novel The Last Juror, which is set in Clanton in the 1970s. Harry Rex Vonner also appears in the 2002 Grisham novel, The Summons, and in the short story "Fish Files", in the 2009 collection Ford County.
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