The life of a ten-year-old girl is shattered by two drunken and remorseless young men. The mostly white town of Clanton in Ford County, Mississippi, reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime. Until her black father acquires an assault rifle and takes justice into his own outraged hands.

For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of sniper fire spread through the streets of Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as young defense attorney Jake Brigance struggles to save his client’s life–and then his own.

Available for the first time in a hardcover edition, this riveting novel of rape, murder, retribution, and justice set in rural Mississippi was Grisham's first novel and led to his subsequent bestsellers The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Client.