John Grisham returns to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his immensely popular first novel, A Time to Kill. This wholly surprising collection of stories reminds us once again why Grisham is America?s favorite storyteller.
Doubleday
November 2009
On Sale: November 3, 2009
320 pages ISBN: 0385532458 EAN: 9780385532457 Hardcover Add to Wish List
In his first collection of short stories John Grisham takes
us back to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his
first novel, A Time to Kill.
Wheelchair-bound
Inez Graney and her two older sons, Leon and Butch, take a
bizarre road trip through the Mississippi Delta to visit the
youngest Graney brother, Raymond, who's been locked away on
death row for eleven years. It could well be their last
visit.
Mack Stafford, a hard-drinking and
low-grossing run-of-the-mill divorce lawyer gets a miracle
phone call with a completely unexpected offer to settle some
old, forgotten cases for more money than he has ever seen.
Mack is suddenly bored with the law, fed up with his wife
and his life, and makes drastic plans to finally
escape.
Quiet, dull Sidney, a data collector for an
insurance company, perfects his blackjack skills in hopes of
bringing down the casino empire of Clanton's most ambitious
hustler, Bobby Carl Leach, who, among other crimes, has
stolen Sidney's wife.
Three good ol' boys from rural
Ford County begin a journey to the big city of Memphis to
give blood to a grievously injured friend. However, they are
unable to drive past a beer store as the trip takes longer
and longer. The journey comes to an abrupt end when they
make a fateful stop at a Memphis strip club.
The
Quiet Haven Retirement Home is the final stop for the
elderly of Clanton. It's a sad, languid place with little
controversy, until Gilbert arrives. Posing as a lowly paid
bedpan boy, he is in reality a brilliant stalker with an
uncanny ability to sniff out the assets of those "seniors"
he professes to love.
One of the hazards of
litigating against people in a small town is that one day,
long after the trial, you will probably come face-to-face
with someone you've beaten in a lawsuit. Lawyer Stanley Wade
bumps into an old adversary, a man with a long memory, and
the encounter becomes a violent ordeal.
Clanton is
rocked with the rumor that the gay son of a prominent family
has finally come home, to die. Of AIDS. Fear permeates the
town as gossip runs unabated. But in Lowtown, the colored
section of Clanton, the young man finds a soul mate in his
final days.
Featuring a cast of characters you'll
never forget, these stories bring Ford County to vivid and
colorful life. Often hilarious, frequently moving, and
always entertaining, this collection makes it abundantly
clear why John Grisham is our most popular storyteller.