A Time to Kill is a novel that not only explores the dark side that comes with practicing law, but also addresses the issue of racism and how crime is viewed among the citizens that are involved. In this case, Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard are two white men who kidnap, and rape a ten year-old African American girl named Tonya Hailey (Grisham 35). After they are done, they dump her in a roadside ditch, and while she is found, she is in critical condition and left with life threatening wounds. Her father, Carl Lee, is infuriated, and feeling that the courts are not going to deal these men with the right punishment, he takes the law into his own hands by shooting and killing them with an M16 borrowed from a fellow vet. After this , Carl Lee is charged with murder and has to rely on his lawyer, to help him get off on the premise of insanity and the idea that he was a father that loves his family and that any person that would try to harm someone he loved would have something coming towards them. While it is clear that Carl Lee knew what happened and what he was doing, the mindset of a parent must change when their child is placed in harm's way to the …show more content…
There is a whole list of characters, with almost a couple being introduced every chapter or two, and many of them are well-developed and interesting , especially the town sheriff Ozzie, the trial judge Noose, the crazy DA Buckley and Jake’s mentor Lucien, who taught Jake everything he knows. A number of minor characters also have their times. The characters in the story feel very authentic and real. Each one has some sort of flaw that you can connect with. They are like normal people, not superheroes. For example, Jake, Carl Lee's’ lawyer, is just in the case for the spotlight at first, but after time he really starts to care about the people and the community involved. This gets him into trouble along the story that he did not want at the start