A Time to Kill is a 1989
legal suspense thriller by
John Grisham. It was Grisham's first novel. The novel was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press (located in New York) 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. This made Grisham extremely popular among readers.