A Time for Mercy, John Grisham, Author; Michael Beck, narrator
The year is 1980, the place is Clanton, Mississippi. Drew Gamble is an undersized 16-year-old teenager with a high pitched voice. He has not yet gone through puberty and appears very frail and needy. At 14, his younger sister, although emotionally still a child, is beginning to look like a woman, Their mother, Josie Gamble, is very young. She was only 16 when she had Drew. The three of them live with Stuart Kofer, Josies’s boyfriend. Josie works several jobs, and she is grateful for the roof over their heads.
Stuart Kofer is a well-liked deputy in Clanton. Although he drinks, and then becomes a little belligerent, the officers cover for him. He is an angry drunk, though. Alcohol makes him mean. He physically abuses Josie and the kids. They want her to leave him, but they have no place to run. They have already lived in cars, under bridges and in foster homes.
One night, Stuart comes home from drinking and attacks Josie. The children find her unconscious on the kitchen floor. The teenagers believe their mother is dead and their lives are in danger. He often threatened them and taunted them, and this night, they believed, would be no exception. Although he is passed out drunk, after Drew calls 911, he panics and makes a foolish choice hoping to save himself and his sister from harm. He is arrested for the murder of the deputy.
The Gambles are indigent and the judge appoints Jake Brigance, already a known character to Grisham readers, to defend Drew. It seems like a no win situation. No one else would take the case. The town is not happy because they lost a well liked officer of the law, and they resent Jake’s involvement. To the police, the facts sometimes seem less important than the injury to their pride. However, it is a capital crime to murder a police officer. What will justice be in this case? Will justice prevail?
Grisham has written a wonderful novel without abusing the reader with unnecessary sex scene descriptions or foul language. This is simply an excellent story which exposes the flaws in our legal system and “the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to”. He does a masterful job building up the tension leading to the trial with courtroom scenes that are emotional and authentic. The prosecution and the defense are prepared and intense in their presentation of the case, and each of the characters seems real and well developed. The narrator superbly identifies each one with his tone and accents. At the end, the reader will be satisfied with the conclusion and hopeful that Jack Brigance has made a comeback, soon to return again!