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"Great storytelling"
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted March 25, 2004

By 1970 the Ford County Times went bankrupt sped up by local boycotts when the owning family began adding obits of Negroes to the newspaper. Former cub reporter Willie Traynor, who went north for college, drops out of school, takes over the troubled paper from the aging Caudle family Read more...

"A Tantalizing Thriller"
Reviewed by Norman Goldman
Courtesy Bookpleasures
Posted April 25, 2004

You have to admit that the mere mention of the name John Grisham seems to invoke a love or hate reaction among bibliophiles. You either vigorously defend his writing style or you dismiss it as "schlock" writing. Candidly, I have to admit that I am always seduced when Grisham publishes a Read more...

Summary

In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colorful weekly newspapers, The Ford County Times, went bankrupt. To the surprise and dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college dropout, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details, and his newspaper began to prosper.

The murderer, Danny Padgitt, was tried before a packed courthouse in Clanton, Mississippi. The trial came to a startling and dramatic end when the defendant threatened revenge against the jurors if they convicted him. Nevertheless, they found him guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

But in Mississippi in 1970, "life" didn't necessarily mean "life," and nine years later Danny Padgitt managed to get himself paroled. He returned to Ford County, and the retribution began.