John Grisham returns to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his immensely popular first novel, "A Time to Kill," with this wholly surprising collection of stories.

"A Navy SEAL has nothing left to live for and everything to kill for after he discovers that the American government is behind the deaths of his team in this ripped-from-the-headlines political thriller. On his last combat deployment, Lieutenant Commander James Reece's entire team was killed in a catastrophic ambush that also claimed the lives of the aircrew sent in to rescue them. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming,...

Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the Minnesota town of Wayzata, an entire family has been killed - husband, wife, kids, dogs. On the wall, in blood: "Were coming." No apostrophe. The scene looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution Lucas has seen from Mexican drug gangs. But this is a seriously upscale town, the husband ran a modest software company, the wife dabbled in local politics....

As Jubal Young rides west into New Mexico, he remembers his family's laughter and love, his pa's wisdom, his ma's thick books, his beautiful sister and everything that was defiled by a band of drunken renegades towed along by one man's murderous grudge. Nothing can stop Jubal from climbing a peak of blood and madness: for justice, or payback, or something he can live for--or die for--redeeming.

Peter Ash came home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: what he calls his ���white static,��� the buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming in nature, sleeping under the stars. But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man���s widow with some home repairs. Under her dilapidated porch, he finds more than...

Seven teenagers are plagued by chain letters demanding impossible deeds and threatening violence as well as exposure of their joint "unthinkable crime in the desolate California desert."

"A brilliant young philosophy student bent on seducing her famous philosopher-mentor finds herself outmaneuvered; diabolically clever high school girls wreak a particularly apt sort of vengeance on sexual predators in their community; a man returns from the dead to haunt his grieving wife; a young mother finds herself captivated by her own motherhood. In the collection's longest story, a much-praised writer cruelly experiments with "drafts" of his...

"After being abruptly jilted, Sophie Kincaid flees to the place her friend Kim Aldredge calls heaven on earth. But Sophie's first taste of Edilean is far from heavenly: after her car breaks down on a country road, she is nearly run over by a speeding sports car. A small act of revenge brings some satisfaction, and word quickly spreads that a gorgeous newcomer gave the driver, the notoriously bitter Dr. Reede Aldredge, a dressing down! But it isn't...

"Young Cormac Lynch looks up to his dad as much as he loves his mother and sister. But one day, a few men ride in ... men who defile everything they touch. They take what they want and move on, leaving Cormac the only survivor. Killing those men won't bring his family back, but it is all he can do to set things right"-- Cover verso.

Faith in the power and righteousness of retribution has taken over the American criminal justice system. Approaching punishment and responsibility from a philosophical perspective, Limits of Blame takes issue with a criminal justice system that aligns legal criteria of guilt with moral criteria of blameworthiness. Many incarcerated people do not meet the criteria of blameworthiness, even when they are guilty of crimes. The author underscores the problems...