Sycamore Row
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| Author | John Grisham |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Legal thriller |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
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Publication date
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October 22, 2013 |
| Pages | 464 pp (Hardcover 1st edition) |
| ISBN | (Hardcover 1st edition) |
Sycamore Row is a novel by John Grisham. It is a direct sequel to his first novel, A Time to Kill, and again features Jake Brigance as the main character. It was released on October 22, 2013. The novel held the top spot in the US best-seller list.
The title refers to a row of sycamore trees in the countryside near the fictional town of Clanton, in fictional Ford County, Mississippi. The trees play an important role in the book's plot, though the full significance becomes clear only in the end of the novel. It is suggested that these sycamores are very old, having been planted by Native Americans prior to the arrival of European settlers and their black slaves in what would become the state of Mississippi.
The story begins three years after the sensational events in the trial of Carl Lee Hailey (A Time to Kill). An employee of the rich recluse Seth Hubbard is instructed to meet his boss at a location by these sycamores one early Sunday afternoon. The employee finds Mr. Hubbard has hanged himself from the tree because his terminal lung cancer had become too painful. Accompanying the body are very specific funeral and burial instructions.
Jake Brigance, Carl Lee's former attorney, had gained much fame after the Hailey trial, as well as the respect of the black community and of many whites, but he has little to no money to show for it. During the Hailey trial, the Ku Klux Klan had tried to intimidate Jake by burning his home, killing his dog. Jake has yet to see any of the insurance money for the burnt house, currently being tied up in long drawn out litigation with his own insurance company.
Jake receives a letter sent by Hubbard just before he kills himself, containing a new holographic will that renounces a will he filed the year before in which he leaves all his assets to his daughter and son as well as his grandchildren. In this new will, Hubbard stipulates that his children will receive nothing. Instead, five percent will be given to the local church and another five percent will be left to his long-disappeared brother, Ancil Hubbard. The remaining ninety percent is to be given to his black housekeeper Letitia "Lettie" Lang. Further instructions stipulate that the will must not be filed until after Seth's funeral so that his children, who rarely visited him during his bout with cancer, can put on a show not knowing that they will ultimately be left with nothing.
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