A Time To Kill, by John Grisham (Arrow, £5.99 in UK)

This is John Grisham's first novel and, to my mind, a considerably more gripping affair than his subsequent bestsellers. From the horrific opening scene, which features in gory detail the rape of a 10 year old black child in Mississippi, the story rattles along at a cracking "pace, and the central character, the lawyer appointed by the child's father to defend him after he shoots the rapists during their trial, has less self assurance and more charm than Grisham's heroes usually display perhaps because, as the author notes in his introduction, "we've both lost sleep over clients and vomited in courthouse rest rooms".