John Grisham was working as a lawyer inMississippi when one day he overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and decided to write a novel that exploredwhat might have happened if the girl’s father had murdered her assailants. That book, A Time to Kill, was published in 1989, and Grisham has since writtenmore than thirty-five more novels, one work of nonfiction, a collection of stories and seven novels for young readers. His name has long been synonymous with the modern legal thriller, with three hundred million books in print and translations in forty languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films. His most recent novel is Sooley (Doubleday, 2021). Sparring Partners will publish in May 2022.