Grisham eyes political novel

What John Grisham did for small-town lawyers in his crime novels he’s planning to do for politicians.

The author of “The Firm,” “A Time to Kill” and other bestselling legal thrillers said he took copious notes during bull sessions with fellow lawmakers during his years in the Mississippi House of Representatives in the late 1980s.

One day, they’ll appear in a beefy novel set in Ford County, Miss., the same fictitious venue as “A Time to Kill,” Grisham said after he addressed the Southern Governors Assn.’s 70th annual conference here this week.

“I have a lot of notes; there will be a lot of layers to it. It’ll be a big, thick book, and I’m not in the mood to write a big thick book right now,” Grisham said in an interview. “It’s probably at least five years away.”

Grisham practiced law in Southaven, Miss., and represented the Memphis, Tenn., suburb in the Legislature for six years, leaving in 1990 to focus full time on writing.

“It’s going to have a lot of the humor that I saw in the campaigning and also in the Legislature itself,” he said of the planned novel. “The serious issues I’ve yet to define.”