Sycamore Row

Sycamore Row (2013) by John Grisham is the sequel to his debut novel and best-selling legal thriller, A Time to Kill (1989). Grisham, a practicing lawyer prior to his career as a novelist, popularized the legal thriller with his prolific work in the genre, frequently highlighting social justice and legal ethics issues. Though marketed as a legal thriller, Grisham himself makes a clear distinction between his legal thrillers and his Ford County novels—aka the Jake Brigance series—in the Author’s Note to Sycamore Row. The story follows the unusual jury trial of Seth Hubbard’s contested will, hastily written by hand just before his death by suicide. The will cuts out Seth’s children and leaves the bulk of his immense fortune to his Black housekeeper. The will sparks fierce resentments in Clanton, Mississippi, a town deeply divided by racial inequality. The mysterious motive behind Seth’s startling choice reveals how history and generational trauma influence individual actions, as well as how those actions can drive systemic change, personal healing, and social justice. Sycamore Row was awarded the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction in 2014.

This guide uses the e-book edition of the text published in 2013 by Vintage Books. Pagination may differ from print editions.

Content Warning: Sycamore Row discusses death by suicide and depicts racism, graphic violence, and alcohol addiction. It contains what may be considered stereotyped gender portrayals. The text features slurs and racial epithets that this study guide references.

Plot Summary

Sycamore Row takes place in Ford County, Mississippi, in 1988. The body of Seth Hubbard, a wealthy, reclusive white man battling terminal lung cancer, is found hanging from a sycamore tree after his death by suicide. The handwritten will he mailed to attorney Jake Brigance the day before his death explicitly overturns his prior wills, legally denying his ex-wives, children, and grandchildren any part of his estate. Instead, the bulk of his immense wealth is to go to Lettie Lang, the Black housekeeper who’s worked for him for three years. When Seth’s children learn this, they hire attorneys to contest the will, arguing that Seth’s cancer medications impaired his ability to make sound decisions and that Lettie had undue influence on the old man.

With an estate worth $24 million on the line, every lawyer is eager to get a piece of it, even Jake. He’s been struggling financially since the Hailey trial—which didn’t bring him the string of lucrative cases he’d hoped for—and since the insurance company refused to pay what his house was worth after the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) burned it down. To protect Lettie’s interests, he’ll have to prove the validity of Seth’s handwritten will in court—no easy feat against ruthless litigators like Rufus Buckley, Booker Sistrunk, and Wade Lanier, known for using every dirty trick in the book to win cases. Judge Reuben Atlee, a fair but sometimes overbearing presence, oversees the case.

Lettie Lang lives in the Black part of a segregated town with her husband Simeon, who abuses both alcohol and at times, Lettie. Their house is overcrowded with many of their children, grandchildren, and other relatives living with them. After losing her job when Seth dies, Lettie doesn’t know how she’ll feed all those mouths, until the will is made public. The news of Lettie’s potential fortune sparks controversy and resentment in the community, and the influence of public opinion on her jury trial could mean she never sees a penny. Lettie’s daughter Portia returns after six years in the Army with aspirations of law school and is hired as an intern at Jake’s firm.

Jake’s mentor, Lucien Wilbanks, discovers records suggesting Lettie is a descendant of Sylvester Rinds, who owned land that was sold to Seth Hubbard’s father in 1930, after which the entire Rinds family disappeared from the area. Lucien thinks this may have something to do with Seth’s reason for leaving his fortune and land to Lettie. His research is put on hold when he’s sent to Alaska to search for Seth’s brother Ancil, a beneficiary in Seth’s will who hasn’t been seen since he ran away at age 16. Ancil was purportedly traumatized by something he and Seth witnessed.

When Simeon’s drunk driving causes an accident that leaves two white high schoolers dead, public outrage threatens to destroy Jake’s chances in court. Lettie expresses her sorrow in a letter to the boys’ parents, who offer their forgiveness soon after. Lettie files for divorce while Simeon’s in jail, providing further damage control. During the trial, all seems lost when a surprise witness reveals Lettie worked for his mother, who tried to change her will and leave Lettie $50,000. Though she changed it back before dying, the jury sees a pattern that suggests Lettie manipulated Seth.

Lucien returns from Alaska with a videotaped deposition from Ancil Hubbard just in time to turn things around. Ancil reveals Sylvester Rinds owned and lived on the land next to theirs. Their father felt the land was rightfully his. As children, Ancil and Seth witnessed their father and other white men murder Sylvester in a brutal lynching and force his family off their land. Lettie’s biological mother was Sylvester’s daughter. Realizing Seth’s bequest was intended as reparation for the injustice his father committed against the Rinds family, the jury rules in favor of his latest will. At Judge Atlee’s suggestion, Lettie agrees to a settlement, rather than accepting the entire inheritance, in which Seth’s fortune will be divided between Lettie, Seth’s two children, and a foundation designed to fund education for other Rinds family descendants. When Ancil finally returns to Mississippi, he meets Lettie and her family. With his apology and her forgiveness, the healing of their generational trauma begins.