He began writing his first novel, A Time to Kill, in 1984, and it was published in June 1989. As of 2012, his books had sold over 275 million copies worldwide. The book was later adapted into a feature film of the same name, starring Tom Cruise, in 1993, and a TV series in 2012 which "continues the story of attorney Mitchell McDeere and his family 10 years after the events of the film and novel.