Rating: 
Summary: By far the best in awhile
Review: This is so much better than the last few of John Grisham's books. I loved all the characters, especially Miss Callie. This is a must read for Grisham fans and those who aren't yet. Very, very good.
Rating: 
Summary: Who are you and what have you done with Grisham?
Review: I was disappointed with Grisham's latest book, The Last Juror. The book slowly plodded along with no real direction. Not much a story: 25-year-old Willie buys a small-town newspaper and writes about the townsfolk. A man, Padgitt, kills and rapes a woman. Man is not sentenced to death penalty because of a hung jury. Newspaper sales go up. Willie befriends an older black woman, writes about her family, has lunch with her every Thursday. 10 years later, Padgitt is released from jail. Willie sells the newspaper. Black woman dies of heart attack. The end. Come on!!! This book was awful.Like most readers, I read for fun. This book was not fun. What happened to the Grisham who wrote simple-minded, super-fast reads such as The Rainmaker, The Client and The Firm?
Rating: 
Summary: Hm...
Review: 2* Hm... Mr Grisham has set the action of three of his 14 legal thrillers in the small town of Clanton in Ford County, in "rural Southern Mississippi". The first one was "A Time to Kill" (1989), the action of which takes place in the mid-'80's; the second one, "The Summons" (2002); this one (2004) sees its events over a span of 9 years (1970-79), thus preceding those of the other two novels. We find again some of the characters portrayed in the first book: Lucien Wilbanks, still in legal practice as a wily trial lawyer before his disbarment which, towards the end of the book, is however imminent (by the way, where's Jack Brigance?! from what we knew, he already ought to be Lucien's associate at this time);; Harry Rex Vonner, the overweight, mean divorce lawyer, sloppily dressed and looking, but smart and likeable; Claude, the owner of one of the local eateries, barking at customers to finish their meal in 20 minutes so as to accommodate others (the Coffee Shop and the Tea Shoppe, apparently, aren't opened yet); in the third and final part, Judge Omar Noose and the prosecuting magistrate, Rufus Buckley (appointed, we learn here, in 1975). Sheriff Ozzie Walls is not yet in office, and the position is occupied first by a corrupt man, then by an indifferent (as far as characterizations go) one. The scene is the same: the town's square with its courthouse, presumably with General Clanton's (the town's founder and namesake) statue but minus the old men sitting there, spitting out tobacco juice on the lawn; and the nearby Parchman state penitentiary. The book is in three parts: the first one concerns the gruesome rape and murder of the mother of two children, the trial and conviction of the proven criminal, with a sentence to two consecutive life terms in jail; the third one sees his being paroled out (at the second try) after only 9 years of imprisonment, thanks to a distorted presentation of the facts of the crime and of the record of the trial to an incredibly gullible parole board, probably under the thumb (with a financial "consideration", of course) of the wealthy and wicked family of the convicted man. As soon as the latter is out of jail, serial killings of three former jurors begin and, of course, the direction of suspicions is obvious, because of the threat he had hurled at the jury before it entered its room to deliberate. The second part is a liaison in time. This division takes away the gripping continuity of "A Time to Kill". The trial scenes are not as compelling. The white/black racial issue is again present, but it was better presented there, as well as the characterizations; and the evolution of the events much more gripping in its continuation. Callie Ruffin is a nice attempt at characterization, but she looks useless in the context of the plot. A Time to Kill, and The Firm, were for this reader "no-put-down" books; this one needed 4 or 5 dragged-on, reading sessions. The final twist is not convincing. The impression is that Mr Grisham must have found himself in a hurry to deliver the manuscript to the publisher by the deadline.
Rating:
Summary: An old-fashioned Grisham book
Review: John Grisham returns to the formula which made him famous in his latest book, "The Last Juror". He uses a combination of setting (Mississippi in the newly-desegregating 70's) unforgettable characters, and a plot which has enough twists to keep the reader interested and guessing. In this book a young man named Willie Traynor has talked his wealthy grandmother into buying him a small-town newspaper with a shrinking circulation. He manages to expand the paper's readership by including human interest stories and just enough controversy to keep the Letters to the Editor column full. When there is a brutal rape and murder, everyone knows that is is Danny Padgitt of the notorious Padgitt Family who did it. The dying woman had his name on her lips and Danny had her blood on his clothes. The Padgitts are extremely powerful people in the community and Willie and his friends doubt that he will be convicted. After the trial Danny threatens all of the jurors, and Mississippi laws (which Grisham admits to exaggerating) allow him to be released from prison much sooner than the town of Clanton expects. Grisham delves into race relations, crooked politics, bad laws, and our all-too-human tendency to judge people without knowing all of the facts. This book has a bit over everything and should be a winner with old and new Grisham fans.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what his fans want but Grisham's best novel in years
Review: I actually managed to read "The Last Juror" without knowing anything more than it was the "new" John Grisham novel. From the title I assumed that it was about a trial and about a juror for that matter, in a similar vein to "The Runaway Jury," but that is not really the case even though the cove photograph certain reinforces the idea. There is a juror and there is a trial, but there are parts of a larger tapestry told by the book's narrator. This narrator, who is not the titular figure, was born Joyner William Traynor but becomes known as Willie when he ends up working on a small newspaper in Clanton, Mississippi. Actually he ends up doing more than that, becoming the owner of the "Times" through a couple of simple twists of fate, although he never really graduated with a journalism degree from that "Ivy League" school Syracuse. Will, as he called himself, had his Triumph Spitfire and his long hair, but not much else going for him. However, this person Willie becomes rather interesting as he tries to build up the circulation of his little newspaper in Ford County. After all, even if he hails from Memphis he is still considered a Yankee by the people of Mississippi. Along the ways he makes a friend of Miss Callie Ruffin, an elderly black woman who has eight children, the first seven of which have earned doctorates; we will learn about why the youngest child does not have his Ph.D. yet in the course of this tale. However, everything changes when the most sensational murder case anybody in Ford County can remember happens. Willie knows this is his big chance to boost circulation for his newspaper. However, this means crossing the family that has been running Ford County behind the scenes for over a hundred years. Grisham makes the point several times that Mississippi is behind the times more than any other state in the Union and his Author's Note at the end acknowledges that he has mistreated some of the bad and weak laws that existed in the state in the 1970s, the decade in which this story was set. But "The Last Juror" really is about changing times, even if the changes come too late in the estimation of some. What Willie does to not only make Clanton a better place but to become a part of his adopted town is a recurring theme, even if it never seems to be the driving narrative of the novel. The only real step in the story is when things start happening towards the end of the book and everybody in town assumes they know who is behind, whereas everybody that I know who has read the book (okay, that is just two other people, but all of us agreed) jumped to the right conclusion. Not in terms of who, mind you, but in terms of what was really happening. You would think some of the characters in the town of Clanton would have at least had an idle thought in this direction, but Grisham is being so blatant in ignoring the obvious alternative explanation that it is impossible not to guess what is really going on. "The Last Juror" is set in the Deep South and has the rhythm of a story told on the front porch. Like many such stories it is about much more than what it is supposed to be about, so those who are compelled to find linear narratives in the novels they read are going to be frustrated, but hopefully not disappointed by Grisham's tale. You may not come to a final conclusion about what this novel is really about until you have read the final page, but there is really nothing wrong with that, even if it swims against the tide of contemporary best selling fiction. This is not a great novel or even a great Grisham novel, but it is a solid yarn, his best in years, and at this point in his career that may well be as good as it gets.
Rating:
Summary: bad
Review: I enjoy Grisham. The man can tell a story! But this time, it was a slow, boring story. This is even worse than Bleachers. It's predictable, it's uneventful,.....
Very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: An old-fashioned Grisham book
Review: John Grisham returns to the formula which made him famous in his latest book, "The Last Juror". He uses a combination of setting (Mississippi in the newly-desegregating 70's) unforgettable characters, and a plot which has enough twists to keep the reader interested and guessing. In this book a young man named Willie Traynor has talked his wealthy grandmother into buying him a small-town newspaper with a shrinking circulation. He manages to expand the paper's readership by including human interest stories and just enough controversy to keep the Letters to the Editor column full. When there is a brutal rape and murder, everyone knows that is is Danny Padgitt of the notorious Padgitt Family who did it. The dying woman had his name on her lips and Danny had her blood on his clothes. The Padgitts are extremely powerful people in the community and Willie and his friends doubt that he will be convicted. After the trial Danny threatens all of the jurors, and Mississippi laws (which Grisham admits to exaggerating) allow him to be released from prison much sooner than the town of Clanton expects. Grisham delves into race relations, crooked politics, bad laws, and our all-too-human tendency to judge people without knowing all of the facts. This book has a bit over everything and should be a winner with old and new Grisham fans.
Rating:
Summary: No dust here . . .
Review: Frankly, the dust doesn't seem to be settling over this latest Grisham novel. Has any author, anywhere, anytime, ever created such furor when he changed styles? Surely this is an indication of his talent and popularity. But even so, you'd think that with that many fans, more of them would cut him some slack when it comes to changes in styles and/or subject matter. And THE LAST JUROR isn't that far off Mr. Grisham's regular path! It IS courtroom friendly, and DOES have elements of A PAINTED HOUSE and a few of his other works. So why the big upset? I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes good writing. Forget it's by Grisham--it's just a good read no matter who wrote it. If you enjoy good writing, like McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD or other Grisham books such as A PAINTED HOUSE or KING OF TORTS, you'll like this book. All I can say is, give this one a chance.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: This is a perfect book describing the life of a small town in Mississippi. It centers around a recent graduate in journalism moving to a small town in Ford County. A murder soon take place that rocks the town. Don't except one of Grisham's fast-paced lawyer novels... this is more of a literary novel exploring the life of Mississippi in the 60s-70s. I couldn't put it down and consider it one of his best.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertainment, but little else.
Review: If I could, I would give this book three and a half stars, but I cannot so therefore I'm going to have to go with my heart and give it three. John Grisham is quite an author as far as churning out engaging bits of prose goes, and that's what this book is, entertainment. This doesn't have the characters or catharsis of the Rainmaker, the suspense and adrenaline of The Firm, or the gripping plot of A Time to Kill; the book is pure entertainment, the literary equivalent of a summer movie- it doesn't really go anywhere but it's fun just to enjoy it while it lasts.
Typically I have a short plot description in my reveiws, but that's where I am drawing a blank. You see, Grisham found a way to traverse over 300 pages without any real semblance of a plot. This is more a story of 9-years in the life of a particular character, Willie Traynor. The book is told from his perspective, in the first person, but yet it is missing the human element that was present in one of Grisham's previous 1st-person efforts, the Rainmaker. Also missing, for the most part, are the humorous asides that protagonist Rudy Baylor made in that novel. Instead, the reader is privy to a dull monlogue of 9 years in Willie Traynor's life.
Fortunately, Willie leads an interesting enough life for me to reccomend the book...he purchases a small-town newspaper in the town of Clanton, Mississipi (which contrary to the advertisements for the novel has been visited since a Time to Kill in "THe Chamber" and "The Summons) and the book revolves around his newspaper, a murder trial in the town, and his relationship with an elderly black woman.
Again, there is nothing groundbreaking here, but if you need some quick entertainment, pick it up. It's loads better than "The Summons" or "The Partner"...but if you can, borrow it from a friend or wait for paperback, it's short and not good enough to merit seventeen dollars.
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