Rating: 
Summary: Back to his roots
Review: I first became acquainted with Grisham through the PELICAN BRIEF and haven't missed one of his books since. Despite the seeming rut his books became entrenched in, I nevertheless marched on and tried to keep interested.A PAINTED HOUSE, was a great departure from the usual legal thriller, and I greatly enjoyed his venture from the "boiler plate" style his books had become. Likewise with the LAST JUROR, I was pleasantly suprised with his return to Clanton, Mississippi and his wonderful style of telling his story about the growth of a young adult thrust into a career he never imagined, and managing to become succesful despite himself. As an avid reader of Grisham's novels, I secretly hoped that he would explore in greater detail some of the characters I remembered from A TIME TO KILL. Lucien Wilbanks could easily have become more of a major character and we could have been given more detail about his legal career. Despite this, I highly recommend this book and would encourage Grisham to once again explore utilizing some reoccuring characters in his future books.
Rating:
Summary: A Yankee Comes to Clanton
Review: Great book. Indeed the story is about the town of Clanton,Mississippi seen through the eyes of a liberal Yankee newspaper editor. You'll enjoy reading the book if you like reading about small town Southern culture. Not Grisham's very best but still a very good book. He does well painting pictures of small town life and the dynamics among the groups in those towns. Keep it up Grisham!
Rating: 
Summary: False Advertising in Ford County
Review: "He returned to Ford County, and the retribution began." Kudos to the person who wrote this line; you certainly know how to sell a book. You sold one to me, and I haven't bought a Grisham book in years. I thought I was in for a tightly-wound tale of suspense and intensity as a released killer wreaked vengeance on an entire jury, that it would come down to the last juror, and that he or she, along with the usual assortment of beer-drinking, barbeque loving, eccentric friends almost every Grisham main character has in tow, would triumph in a spectacular, bang-up conclusion. Not so. What I did get was Grisham's very accurate descriptions of small-town southern life. The town of Clanton is the true main character in this book, and it was an interesting enough character to keep me happy and reading. Also interesting is following Willie around as he tries to develop his paper into a publication people have to have. As usual, Grisham shows us that the path to success is certain to have its share of days when you feel like a loser or a fool. However, many things about the book bothered me. I realized early on who the real person to watch out for was; Grisham made it obvious. It left me wondering about Grisham's assessment of his readers' IQ. Another troubling aspect of the book was how certain events were described after the fact and with only a few sentences. It felt like he was a tour guide in a museum, running behind schedule, hurrying you through the exhibits with the condensed version of facts. Often times there was too much information given about things that didn't really matter and not enough about things that did. People appeared and disappeared with seemingly no other purpose than to pad a few paragraphs or pages. To be fair, in life we come into contact with lots of people each day who take up our time but will have little to do with the outcome of our personal stories. But in a book, if you take up lots of print, you better be about something important! To conclude, if you are a Grisham fan no matter what, read the book. You will enjoy it and think I don't know jack, giving it only 2 stars. There are some suprises and plenty of nice moments, the kind that make you think John Grisham would be a good guy to sit on the front porch with and wax poetic about life, spurred on by cold beer and a comfortable rocking chair.
Rating: 
Summary: Page turner!!
Review: I was getting bored with Grisham so approached this one warily...and got really hooked. The characters are really well described and you care about what is happening to them. A real time capsule of what it was like in the South in the 70's. Don't miss this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Bait and Switch
Review: Thought it would be another great courtroom thriller like Runaway Jury or The Partner. Instead, it's a long winded, wandering human interest story.
Rating:
Summary: A Bundle for the Grishamite, a speck of fun for others
Review: Look, this is not the firm. This is not the Runaway jury or rainmaker. This is more of the "time to kill" setting. Its a more relaxed book. A lot of description of the ppl of the town of county. Its more like the life and times of a particular village. Very Earthy. Thriller is secondary, the people here are primary. Divided into 3 sections. Book 2 section is very boring indeed. Its just to make it a decently fat book and increase word count. Not that great a novel, read it if you want to read every Grisham on the shelf.Very simple, kindergarden variety legal thriller. Black and white. Good guy, bad guy. Bad guy is very bad but keeps getting away. Comic book type. But I guess Grisham wanted it to be kind of caricaturish. Its abt a young who buys a newspaper and his decent ascend in making his paper successful commercially. On the way the paper and the owner (our protagonist) cover the story of a member of the (bad bad wolf) paget family. The guy has committed rape and there's a trial and well...considering there is not much to tell in this book, I dont want to spoil the teeny weeny speck of fun you'll have reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, although not as bad as A Painted House
Review: In between the taut exciting thrillers Grisham used to wirte and the pointless drivel of A Painted House and Skipping Christmas. The first part was pretty good, not predictable at all, but then he just changed modes and starting droning on and on about boring small town life and didn't get back to the story until near the end. I long for the days of The Firm, A Time To Kill, The Partner, The Runaway Jury. Those were books I couldn't put down. It's been several years since Grisham's produced anything like that. This will be the last hardcover Grishal novel I buy--from now on, I wait for the paperback.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly Surprised!
Review: I haven't read any of Grisham's books since The Rainmaker, but my girlfriend convinced me to read this one because she really liked it. I found myself absorbed into the story and turned the pages until the end. Well-written, and a good read even for those folks who don't get into courtroom drama (like myself). The only dissapointment for me was a somewhat abrupt ending.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it
Review: Well, one thing this latest Grisham book is not short on is controversy. No, it's NOT a legal thriller in the sense of his other books, but the writing is something of a cross between THE FIRM and A PAINTED HOUSE. Grisham is merging his styles and ideas in this book. So many times we want our favorite authors to stick to one genre, but they're people as well as writers and need to grow. Give the guy a break. This is a good read. No, it's not a page-turner in the sense of some of his other books, but it's still better than most of the stuff out there. Also recommended: POMPEII and McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Written; Restores My Faith In Grisham
Review: For me, just one reader, The Last Juror, stands out among all of John Grisham's novels as his very finest work. With The Last Juror, Grisham shows himself to be an author who has arrived at a point where he is able to pull it all together in a carefully developed, richly written story. The characters are introduced with great attention to detail and as a reader I was quickly drawn into the story and it's setting. The plot is strongly constructed and stays solid through the story's end. Each character is unusual and interesting enough to grow quickly interested in them; some even begin to feel like old friends by the end. The setting is nicely depicted and Grisham's prose really comes across with a sense of what it might be like to be in Clanton, Mississippi during the events of this story. At one level, The Last Juror is a story that revolves around the brutal rape and murder of one of Clanton, Mississippi's widows and the trial of the man accused. Yet, moreover, this is a story of a town, its history and traditions, its newspaper and of some of the local citizenry. Narrated by Willie Traynor, the young new owner (and outsider) of the town's newspaper, Grisham conveys some touching stories of Traynor's own development from a lackluster college dropout to a highly moral newspaper publisher. He weaves in some of the historical and present day tension between the black and the communities of Clanton, tells some of the story of the town's efforts to muddle through integration and richly communicates the story of one tremendously influential African American role model in the community. And, he does all this without being ponderous. The Last Juror while dealing with a sad incident has a real sense of personality and even a bit of comedy about it. From my perspective The Last Juror has some of the same rich feel of a novel I have long had great appreciation for, Staggerford, written by Jon Hassler. While Hassler wasn't a mystery writer, and his setting was Northern Minnesota and not the Deep South, the rich and complex writing about one town and it's goings on, has much the same feel. Kudos to Grisham on this one! Highly Recommended! Daniel J. Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota USA
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