The Last Juror

Rating:
Summary: A LITTLE DIFFERENT FOR GRISHAM BUT A GOOD READ
Review: Here we are back in Ford county mississippi in 1970 in the town of Clanton the type of small town where you have the courthouse downtown with most of the businesses in the general (like a plaza) the type of town where a friday night football game is on the verged of being a religon and where all the local politics and local gossip is discussed in the diner or cafe.The local newspaper The Ford County Times through mismanagment and the fact that the editior main focus is on the obitituaries has gone into bankruptcy.Much to the dismay of the locals the paper is bought by a 23 year old willie traynor who has spent 5 years at syracuse univerisity and does not have much direction until his grandmother who was providing the funding cuts him off and tells him to find a job.The town folks do not take kindly to a socalled northerner or yankee.

As willie gets settled he starts to get the papered turned around and starts to get a following and gets his big break for increased paper circulation with his coverage of the brutual rape and murder of Rhoda Kassellaw by Danny Padgitt who is from a prominent family who made money form legal and illegal activities who had the money and influence that swayed elections and court cases.
As the book moves forward and the case against danny goes to court many feel that the power of the Padgitts will come to play but surprisingly danny is convicted.While the trial is going on Danny tells the jury that if they find him guilty that he will get payback on everyone of them.Because of the messeed up court and parole system even though he was sentenced to life he serves nine years and plots his revenge

I thought this was a pretty good book seems that grisham is changing direction of some his books wish he would go back to books like pelican brief and the firm.

Rating:
Summary: A Fresh Change
Review: When buying this book, I read the inside flap and saw that the book was to be about a man who goes to prison for muder, gets paroled, and ten goes after the jurors who sent him away. It seemed interesting, and another Grisham novel. Nver judge a book by the summary.
For starters, Danny Pudgitt does not get out of prison until the last fift pages or so -- the the dust jacket has lied (which turned out to be a good thing). Instead, the book follows, through an amazing first person narrative, the life a reporter/newspaper editor in Clanton, Mississippi. We learn how he becomes involved in this case through the stories he publishes... and through a juror.
In all, this bok is about Willie's relatioship with the juror, who is only a juror for a short hwile. Instead we learn of her life, Willie's life, and the desegregation of the 1970's in Mississippi.
Rather than give a usual courtroom brawl, Grisham steps away from attorney here, and only writes about the court as a reporter would. The reporter knows nothing of law, except was he has learned from... Harry Rex Vonnor.
This book reads like Clancy, where you wonder how so many storylines will tie in, but is smooth like Grisham has always been. It brings back past characters (Harry Rex, Judge Atlee, and, nicely, we meet Lucien Wilbanks before he is disbarred).
All in all a suberb story, though at times Grisham reiterates himself so strongly that you wonder if he had forgotten what he has written.
The story had snares, which made me ask to get back to the story... to Danny and the jurors.
If you are looking for a mirder mystery or courtroom drama, don't buy this. Rather, this novel excemplifies teh fact that life goes in in the world, and, even with a small town murder, there are other things to talk about. It is a new way of writing for Grisham, with two surprises at the end -- one of the endings should be spotted by anyone who has read "The Summons" or "The King of Torts," but it still leaves you thinking of how real the story is.
When I began reading, i could not put it down, and am glad for the fact. Stunningly written, beautifully crafted, truly original. Four out of five stars. This novel is a magnificant triumph from Grisham that shows he is still original and at the top of his game. I only have one request for the author -- please give Harry Rex his own novel.

Rating:
Summary: Another great piece of art
Review: I'm a die-hard Grisham fan, this book is as great as other books.

btw, could you at least be polite and not plug "your" book in other reviews?

Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: Our book club recently voted on the top three books that we've read in the last year. Obviously "The Last Juror" was one, the other two being "Da Vinci" and "Bark of the Dogwood." Of these, "Juror" was our favorite. A few in the group had read some other Grisham novels and we were interested to hear what they thought about them. The consensus was that "Juror" wasn't the page turner "The Firm" was, but that it was miles ahead of some of his other books. Bottomline: Great book--great read.

Rating:
Summary: Grisham has lost his touch....
Review: Drivel and more Drivel....Grisham has lost his touch. You can't write good suspense novels using Harlequin Romance Techniques, filling the pages with unsubstantial filler. If you liked "The Pelican Brief", and was unsatisfied with "The Bleachers", then you and I will agree on this one.

Rating:
Summary: Grisham's Still Water Runs Deep
Review: "The Last Juror" is neither "The Firm" nor "the Pelican Brief", nor is it similar to "A Time for Killing" which shares "Juror's" Ford County, Mississippi, setting. But it is a powerful novel in its own right, combining the elements of classic Grisham courtroom drama with a nostalgic study of life in rural Mississippi. The main story is of the brutal rape and murder of a young widow. The alleged murderer, Danny Padgitt, is the youngest son of the wealthy but reclusive local gentry. Protagonist Willie Traynor, Memphis-born and Syracuse-educated, migrates to Clanton and, with the help of a rich aunt, buys the dying local newspaper. So while the story is ostensibly one of the crime and subsequent retribution, it is also a poignant tale of the decade-long relationship that develops between Traynor and "Miss" Callie Ruffin, matriarch of a poor but proud black family of Clanton. Just as the Big Brown River and its creeks and sloughs wind through the meadows of Ford County, Grisham's prose meanders through sub-plots, anecdotes and banalities of the small-town south. Grisham is in no hurry to get to the climax - indeed the recipe for Miss Callie's pot roast is hardly a page-turner. But the pace of the prose is a conscious and necessary element of the author's message, and seemingly unconnected events eventually tie together to complete the portrait of Grisham's South. And if the weighty topics of civil rights and Viet Nam are axes Grisham chooses to grind, he treats them with sensitivity and respect, and is neither heavy-handed nor judgmental in his delivery.

The reader looking for a thriller along the lines of Grisham's fine earlier works may be disappointed, but it would be vastly unfair to dismiss this novel. "The Last Juror" is thoughtful and thought provoking literature; an example of a fine American story teller broadening his scope and delving deeper into familiar topics.

Rating:
Summary: Southern storytelling at its best
Review: In "The Last Juror" Grisham returns to Clanton Mississippi, the setting for "A Time To Kill." When a young widow is brutally raped and murdered, she names her assailant with her last dying breath: Danny Padgitt, a son of the dangerous and powerful crime family that seems to own Clanton. Willie Traynor, the young reporter who buys the local newspaper when it falls into bankrupcy, covers the case in the paper and befriends Miss Callie, the matriarch of the amazing Ruffin family and the first black woman juror in Ford County. Danny is tried and found guilty, but he receives life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. When he is released on parole after only nine years and returns to Clanton, the jurors who convicted him begin to die one by one, and the remaining jurors fear for their lives.

This novel features not only the setting of Grisham's earliest novel, but also the reappearance of its lawyers Lucien Wilbanks and Harry Rex Vonner. It covers some of the same issues of race and criminal justice. But if you are expecting this story to be similar to its predecessor, you might be disappointed. For one thing, the protagonist here is Willie Traynor rather than a lawyer. The story does contain some tense courtroom drama, but that comprises only part of the novel. Instead we see the gentler and softer-hearted Grisham as represented in some of his latest works such as "Bleachers" and "Skipping Christmas." After the fast-paced trial and while Danny is in prison, the story changes direction to indulge in some good old-fashioned Southern storytelling.

Through the voice of newspaper owner Traynor, a northerner who views the town with the eyes of an outsider but who comes to care for its inhabitants, Grisham shows his affection for Southern small town life. Grisham's descriptions and characterizations are so lovingly crafted that I felt I had attended a goat barbecue, sampled some powerful moonshine, sat on the balcony above the town square gossiping with and about the locals, played poker in the backwoods, visited every church in the county, and had lunch on Miss Callie's porch. The story is peppered with humor and folk wisdom. The ending, although sad, is satisfying. I strongly recommend this novel for readers who appreciate both the vintage and newer Grisham works.

Eileen Rieback

Rating:
Summary: Have I read this somewhere before?
Review: I am from Mississippi and went to school at Ole Miss, so, I am supposed to love John Grisham's books. I used not be able to wait until the next book came out.
I find his books to all be cut from the same cloth. What happened to the great suspense books like The Firm and The Pelican Brief? It seems to me that Mr. Grisham is losing his passion for writing. Much like the main character in this book, I think that Mr. Grisham is just trying to produce a story fast enough to meet a deadline set by his publisher and just good enough to pass the minimum requirements needed to sell a few copies.
In a nutshell, Mr. Grisham's books are becoming steadily worse. My advice--don't waste your time reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Not even closer to A Time to Kill
Review: Although the first part of the book as the third part are really thrilling, you can skip almost all the second part, what happened when Danny was in jail is a waste of time except two or three things that could be written in two pages, the only message of this book is that in Mississippi there were no laws, and the few that existed you could break them if you had enough money to bribe the correct person.

Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: This was a light-hearted book to read. It was fast-paced book. I consider it to be one of Grisham's best. Grisham returned to legal thriller with style after his most recent books (Bleachers, Painted House, etc.). The Juror is presented through the eyes of the local newspaper editor. Like all Grisham books, it comes to a very sudden and abrupt ending, but for a change, it doesn't deviate from the story .In this novel John Grisham has created an intense, fascinating and revealing study of a small southern town, and created lively characters that developed with the story. His details are plentiful. This is a lovely historical fiction.

Also recommended: DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE,THE UNION MOUJIK, THE RUNAWAY JURY