The Last Juror

Padgitt threatened the jury and when, once he is out, the jurors who heard his case start being executed, conclusions are there to be jumped to... Grisham is arguing that justice has to be seen to be done, rather than specifically for the death penalty or even life-means-life sentencing. Though his case is loaded, it is never entirely sentimentalised partly because these events are seen through the eyes of one of his most engaging narrators--a young Northern newspaper editor out to make a name and a fortune for himself, but also committed alike to the truth and a saintly African-American matriarch who serves on the Padgitt jury. This is a deeply populist book, but never a stupid one. --Roz Kaveney

Reader Reviews:

A Fast Read (0/0 people found this helpful)

I was able to read this book in two sittings. Mr. Grisham writing style has improved quite a bit. And I have always liked it. This book takes place in the south in the seventies. A young man just out of college without graduating and moves to a small town where he takes a job on a county paper. The county is in Mississippi, Grisham's old stomping grounds.

This young man, Willie Traynor, ends up being the narrator of our story that takes us through almost a decade of life and turmoil in this town. He ends up owning the paper and interacting with a lot of interesting characters. He makes good friends with the Ruffin family who is God fearing and raised eight children. Seven of which earned PhD's. And runs afoul of the most nefarious family in the county.

We watch Willie grow up before our eyes; there is some courtroom drama and suspense. The plot is definitely character driven. And Gresham tries to put in a twist, but I found it a little to easy to figure out long before I reached the end. (I will not tell you where I figured it out, for that will ruin the ending for you. But the clues are there.)

The Ruffin family is endearing, but the Mississippi in the early seventies was still pretty much segregated. I would love to have known the Miss Callie Ruffin character. This book is worth reading.

The Last Straw (0/0 people found this helpful)

Grisham novels seem to fall into two distinct camps - courtroom based thrillers and whimsical nostalgia trips. 'The Last Juror' seems to be an attempt to combine the two as we follow a young man who moves to a small Southern town to take over their newspaper during the 60s. We follow the events in the town over the next two decades. The one thread that remains throughout is the murder of a young mother and how the man accused effects the town for years to come.

It's hard not to enjoy this book as it's a simple and pleasant read. However, unlike in the best of Grisham's novels very little actually happens. Instead we are left with some parts reading like 'A Time to Kill' and giving the reader an action thrill, whilst other parts are like 'A Painted House' that read like rose tinted views of the Deep South. Overall, the book feels a bit like a mess, without the central murder thread I would say avoid this book. However, this narrative makes it a worthwhile quick holiday read.

Full Of Stuffing ! (0/0 people found this helpful)

Most Grisham novels are well planned, gripping courtroom dramas but this one seriously lacked the gripping and courtroom drama element. The well planned part of the book was actually masses of description of dozens of characters over a ten year period (a prison stretch). The book started quite well at the beginning of the ten years and ended not too badly at the end of the ten years but we the readers seemed to go through much of the nine years of boredom in-between. A bit overstuffed - give this one a miss and try A Time To Kill, The Brethren or The King of Torts instead.

I thought Grisham was overrated..... (0/0 people found this helpful)

....until I read this book. I gave the Firm a try a while back when everyone was harping on about how great this Grisham guy was. I thought the book was an awful read and completely put me off Grisham. I was persuaded to read The Last Juror by a colleage and I have to say it was a very good read. It flowed very well and the main characters develop well. The crime in the book is well described by Willie Traynor, a young journalist who buys a failing newsprinter. The reader generates an instant hatred of the villian, Danny Padgit which persists throughout the book. The ending is rather abbrupt and could have been better. I have to agree with other reviewers that Grisham did blatently try to fill out what could have been a shorter story with irrelevant events. I'm going to give A Time to Kill next and hope its is as good as this book if not better.

Boring.. (1/1 people found this helpful)

This book is a big let down, have never read such a boring novel by Grisham. I am a big fan of his previous works such as Chamber, Time to kill, Painted House and so on. This book does not have a single interesting courtroom scene or for that matter any scene. He has given pages and pages for a character called Callie but the character could have been done away with just a page. Another drawback is there are so many characters which are totally irrelevant to the story. The novel is worth a short story but he has dragged it into a 400 page novel. Its difficult to stop yawming.

John Grisham

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