by John Grisham
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Product Description
In 1970, one of Mississippi’s more colorful weekly newspapers, The Ford County Times, went bankrupt. To the surprise and dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23-year-old college dropout, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details, and his newspaper began to prosper.
The murderer, Danny Padgitt, was tried before a packed courthouse in Clanton, Mississippi. The trial came to a startling and dramatic end when the defendant threatened revenge against the jurors if they convicted him. Nevertheless, they found him guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
But in Mississippi in 1970, “life” didn’t necessarily mean “life,” and nine years later Danny Padgitt managed to get himself paroled. He returned to Ford County, and the retribution began.
Amazon.com Review
In 1970, small town newspaper The Clanton Times went belly up. With financial assistance from a rich relative, it's purchased by 23-year-old Willie Traynor, formerly the paper's cub reporter. Soon afterward, his new business receives the readership boost it needs thanks to his editorial efforts and coverage of a particularly brutal rape and murder committed by the scion of the town's reclusive bootlegger family. Rather than shy from reporting on the subsequent open-and-shut trial (those who oppose the Padgitt family tend to turn up dead in the area's swampland), Traynor launches a crusade to ensure the unrepentant murderer is brought to justice. When a guilty verdict is returned, the town is relieved to find the Padgitt family's grip on the town did not sway the jury, though Danny Padgitt is sentenced to life in prison rather than death. But, when Padgitt is released after serving less than a decade in jail and members of the jury are murdered, Clanton once again finds itself at the mercy of its renegade family. When it comes, the dénouement is no surprise; The Last Juror is less a story of suspense than a study of the often idyllic southern town of Clanton, Mississippi (the setting for Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill). Throughout the nine years between Padgitt's trial and release, Traynor finds acceptance in Clanton, where the people "don't really trust you unless they trusted your grandfather." He grows from a long-haired idealist into another of the town's colorful characters--renovating an old house, sporting a bowtie, beloved on both sides of the color line, and the only person to have attended each of the town's 88 churches at least once. The Last Juror returns Grisham to the courtroom where he made his name, but those who enjoyed the warm sentiment of his recent novels (Bleachers, A Painted House) will still find much to love here. --Benjamin Reese
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 good book, 2008-09-03
This is a great book. I haven't read in years, so I was surprised when I was so into it. At times you feel like you are in Ford County, Mississippi with the characters, thinking you know what's coming next when the story takes a turn. It's a good book by Grisham.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 A good quick read, 2008-09-02
I enjoyed this book because it was a great look at a small town in a very trying time. Grisham writes so very well and has a good sense of what it was like in those times not so very long ago. As some of the editorial reviews said, the book tells of a time, it doesn't necessarily fill with actions. One feels like you really got to know the characters. A slightly above average vacation read.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
The Last Juror by John Grisham, 2008-08-27
The Last Juror is a delightful story about Mississippi in the 1970s. The characters are well developed and fascinating. Don't miss it.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 A View of a Changing Mississippi as Seen by a "Yankee" from Memphis, 2008-08-26
There's a place in John Grisham's heart where he yearns to tell about his South in the way that William Faulkner did. Grisham is no Faulkner, but his Ford County is an entertaining place to revisit for a nine-year story (last seen in A Time to Kill) that provides a picture of rural Mississippi at the end of the Vietnam War. Unlike Grisham's other books with legal-sounding titles, this book isn't primarily about the law and lawyers. Instead, a murder and its consequences stand as bookends to hold this story about changing Mississippi together.
The book is filled with more stereotypes than original characters, but the exceptions make the story rise above the average. The two vivid characters who make the book work are "Willie" Traynor, the young college drop out, who buys the Ford County Times out of bankruptcy and turns it into a vital part of the community. Traynor stands in for us as non-rural Mississippians in understanding what's going on. The most interesting character is "Miss" Callie Ruffin, mother to a family of professors, who was one of the first African-Americans to register to vote in Ford County.
In the background is a continual sense of dread as the local residents live in fear of the lawless Padgitt family which "owns" the sheriff and the county when the book opens.
This book is considerably more delightful if you listen to the unabridged recording read by Michael Beck who is able to turn simple narratives into Southern charm.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Return to the fold, 2008-08-22
After giving up on John Grisham's books as all being rehashings of the same plot (I hadn't read one in a decade) I picked this up in a used book store on a whim. I was looking for something easy to read and predictable (something Grisham usually supplies) but instead found a thought-provoking, well paced book that exceeded all my expectations and made me remember why I liked A Time to Kill so much that I read 6 more of his books hoping he'd live up to it. Well, he finally has. The Last Juror is a study in the changes that have affected small town America (particularly the southern part). From forced integration and busing to an analysis of the impact of a thinly disguised Wal-Mart this book manages to be fair and judicious. I can see Grisham's own political opinions and leanings but he somehow manages to be respectful of those whose politics differ from his own. That's a gift. As I was reading the book I recognized Harry Rex and Lucian from having read about them almost 20 years ago. To be able to create characters that stay in the memory that long is also a gift. I hope he keeps it up, I just might buy another of his books if he does.
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