Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good
Review: I found this book to be entertaining, but not nearly worthy of some of Grisham's earlier works....still worth at least checking out of the library.....a good read....
Rating: 
Summary: John Grisham batting a thousand.
Review: In 1970 a woman gets brutally raped and murdered. He is sentenced to life in prison instead of the death penalty. At the end of his trial he threatens the jury that he will get them back. One year later there is a massive shooting in the Ford County. Everyone thinks that it is one of the Padgitts but is it. After four years in prison he is seen in another city with a parole officer. Why is he let out of prison after only four years?
This book is set in Mississippi.
It is like a lot of other John Grisham books but it doesn't have a lot of Lawyers in it. John Grisham makes this sound like a real life story that could happen at any time. He keeps the suspense going throughout the whole book with something different in each chapter.
Every book of John Grisham's that I have read I just can't stop reading it and this book does not change that either. I hope John Grisham keeps writing and makes the books better and better.
Rating: 
Summary: Where is John Grisham?
Review: Will the real John Grisham stand up please! This makes 3 in a row...surely he is on vacation and this is written by someone else. Where is the wonderful detailed stories of the past.
Rating:
Summary: Grisham story-telling talents on best display, with a twist!
Review: We've sometimes complained one doesn't know what to expect from Grisham: long-winded drama ("Chamber"); gripping suspense ("Pelican Brief"); humor and whimsy ("Skipping Christmas"); or just plain yarn-spinning ("Painted House"). To us, he nearly perfectly combines all these elements in "Last Juror". Really two-thirds of the book is a charming and often funny account of how recent college graduate Willie Traynor buys the Mississippi small-town weekly, the "Clanton Times" (setting for "Time to Kill"), ingratiates himself with the residents, including those on both sides of the tracks (white and black), and both creates a winning business and brings new life to the otherwise fairly sleepy little burg. When a sensational rape-murder occurs, ostensibly by a member of a reclusive family that owns their own nearby island, on which they pursue any number of illegal businesses, Traynor gets into the fray with headlines and editorials. When the Padgitt kid is convicted, but eight years or so later gets paroled, and jurors start to die (as threatened by the convict at the trial), the intensity of current affairs reaches new heights as the remaining jurors, one a steadfast personal friend of Traynor, fear for their lives. The ultimate outcome was a huge surprise. And the death of Traynor's black friend at the end is nothing short of evocative and emotional -- and more than one crocodile tear ran down our face at the conclusion. So while we are never quite sure what to expect from our prolific popular novelist, and while we often find fault with his boring dialogue or weakening plots, we shall be among the lavish praise-givers for this fine book. It touches almost all our senses and feelings, and leaves us highly satisfied and entertained. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: What Were You Thinking?
Review: I had such high hopes for "The Last Juror". This novel started off with a bang and then fizzled very quickly. This was like reading a road map but without a destination. Having "The Last Juror" as the title was very misleading because I was expecting all types of twists and turns indicative of previous Grisham novels, instead I ended up just grateful that I checked this out of the library. I cannot in good conscience recommend that anyone buy this book. Please help your local library's circulation numbers and check it out. It seems that Mr. Grisham's characters are as tired as he is. Maybe he doesn't want to play the suspense game anymore. If that's the case Mr. Grisham please stop writing novels under the cloak of legal suspense and call it a wrap.
Rating:
Summary: The Well is Bone Dry
Review: I have read 12 of Grisham's 17 novels. He truly gave the best of himself at the beginning of his writing career and has been on a downhill slide ever since. He used to write books that I literally could not put down. I had to force myself to finish this book. It had none of the page-turning, pulse-pounding suspense of his earlier books. It was just...boring. On top of that I found it to be sloppy, too. There were times when he told us (again) what he had just told us 2 pages earlier. Whoever edited this book also missed several mistakes (Miss Callie would have counted!) Want good Grisham? Go back and just reread his older stuff because he's obviously not going to give us anything new that comes anywhere near his earlier books. If you're dead set of reading this, check it out from the library. Don't waste money on it.
Rating: 
Summary: Grisham explores new avenues
Review: Master storyteller has tried to view at the legal proceedings with a journalist's (who is an outright opportunist, albeit with some moral standing) perspective. The descriptions of the events in the courtroom are pretty repetitive. A nasty defence lawyer with no ethical groundings, a domineering judge who's supportive to the victim, a diverse and vacillating jury and a small town setting. Sounds familier?
But all said and done, there are very few individuals who can spin a story around a single disturbing event. Although this time, the most critical ingredient of Grisham's tales is lacking. Strong characters. Be it The Rainmaker, The Firm or even the offbeat A Painted House, they all had very well defined characters who all had a role to play in the climax of the story. This is where the book falls short of expectations. Perhaps the element of suspense would have saved the day. But the suspense builds up in parts and looses momentum midway before picking up little bit in the end. A uniform thread of suspense would have held the diverse events together.
Maybe something better is coming our way from Grisham next time!
Rating:
Summary: Those were the days
Review: Kind of reminds me of a good ol' boy talking about the ol' days and oh, by the way, let's throw about 4 pages of story into all the reminiscing.
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: Out of Ideas
Review: This is by far the worst Grisham yet. Too many Good Ole Boys, Bubbas and babbling. Absolutely no suspense, drama or reason to continue reading. Fall asleep on the front porch of an historic falling-down old home in a boring small town with this one. Let's hope Grisham hangs up his lucrative contractual hat with this bomb. Pass this up for almost any David Baldacci or Dan Brown read you can get your hands on.
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