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Summary: Nolo Contendere
Review: The Last Juror is not John Grisham's finest work. Missing are the compelling contemporary issues, high throttled suspense, and all around passions that pervade early novels such as A Time to Kill, The Chamber, The Firm, or even The Runaway Jury. The Last Juror is at least 100 pages too long for its plotline, and its ending is evident long before the final pages. The book starts fast: the story of a grisly rape and murder, and subsequent trial make for some page-turning. A jury is presented with the classic question: life in prison or the death sentence? Hardly suspenseful, for the deliberations (not at all sketched by Grisham) come only halfway through the novel, and the book jacket has all but given the ensuing plot away anyway. So the reader trudges through the next decade of the novel's storyline, year by boring year. Ostensibly, the narrator, owner of the local newspaper in the small Mississippi town (same setting as A Time to Kill) must fill us in on every detail of life that happens between this first trial and the ultimate (hey, no surprise here at all...) parole of the threatening killer. Every column, obituary, advertisement ever published by narrator's paper, The Ford County Times, is chronicled. Grisham drags us through the young man's haberdashery conversion, his social life (quite dull), his religious research (gee, there are a lot of enthusiastic Christian churches in the Bible Belt, no kidding?), and his eating and sleeping habits. By the time the protagonist has built up his business, we feel we, too, have earned shares in the venture. We don't really delve back into any real action until the final sixty pages of the book. OK, again no surprises (it's on the book jacket): someone is killing the jurors who originally convicted our parolee. Even then, there is little suspense. We have the list of jurors, we are waiting for the killings and final resolution. Grisham could have done much better with the topic of parole injustice, and he certainly missed the boat on this one. This book should have been released during the Willie Horton days of Dukakis v. Bush. It might have held more interest.
Rating: 
Summary: Grisham needs a pseudonym
Review: After reading a number of other booklovers' reviews, I get the distinct impression that Grisham had durn well better write a thriller, or his biggest fans will be disappointed. Not me. I think the non-thriller-lawyer books he writes are better than the others. There's just so many times you can bring out that tired old attorney-in-trouble recipe and make it work (see Clancy, King, Cornwell, etc., for examples of going to the well once too often). If his books such as "Skipping Christmas," "Bleachers," and "A Painted House" had been released under another name, it would have kept his diehard fans happy.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, boring, boring
Review: Grisham has definitely lost his edge! Where is the suspense? Where are the page turners we so eagerly awaited since "The King of Torts"? We're sick of reading about racism in the South in the 1970's, we want a book that's a gripping read like his earlier books. Quite a disappointment.
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Summary: Get an Autographed copy of a great book!
Review: You can bid on an autographed copy of John Grisham's "The Last Juror!" Read more at CMTAuctions.com!
Rating: 
Summary: The Last Juror, Has Grisham Lost His Edge?
Review: I did not mean to imply that this was a bad book. Far from it. It is entertaining in it's own homely way but It's certainly not the John Grisham I remember from the eighties, the Grisham that wrote the edge of your seat thrillers like The Firm and The Pelican Brief. "A jury sentenced Danny Padgitt to life in prison. He sentenced them to death!" Setting Welcome to Clanton, Ford County, Mississippi. Grisham returns the the setting for the first book he ever wrote, Time to Kill, for his latest release, The Last Juror. Meet Joyner William Traynor aka Willie Traynor. Willie, who is the narrator for this story, is a reporter for The Ford County Times, when the newspaper goes bankrupt. Having freshly graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Journalism, Willie is in a position, with the help of his wealthy Grandmother, BeeBee, to buy the newspaper and does. Plot Willie is barely settling in as the Owner/Publisher/Editor etc. of his weekly publication, when the circulation is given a boost because of a particularly gruesome and violent murder of a widow named Rhoda Kassellaw. Danny Padgitt, one of the sons of a notorious, semi-legitimate clan of moonshiners and timber millers, who inhabit a nearby island, is arrested for the crime, after crashing his truck, making a getaway. Sandwiched between the arrest and trial of Danny Padgitt, Willie decides to write a human interest story on a prominent local black family - the Ruffins. This remarkable family has eight children, seven of which have earned, not only college degrees but PHDs and are currently professors at various leading universities. Upon their initial meeting, Miss Callie, the Ruffin family matriarch, serves Willie a scrumptious luncheon and Willie and Callie hit it off wonderfully and become fast friends. Later Callie is the Last Juror chosen for the Padgitt murder trial and thereupon sets history as the first Negro juror in Mississippi history. The Trial All the evidence points to Danny's guilt and even though he threatened to get the twelve jurors, if they find him guilty, (including Willie's newfound friend Callie Ruffin), the jury still finds him guilty. Though the Juror's found Padgitt guilty of rape and murder, they cannot come to a consensus on the death penalty, so Padgitt is automatically sentenced to the alternative, Life in Prison, which at that time in Mississippi equated to ten years, less with good behavior, a fact that is withheld from juries. This angers the townfolk as they were sure that Padgitt would get the Gas Chamber. Everybody was mad but they didn't know who to be angry with, because the the jurors swore an oath to keep the vote a secret. From this point forward we digress into a fairly dull albeit interesting dissertation, with a couple exceptions, about Willie's interaction in the community and how he turns a marginally profitable newspaper into a successful one. The exceptions are where they try to sneak a parole hearing through for Padgitt and where Padgitt is observed in a work release program with little or no security. Our protagonist, Willie, shows up and rains on their (the Padgitt's) parade in both cases but the writing is on the wall. They are determined to get Danny Padgitt out and eventually they do. Conclusion I won't kid you about this book. I have very mixed feelings about what I read. On the one hand, it a warm friendly story about a fairly sleepy fictitious town and county in Mississippi, pretty much describing rural life in the South in the Seventies. And of course, Grisham has one of the best writing styles around. For this book he even added some southern homilies to make it feel more warm and fuzzy. Except for the Padgitts and their sleazy lawyer, Lucien Wilbanks, the characters are likable if not lovable. The warm, lovable Callie Ruffin kept reminding me of Oprah Winfrey, though I don't know why. Other interesting individuals were Baggy, the staff reporter, who is drunk after twelve noon, Harry Rex, a lawyer and carryover from A Time to Kill, and Wiley, the part time staff photographer. Once Danny Padgitt was sent off to prison, after a third of the book, with rare exceptions it was like reading Driving Miss Daisy. Grisham described how Willie had lunch every Thursday with Callie, and the techniques Willie used to build up the Paper and how he visited each of Ford Counties eighty some Churches for service, one per week and then finally, for about the last forty pages things got suspenseful again and does not end the way you are lead to believe. Again, I say this still held my interest, there was never a danger of my not finishing the book, it's just that I buy Grisham for excitement, for thrills. This was vintage Grisham, sans the thrills and intrigue. Unfortunately he's been doing that a lot lately.
Rating:
Summary: Very Slow Read... A far departure from his first books
Review: I used to be an avid John Grisham fan. I would anxiously wait for his books to come out and be one of the first to purchase a book. Lately, his books have strayed and have not caught my interest. This book sounded like it could be in line with his first books, so I was anxious to read it. I can usually finish a Grisham book in less than a day... this one dragged for about a week. I forced myself to finish it so I could start a new book. The main character is not very interesting and it makes it hard to feel any involvement in the choices he makes in his life. If John Grisham continue the same trend, I will have to find a new author to enjoy.
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Summary: Misleading title, excellent read
Review: This book is not primarily about the law, as the title would suggest. Rather it traces the story of a small town newspaper publisher in the deep south in the 1970's. It gracefully covers a variety of sujects including the influence of the church in small towns, race relations, the legal system, Vietnam, Southern food and drink. It repeats and, on occassion repudiates, various stereotypes--from crooked local sheriffs (true) to illiterate minorities (untrue). It is truly a pleasant read, and it fits together on a par with Grisham's best books. Highly recommended.
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Summary: The Jury Is No Longer Out
Review: A thriller should thrill. This book is so besotted with its politically correct agenda that it forgets to entertain and is a great yawn instead. First, a disclaimer: this is the first time that I've ever bought a new Grisham (based on a good review I read) and thought that I might happily rest my mind with a few hours of diversion. Unfortunately, the first murder after the opening event does not take place for almost 200 pages. In the mean time we are subjected to endless blather on race relations in the South of the 1970s, the Viet Nam war, the death penalty, and Richard Nixon. Grisham's views on all of the above are just as predictable as the novel's ending. His characters are either so perfect or so villainous that the stereotyping becomes quite grating. All the "action" takes place in the last 40 pages; the solution is completely predictable and as unsatisfying as anything else you will find here including the bite-sized sentences and paragraphs. I won't make this mistake again.
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Summary: The Last Juror -exellent John Grisham
Review: I have to admit the last few books from John Grisham didn't exactly "grab my attention" to put it mildly. But this book made me have faith in Mr. Grisham's ability to get to an audience once again. Set in a small town in Clanton, Mississipi, Willie Traynor is not at first accepted by the townspeople. After a while, though, he is accepted by both the white and black population. But through one of his editorials, he does a human interest story on a black woman and her seven children that all obtained Phds. While doing an interview with this woman, they become the closest of friends. The book centers around the rape and murder of a young widow and mother. The crime was committed by Danny Padgitt, the Padgitt family that lives on an island and can literally get away with murder. But Danny is the first Padgitt actually convicted of a crime. After the trial is over and he is finally found guilty, he threatens the jury and tells them that he is going to get each and every one of them. The jury has a choice, death or life in prison. After much debate, they decide life in prison. Most people don't understand that "Life" in Clanton usually means ten years. Danny is released after nine years, and it seems as though he is carrying through with his threats. This is where the books takes a surprising turn. There are several deaths, is Danny carrying out his threats? I thorougly enjoyed this book and would recommend it. What got to me most was the ending. Recommend to anyone
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Summary: couldn't even finish it
Review: I'm a big fan of John Grisham early works... Runaway Jury, Time to Kill etc. But this story and The Summons sucked. I read the The Summons all the way through and I never felt the suspense and after I got to the ending I felt stupid for forcing myself through the book. This story I decided not to even finish. The stories susposed to be about a man coming back and killing the jurors after he gets out of the jail. So I'm thinking that theres going to be about a 100 or so pages leading up to the man getting out of jail then there would be the killings. I got over halfway through the book which was very boring and I was still reading about the time surrounding the trial. I couldn't figure out the point of all this extra info. So I gave up. Don't waste your time if you're a fan of the early John Grisham.
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