Rating: 
Summary: Terrible deceit
Review: The jacket cover write-up of this book leads one to believe it is a courtroom thriller, like other Grisham novels. In fact it is not. It is a very slow-paced story of a newspaper in a sleepy little town. If Grisham really had faith in this story he should have hyped it for what it is and drawn an audience with its eyes open, rather than using deceit to lure unsuspecting readers to their 400 page, excruciatingly tiny-printed doom.
Rating: 
Summary: Revisiting Clanton...
Review: As one of the Grisham faihful, I never fail to show up at the bookstore the day the book goes on sale. Needless to say, I was quite excited when The Last Juror hit the shelves. In my usual new Grisham book excitement, I took the book home, fixed some tea and began voraciously reading. I took a decade-long journey with narrator Willie Traynor in a matter of hours, but it took nearly as long to steer my mind back into the reality of my own life. Not only was I not disappointed with The Last Juror, I happened to be more than pleased with the novel. The Last Juror has the usual plot twists and turns of a Grisham novel, but it sets itself apart with excellent character development. The narrator, as usual, is a flawed yet lovable character that might have more in common with the reader than most of us would like to admit. The people our narrator comes in contact with are genuine and each character calls up the memory of someone in my own life. I was looking forward to revisiting Ford County and the rather interesting individuals who populate the small yet drama-filled town of Clanton. Grisham spent a great deal of time developing the setting in the novel and managed to create an even clearer view of this exciting little Mississippi town. From the narrator's visits to local churches to his initial amusement at the quirks of a small town newspaper and the folks who read it, Grisham lets Willie take us into a world that is very real and feels a little like home. His choice of narrator, a privileged outsider, allows him to use Willie to reveal so much about the town that might be taken for granted by someone in their element. If you are looking for an action packed thriller, this might not be the Grisham book for you. However, I strongly recommend The Last Juror to any Grisham fan or to anyone who loves reading a good book that captures the culture and people of a time and a region.
Rating: 
Summary: Title is misleading, story is fair-to-good
Review: The title completely makes no sense although there is a jury that is a major part of this story. Anyway, I enjoyed it better than some reviewers here but I do think the story had more potential. Spoiler alert follows (don't read until you've read the book or decided not to): Wouldn't it have been FAR better to make the killer the sister of the murdered woman, the sister who visited the newspaper man during the trial?
Rating: 
Summary: Grisham's not so stunning "comeback"
Review: This having been his first legal thriller in a couple years, I was not completely impressed by the movement or character development in this book. I have read all of Grisham's books and would easily place this near the bottom of the list.
The initial concept is interesting, but his storytelling was lackluster and characters a bit cliched.
I kept thinking the "crime family" resembled the Clampetts and his protaganist was unbelievable at times. A lot of the characters were shallow, and the end was disappointing.
If you are going to read this, wait for the paperback or get it from the library.
Or just re-read the good ones: A Time to Kill, The Client, The Brethren and The Pelican Brief.
Rating: 
Summary: The Title is NOT Misleading
Review: Be wary of those reviews who insist the title is misleading. Those people seem to have missed a pretty obvious point. There absolutely was a "Last Juror" in this book. Without giving anything away, the title refers to the individual who is most responsible for the fate of the defendant.
Rating:
Summary: Great Plot & Character Development, So-So Writing
Review: I'm a huge fan of John Grisham and have read all but one of his books. That said, I don't think that The Last Juror was as bad as some of the other customer reviewers have made it out to be. I was actually quite excited at the prospect of another of Grisham's stories set in Clanton, Mississippi, the same town in which the best book he's ever written-A Time to Kill-is set. In The Last Juror, Grisham has done his usual fine job in developing interesting, colorful characters and in describing the town and its environs. It's very evident that he's familiar with the local color and has done a good job of capturing the look and feel of a small southern town from the early 70s struggling with with everything from racial prejudice and desegregation to corruption to the blight created when a national superstore chain comes to town. I also found the plot to be very interesting albeit somewhat derivative: a member of a very powerful but reclusive family is tried for and convicted of the rape and murder of a young widow. In prison, he receives preferential treatment and gains early parole. Shortly after his release some members of the jury that convicted him are killed. The story is told from the point of view of a college dropout who owns and operates the town's weekly newspaper. Parenthetically, I understand that Grisham did not want to title the book as it was but caved in to pressure from his publisher. After reading the book, I now uderstand why-the title is somewhat of a misnomer. There is no LAST juror, so just put this issue aside and enjoy the book. Other reviewers have criticized Grisham's writing in this book and I must concede that on some level they're right. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which is as well written as any of Grisham's earlier work. The writing in the second and third parts, however, seem to suggest that Grisham started losing interest in his subject and was just going through the motions. I can't remember any Grisham novel in recent memory that contained so many short chapters. That's too bad, because this book really started out with some promise. After the first few chapters I was raving to my wife that this might be Grisham's best book yet but by the end I realized it was not to be. Overall, I'd rate the Last Juror as a much better novel than some of his more recent efforts like the Testament and The King of Torts, but not quite as good as The Summons or A Time to Kill. While I that Grisham revisits Clanton in subsequent books, I also hope that he puts a little more effort into those visits. But then again, maybe my expectations were too high.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good, not great....
Review: I like most of John Grisham's book, they are compelling, interesting and suspensful. My favorite is A Time to Kill. The Last Juror was interesting in that it didn't go through a trial from the beginning of the book to the end. In fact, the rape/murder trial in this book lasted just a few pages. Rather it centered on the lives of Willie and his new Clanton, MS. friends, some fun and interesting characters. Willie is fresh out of college and buys a small county newspaper in Clanton, MS with a loan from his grandmother. The story talks of his years there and how he befriended a black, Christian lady and her amazing family during the early 70's in MS. This was my favorite part of the book, reading about Callie and her family and the conversations she and Willie had. She was a great character and certainly made the book for me. Grisham always does a great job of character development--I can always see a picture of them in my mind. It's a good book and kept my interest, but I was a little dissapointed with the end. I felt like there were still stories to tell about what happened to various characters.
Rating:
Summary: ALL ARISE! THE HONORABLE JUDGE GRISHAM IS BACK!
Review: After SKIPPING CHRISTMAS and, most recently, BLEACHERS I had begun to believe that John Grisham had been abducted by aliens. But with THE LAST JUROR Grisham comes home to what he knows best: legal literature. THE LAST JUROR tells the story of a young newspaperman who scrapes his funds together, along with help from family to buy The Clanton Times his old paper when he was starting out in the world of journalism. Playing his cards right and reporting on the "dangerous" story of a brutal crime and the trial that ensues, the paper is off and running. But, when perpetrator of the crime is released from prison early and members of the jury start turning up dead, the people of small town Clanton are faced with the vengeance of the criminal and his family. Okay, the resolution of the story is predictable but THE LAST JUROR but the writing is vintage Grisham and marks his almost prodigal return to legal drama and that's certainly worth the wait. THE HORSEMAN
Rating:
Summary: The Last Juror
Review: I'm a Grisham fan as well and of his books my favorite is his first: "A Time to Kill". I liked that this book takes place in the same town as the first: Clanton, Mississippi. But was disappointed that it isn't as good a read as the first. I think Grisham's earlier books were without a doubt his best. Still, it's an entertaining book and it was interesting to read the transformation that takes place with Willie Traynor.
Rating:
Summary: The Last Juror
Review: I am a huge fan of John Grisham, have read all of his books, but I have to admit, I have been disappointed with his last few books and The Last Juror takes the cake in that department. It has a great plot, but Mr. Grisham goes no where with it. It starts off very strong, but half way through and all the way to the end, it is awful. I found myself skimming through the pages asking myself "what in the world does this have to do with the story?". Any Grisham fan out there should read it just to read it, but do not expect anything that Grisham's potential has to offer.
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