The Last Juror

Rating:
Summary: insightful look at social relationships in 1970s Mississippi
Review: By 1970 the Ford County Times went bankrupt sped up by local boycotts when the owning family began adding obits of Negroes to the newspaper. Former cub reporter Willie Traynor, who went north for college, drops out of school, takes over the troubled paper from the aging Caudle family to the dismay of most of the white populace of the Mississippi County.

Willie's paper gets a circulation boost when the police arrest Danny Padget for the vicious rape murder of Rhoda Kasellaw, a widow mother of two young children, who identified the culprit before she died. Being a spoiled member of a prominent family, Danny threatens the jurors if they convict him, which they surprisingly do as the evidence besides the deathbed statement of the victim is overwhelming. Less than a decade later, Danny is freed and the jurors are being killed off one by one. Willie, who admired the first black juror in the county's history, Miss Callie Ruffin, risks his life to keep her safe, but retribution is coming.

The insightful look at little things that add up to major social relationships in 1970s Mississippi during a time of revolutionary change is John Grisham at his best. Those minor items like an obituary for a deceased black person or the first black juror brings the era into stark reality. However, when the tale twists into a serial killer storyline, that subplot is very exciting, but also takes the focus away from the social lens of change and upheaval. Still John Grisham entertains his fans with a terse suspense tale that is
quite as superb as A TIME TO KILL, thus pleasing his vast readership.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Who is the last juror?
Review: In my opinion, this is by far Grisham's best since The Testament. What I loved about this was that it had a very suspenceful story (Danny Padgitt's), a rather touching story (Callie's), a bit of a legal story, but best of all underneath everything was a very meaningful one that I wonder if anyone else saw.

In my opinion, this book was not about a killer, not about racism, not about the law, not about religion, not about careers and not even about the press. I feel that this story was about life in general. That was why all of the above were included. It started with Willie Traynor finding a job, and ended with his retirement. Just as he went through this, the writing of the story (not just the story itself) continued to get faster and faster, just as life seems to move faster as we grow older. I thought the way it was written was brilliant.

So, who is the last juror? At the beginning of the book you assume it is the last juror to survive. At the end of the book most, and I partly agree them, would probably say that it is Callie. However, I also think that there could be another possible way of seeing this. If you notice, the last word in the book is "obituary". Everyone is on trial, everyone is afraid of death, and wondering when it will come. Throughout our lives, the jury is always out making its decision. In other words, I think the last juror is referring to God, or (if you refuse to believe in that "garbage") possibly death itself.

Have I got this right? I don't know, all that I can know for certain is that what I did get from it has been incredible for me. And I can be sure that you will get quite a bit out if it as well.

p.s.-by the way Mr. "poo", which book are you trying to review?

Rating:
Summary: A different angle.
Review: Yes, this is another lawyer story...but Grisham expands the parameters this time, giving more focus on characters and their development. A nice leap forward for the writer. As a fan, I've waited for him to break out of his usual shell, and he has certainly done so with "Last Juror."

On a more tenuous note, "A reader from New Orleans" should concern him/herself with more important things. Nobody likes a whiny little narc.

Rating:
Summary: Made me really understand why I like Grisham's stories
Review: I had expected this to be yet another good-lawyer vs bad-lawyer/law but though it was about the law, it was more, at least for what I enjoyed, about the characters.

Grisham's Novels seem to have such colorful participants in them and this book, does not disappoint or detract from that. Yes, this is a different type of book from what has been published in the past, but it is none the less, a very entertaining addition to his body of work.

Rating:
Summary: A LITTLE DIFFERENT FOR GRISHAM BUT A GOOD READ
Review: Here we are back in Ford county mississippi in 1970 in the town of Clanton the type of small town where you have the courthouse downtown with most of the businesses in the general (like a plaza) the type of town where a friday night football game is on the verged of being a religon and where all the local politics and local gossip is discussed in the diner or cafe.The local newspaper The Ford County Times through mismanagment and the fact that the editior main focus is on the obitituaries has gone into bankruptcy.Much to the dismay of the locals the paper is bought by a 23 year old willie traynor who has spent 5 years at syracuse univerisity and does not have much direction until his grandmother who was providing the funding cuts him off and tells him to find a job.The town folks do not take kindly to a socalled northerner or yankee.

As willie gets settled he starts to get the papered turned around and starts to get a following and gets his big break for increased paper circulation with his coverage of the brutual rape and murder of Rhoda Kassellaw by Danny Padgitt who is from a prominent family who made money form legal and illegal activities who had the money and influence that swayed elections and court cases.
As the book moves forward and the case against danny goes to court many feel that the power of the Padgitts will come to play but surprisingly danny is convicted.While the trial is going on Danny tells the jury that if they find him guilty that he will get payback on everyone of them.Because of the messeed up court and parole system even though he was sentenced to life he serves nine years and plots his revenge

I thought this was a pretty good book seems that grisham is changing direction of some his books wish he would go back to books like pelican brief and the firm.

Rating:
Summary: A Fresh Change
Review: When buying this book, I read the inside flap and saw that the book was to be about a man who goes to prison for muder, gets paroled, and ten goes after the jurors who sent him away. It seemed interesting, and another Grisham novel. Nver judge a book by the summary.
For starters, Danny Pudgitt does not get out of prison until the last fift pages or so -- the the dust jacket has lied (which turned out to be a good thing). Instead, the book follows, through an amazing first person narrative, the life a reporter/newspaper editor in Clanton, Mississippi. We learn how he becomes involved in this case through the stories he publishes... and through a juror.
In all, this bok is about Willie's relatioship with the juror, who is only a juror for a short hwile. Instead we learn of her life, Willie's life, and the desegregation of the 1970's in Mississippi.
Rather than give a usual courtroom brawl, Grisham steps away from attorney here, and only writes about the court as a reporter would. The reporter knows nothing of law, except was he has learned from... Harry Rex Vonnor.
This book reads like Clancy, where you wonder how so many storylines will tie in, but is smooth like Grisham has always been. It brings back past characters (Harry Rex, Judge Atlee, and, nicely, we meet Lucien Wilbanks before he is disbarred).
All in all a suberb story, though at times Grisham reiterates himself so strongly that you wonder if he had forgotten what he has written.
The story had snares, which made me ask to get back to the story... to Danny and the jurors.
If you are looking for a mirder mystery or courtroom drama, don't buy this. Rather, this novel excemplifies teh fact that life goes in in the world, and, even with a small town murder, there are other things to talk about. It is a new way of writing for Grisham, with two surprises at the end -- one of the endings should be spotted by anyone who has read "The Summons" or "The King of Torts," but it still leaves you thinking of how real the story is.
When I began reading, i could not put it down, and am glad for the fact. Stunningly written, beautifully crafted, truly original. Four out of five stars. This novel is a magnificant triumph from Grisham that shows he is still original and at the top of his game. I only have one request for the author -- please give Harry Rex his own novel.

Rating:
Summary: Another great piece of art
Review: I'm a die-hard Grisham fan, this book is as great as other books.

btw, could you at least be polite and not plug "your" book in other reviews?

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: Grisham has lost his touch....
Review: Drivel and more Drivel....Grisham has lost his touch. You can't write good suspense novels using Harlequin Romance Techniques, filling the pages with unsubstantial filler. If you liked "The Pelican Brief", and was unsatisfied with "The Bleachers", then you and I will agree on this one.

Rating:
Summary: Southern storytelling at its best
Review: In "The Last Juror" Grisham returns to Clanton Mississippi, the setting for "A Time To Kill." When a young widow is brutally raped and murdered, she names her assailant with her last dying breath: Danny Padgitt, a son of the dangerous and powerful crime family that seems to own Clanton. Willie Traynor, the young reporter who buys the local newspaper when it falls into bankrupcy, covers the case in the paper and befriends Miss Callie, the matriarch of the amazing Ruffin family and the first black woman juror in Ford County. Danny is tried and found guilty, but he receives life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. When he is released on parole after only nine years and returns to Clanton, the jurors who convicted him begin to die one by one, and the remaining jurors fear for their lives.

This novel features not only the setting of Grisham's earliest novel, but also the reappearance of its lawyers Lucien Wilbanks and Harry Rex Vonner. It covers some of the same issues of race and criminal justice. But if you are expecting this story to be similar to its predecessor, you might be disappointed. For one thing, the protagonist here is Willie Traynor rather than a lawyer. The story does contain some tense courtroom drama, but that comprises only part of the novel. Instead we see the gentler and softer-hearted Grisham as represented in some of his latest works such as "Bleachers" and "Skipping Christmas." After the fast-paced trial and while Danny is in prison, the story changes direction to indulge in some good old-fashioned Southern storytelling.

Through the voice of newspaper owner Traynor, a northerner who views the town with the eyes of an outsider but who comes to care for its inhabitants, Grisham shows his affection for Southern small town life. Grisham's descriptions and characterizations are so lovingly crafted that I felt I had attended a goat barbecue, sampled some powerful moonshine, sat on the balcony above the town square gossiping with and about the locals, played poker in the backwoods, visited every church in the county, and had lunch on Miss Callie's porch. The story is peppered with humor and folk wisdom. The ending, although sad, is satisfying. I strongly recommend this novel for readers who appreciate both the vintage and newer Grisham works.

Eileen Rieback