The Last Juror | John Grisham

The Last Juror | John Grisham | The Last Juror by John Grisham

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The Last Juror

	The Last Juror John Grisham Delta, 2006 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 535 reviews view larger image
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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.

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good book

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.

The Last Juror by John Grisham

The Last Juror is a delightful story about Mississippi in the 1970s. The characters are well developed and fascinating. Don't miss it.

A View of a Changing Mississippi as Seen by a "Yankee" from Memphis

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.

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A View of a Changing Mississippi as Seen by a "Yankee" from Memphis

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A good quick read

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.

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