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The Last Juror | 
 enlarge | Author: John Grisham
Publisher: Delta
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy Used: $0.97
You Save: $12.03 (93%)
New (33) Used (99) from $0.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  535 reviews
Sales Rank: 14693
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0385339682
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385339681
ASIN: 0385339682
Publication Date: April 25, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Some wear on book from reading, spine creases, wear on binding and pages.
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Amazon.com Review
In 1970, small town newspaper The Clanton Times went belly up. With financial assistance from a rich relative, it's purchased by 23-year-old Willie Traynor, formerly the paper's cub reporter. Soon afterward, his new business receives the readership boost it needs thanks to his editorial efforts and coverage of a particularly brutal rape and murder committed by the scion of the town's reclusive bootlegger family. Rather than shy from reporting on the subsequent open-and-shut trial (those who oppose the Padgitt family tend to turn up dead in the area's swampland), Traynor launches a crusade to ensure the unrepentant murderer is brought to justice. When a guilty verdict is returned, the town is relieved to find the Padgitt family's grip on the town did not sway the jury, though Danny Padgitt is sentenced to life in prison rather than death. But, when Padgitt is released after serving less than a decade in jail and members of the jury are murdered, Clanton once again finds itself at the mercy of its renegade family. When it comes, the denouement is no surprise; The Last Juror is less a story of suspense than a study of the often idyllic southern town of Clanton, Mississippi (the setting for Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill). Throughout the nine years between Padgitt's trial and release, Traynor finds acceptance in Clanton, where the people "don't really trust you unless they trusted your grandfather." He grows from a long-haired idealist into another of the town's colorful characters--renovating an old house, sporting a bowtie, beloved on both sides of the color line, and the only person to have attended each of the town's 88 churches at least once. The Last Juror returns Grisham to the courtroom where he made his name, but those who enjoyed the warm sentiment of his recent novels (Bleachers, A Painted House) will still find much to love here. --Benjamin Reese
Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 530 more reviews...
 good book September 3, 2008
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.
 A good quick read September 2, 2008
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.
The Last Juror by John Grisham August 27, 2008
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 August 26, 2008
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.
A View of a Changing Mississippi as Seen by a "Yankee" from Memphis August 26, 2008
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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