The LAST JUROR, John Grisham
Synopsis
John Grisham is best known for fast legal thrillers, but The Last Juror is a slower, more reflective novel. It returns to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his debut, A Time to Kill.
The narrator is Willie Traynor, a 23-year-old drop-out who buys the struggling weekly newspaper in Clanton in 1970. He is an outsider in a Deep South town where everyone knows everyone’s business. His early missteps are funny, and he grows into the job believably.
The central crime comes early. A young mother is brutally murdered, and the suspect is a member of the Padgitt family, a local clan with a long record of crime and intimidation. Willie covers the trial and becomes close to the people around it. The verdict does not end the matter. Years later the consequences return, and Willie is pulled back in.
The book works because of Grisham’s patience. Over nearly a decade, the paper’s front page shows a town changing: schools integrating, old loyalties shifting, Vietnam looming over the county’s young men. The Mississippi setting feels lived-in, from the dialogue to the church suppers.
The most memorable character is Miss Callie Ruffin, a dignified Black woman who serves on the jury at a time when that was still unusual in the county. Her friendship with Willie carries the book’s emotional weight and says more about race and justice than any speech could.
The book has weaknesses. At over 500 pages it wanders, the middle sags, and the ending leans on coincidence. Some supporting characters are drawn too broadly.
It suits readers who enjoy a strong sense of place and a narrator who grows. It is not the best choice for a quick, twisty page-turner; The Firm or The Pelican Brief serve that better.
Overall, this is a warm, funny and quietly angry novel about justice, race and the small-town press, and it deserves more attention than it usually gets.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Richard says…
I enjoyed this book a lot because of the way Grisham deals with the American south, the character names he creates, the locales he visits in his scenes and they’re real places and the dialogues that sound so authentic.
The story line seems to be superfluous. A young, 23 year old buys a Southern USA rural newspaper but when he begins writing about a particular trial and the only black woman on the jury, he puts himself into a war with the local power family. The threat on his life feels very real though the actual attempts seem be intentional near misses. But the story is a wonderful piece of development, the ongoing threat, the unique facets of the black woman juror’s family and the ghetto she lives in.
It’s a great little story, not heavy but warmly engaging. You feel like you’re visiting the story’s region and interacting with the many characters. This is not your typical murder or crime story with spine tingling suspense and fear developing scenes. No, this book is a trip, a trip to the American south where bigotry, racism, mysogyny and bullying prevail and you escape it all by being the periferal visitor, the reader.
In short, The Last Juror’s a comforting and pleasant read.
