Book info

• Title The Last Juror
• Author John Grisham
• Year 2004
• Genre Thriller

In 1970, the Ford County Times went bankrupt - and to the surprise and dismay of many, was bought by 23-year-old college dropout Willie Traynor. The paper's future was grim, until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Traynor reported all the gruesome details, and his newspaper prospered. The murderer, Danny Padgitt, was tried before a packed courtroom in Clanton, Mississippi. The trial came to a dramatic end when the defendant threatened revenge against the jurors if they convicted him. Despite his threats, they found him guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison. But nine years later, his influential family get him paroled. And then, one by one, the jurors who convicted him start to fall victim to terrible murders...

Thoughts

A rookie kid somehow finds himself in charge of a local county newspaper and brings it back from the brink of closure. Then, he finds himself reporting on a murder and the subsequent revenge.

The thriller side of this book is only half of it, with a lot of other issues going on - a stranger trying to be accepted, the integration of the black half of town with the white half, families forced apart, and how to make a business successful. There’s very little romance involved, which always makes me happy.

For a change, Grisham’s central character isn’t a lawyer but is a journalist. He’s keen to make money but willing to work for it and doesn’t expect an easy ride. All he wants is to find out the truth.

The writing is captivating, so that no matter how long the book is, however slow the pace or secretive the writing, I still couldn’t put it down. The action takes absolutely forever to get going, mostly reserved for the last 20% of the story, but it doesn’t matter. It’s all interesting, from descriptions of the heat to the amazing Southern food, to the history behind the characters. And, eventually, it thunders to a gratifying conclusion.

Rating: 4 / 5