<![CDATA[The Last Juror]]>

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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 dénouement 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

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The Last Juror

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Mrs. Baltz

Pre-AP English 10

27 November, 2008

The Last Juror by John Grisham

This four year old book, The Last Juror, by John Grisham makes you think you ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Nov 12 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Mon Dec 08 02:40:56 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 08 02:40:56 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Jun 27 09:23:40 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 27 09:24:10 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Mar 06 06:29:13 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 06 06:30:37 -0800 2009 Doctor Baltz
Pre-AP English 10
5 March 2009
The Last Juror by John Grisham
There are many small towns across Mississippi. Clanton seems like a normal rural town and has been for many years. But when Willie Traynor came to Clanton everything began to change...more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Jan 28 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 11:12:31 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 11:14:07 -0800 2009 William, Willie, Traynor grew up in an affluent Memphis family, studied journalism at Syracuse University for five years. Willie returned to Memphis when his education funds ran out and almost by default inherited a Mississippi weekly newspaper at the age of 23.
Willie’s first edition o...more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Mon Jan 05 13:55:56 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 13:58:04 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Nov 30 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Fri Dec 19 17:07:18 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 19 17:07:50 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jun 18 08:20:57 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 08:22:26 -0700 2009
Willie Traynor, a 23-year-old man with dreams and ambitions, moves to Clanton, Mississippi in 1970. He has just bought the town’s newspaper and wishes to make something of himself. A brutal rape and murder shake the town to ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Apr 13 13:06:17 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 13:07:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Apr 09 11:28:12 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 11:37:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Jul 15 13:00:23 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 09:14:50 -0700 2009 Luckily enough, The...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:24:47 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:24:47 -0800 2009 Is this latest thriller from Grisham up to snuff? Or, at least, to his usual level of, err, proficiency? Maybe yes, maybe no. Grisham revisits his old haunting ground--the Deep South of A Time to Kill--to depict the inner workings of a small, insular Southern town. He creates some good characters: a...

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After Willie drops out of college he p...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 09:33:21 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 09:34:20 -0800 2009 2 "I owned the paper for ten years, from 1970 to 1980, and we reported very few murders in Ford County. None was as brutal as Rhoda Kassellaw's; none was as premeditated. Thirty years later, I still think about it every day."

In "The Last Juror," John Grisham sets aside ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 25 15:38:59 -0700 2009 Sat May 30 09:18:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 31 09:51:47 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 09:55:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 true false Wed May 20 05:17:56 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 05:17:56 -0700 2009 once
but i am not a John Grisham fanatic... from reading the other reviews i am happy that I am not the only one...

I thought i was strange for sometime cuz everyone always recommended Jo...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Nov 09 08:33:11 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 09 08:33:11 -0800 2008
This story is set in Clanton, MS years before A Time to Kill (which has been my all-time Grisham favorite for years now). We ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 22 07:30:46 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 16 13:25:10 -0700 2008 The Ford County Times went bankrupt in 1970." Delightful! The writing was wonderful, but the rest of the book wasn't the murder mystery I was expecting. In fact, the murder mys...more...]]>