Synopses & Reviews
In 1970, Willie Traynor came to Mississippi in a Triumph Spitfire and a fog of vague ambitions. Within a year, the twenty-three-year-old college dropout found himself the owner of Ford Countys only newspaper, famous for its well-crafted obituaries. While the rest of America was in the grips of social turmoil, Willies adopted town of Clanton lived on the edge of another age, until the brutal murder of a young mother rocked the sleepy communityand thrust Willie into the center of a storm.
Daring to report the true horrors of the crime, Willie made as many friends as enemies in Clantonand over the next decade he would take stances, break barriers, and sometimes wonder how he had gotten there in the first place. But he could never escape the crime that had shattered his innocence or the criminal whose evil had left an indelible stain. Because as the ghosts of the Souths past gather around Willie, as issues of race and justice swirl around Clanton, men and women who served on a jury nine years ago are starting to die one by oneas a killer exacts the ultimate revenge. . . .
Review
"[C]ompassionate, compulsively readable....[H]eartfelt, wise, suspenseful and funny, one of the best Grishams ever." Publishers Weekly
Review
"The Last Juror does not need to coast on its author's megapopularity. It's a reminder of how the Grisham juggernaut began." The New York Times
Review
"[The Last Juror] ranks among his best-written and most atmospheric novels." USA Today
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
John Grisham is the author of seventeen novels. The Last Juror is his first novel since A Time to Kill to be set in Ford County, Mississippi.