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  • The Last Juror

  • A Novel
  • Written by: John Grisham
  • Narrated by: Michael Beck
  • Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (91 ratings)

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The Last Juror

Written by: John Grisham
Narrated by: Michael Beck
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Publisher's Summary

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.

©2004 Belfry Holdings, Inc. (P)2004 Random House, Inc., Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

What the critics say

"Here [John Grisham] is back in the fictitious town of Clanton, Miss., re-establishing the storytelling skills and sense of place that put him on the map....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)

What listeners say about The Last Juror

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Kinda Insulting. Still.. Not Bad

If I were from Mississippi, I would find John Grisham's portrayal of fictional 'Clanton' so ridiculous that I would have trouble reading the book due to my eyes rolling so often. "Po' Black folks" from the "wrong side of the tracks" compete with ignorant, racist "Foghorn-Leghorn"-talking Confederate-Flag-waving aristoctrats, aggressively-religious/bigoted über-evangelicals, and inbred "white-trash" rapist moonshiners for the biggest stereotype in the story. Grisham introduces displaced Northerner - well, from Tennessee, anyway - Joyner William Traynor (re-christened "Willie" by the locals) to teach us about life in smalltown MS. The transplanted newspaper editor/owner is treated to Barbeque, Grits, Chitlins, and Hush Puppies by a succession of Hollywood typecast characters as listed above.. and suffers attempts on his life by murderous Rednecks (as one does in the South🙄).
If you can get past the clichés, however, Grisham's unoriginal formulaic "Deep South" travel blog (Hey, man.. it was the post-desegregation 70s) also includes an interest-piquing scenario where a connected White rapist-murderer gets paroled early & starts exacting revenge against the jury and community that convicted him.. benefitting from institutional racism & corruption. The vocabulary/prose is typically excellent (Grisham knows how to write), the courtroom elements are well-scripted, and the overall plotting is twisty-turny and imaginative. This is a flawed but eminently readable book.

Fortuitously for Grisham fans - Michael Beck elevates the book with a genuinely outstanding reading performance, too. His professional diction, comfortable reading timbre/cadence, and spot-on tone are complemented with inspired voice-acting (including realistic "mouth full" mealtime conversations, for example). Random House Audio further puts together an exemplary well-edited listening product. If you are given the choice between this recording and a text version of the book, choose this one hands-down.

This iteration of 'The Last Juror' merits 6.5 stars out of 10. It's not among Grisham's best efforts, but provided satisfying entertainment for a couple of quiet afternoons. Readers new to the author should try something else by him for their Credit - but fans of the man (or Legal Thrillers in general) aren't crazy to invest in this one.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very engaging excellent narrator

I enjoyed the wonderful description of the town and it’s characters wrapped in a very engaging story. Well done

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A Horrific and Beautiful Story

This is another amazing book, with difficult, heartbreaking parts, but yet a warm and beautiful ending. Wonderful characters melded together to create another success for John Grisham.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story, exceptional narrator

I greatly enjoyed this book and the narration was top notch. I would highly recommend.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable read

Another enjoyable book by JG. Always has interesting characters and great storylines. Once again Michael Beck brings it all to life, outstanding narrator!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Best yet!!

Best yet!!
Brought true emotions and tears.
Hope to find that Mr Grisham has written at least one more as good as this!!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

love Ford County Stories

I love how he has captured small town life. the combination of John Grisham's writing with Michael Beck's narration makes this book very enjoyable

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

one of Grisham's best

loved reading this but listening was pretty great too....felt like a true story, one I loved

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Judy
  • 2004-02-06

The Last Juror

Simple story, easy to listen to. Hard to stop listening. Narrator is realy great and makes the story come alive. One of the better audio books i've "read".

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99 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Pamela Harvey
  • 2004-02-15

Not quite as advertised...

This novel is more a series a vignettes or short stories than a serious courtroom thriller. I found myself caught up in the initial murder case but then led astray with all sorts of sidebars and meanderings into Southern culture, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, elements which I had thought were intended as background scenery but which unexpectedly became the main characters. If you do not find these topics of consuming interest you will soon be yawning and hitting the fast-forward button on your iPod. However, the trademark Grisham gifts abound and the narrator does an excellent job of characterization and rendering various Southern dialects. It's a good "listen", just not in the best-of-Grisham class.

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55 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Mark
  • 2005-01-27

Rambling Southern Comfort

Listeners looking for a courtroom thriller should look elsewhere. The Last Juror has little to do with juries or the courtroom. It has much to do with a broad canvas painting of a small, Southern town during the decade of the 1970s. This painting begins with a terrible crime and arrest. Predictably it moves on to the trial and the selection of the jury.

But somewhere along the way, the story takes a casual turn. Instead of the tight, focused story Grisham's readers have come to expect, Mr. Grisham changes course and spends more time on the diffuse background of the town and its characters. This reader had the distinct feeling that the author ran out of his story a quarter of the way in and changed his mind.

The rambling tale that follows is good... but is not the stuff of Grisham fame. Readers, who want courtroom action, would be much better off passing on this book and looking for other Grisham favorites.

Michael Beck does an outstanding job with the performance of this book. In fact, it is his personification of the characters in Grisham's tale that raises the rating on this audiobook. Once the listener figures out that this is no longer a courtroom shocker, but is a mural painting of the South, he or she can comfortably enjoy Beck's sourthern charms. Beck is more the draw with this audiobook than is the book itself.

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40 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Danielle
  • 2004-02-08

Grisham's Finest

"The Last Juror" includes an ensemble of interesting characters in a setting brought to life with Southern culture, customs and dialect. It was difficult to pause once I was listening. I give it 4.5 at least.

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29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Barbara
  • 2004-06-08

Beautiful language, wonderful story

John Grisham writes beautiful book. The language is mesmirizing, the characters are loveable, the story kept me coming back to listen to just a little more, and more, and more.
What I appreciated most was the craft and artistry that Grisham displayed in describing the 9 years between the trial and the retribution that came next. A lesser author would have made it a transition paragraph rather than the take the opportunity to beguile us with the characters, let us experience the character growth, and the convey the development of that small town. I fell in love with the place as well as its population.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Todd
  • 2004-02-10

A good book, but not Grisham's best...

I enjoyed the the book but the plot loses steam about half way through the story. The mystery is wrapped up nicely in the final pages of the book, but in a very predictable way. The character development is good but the main character's personality seems to change in the middle of the story along with his wardrobe, neither making much sense. Many of the more notable supporting characters from Grisham's other books appear again in The Last Juror, making for an entertaining supporting cast. Michael Beck does a wonderful job in defining the unique southern characters through his voice. Even with the weak plot, this book is worth a listen if you enjoy John Grisham.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Anonymous User
  • 2005-01-30

Did I miss the last chapter?

I would give this book two stars based on the two stars of the book: a.) Character development, and b.) Michael Becks performance. Beyond that, I can't help but feel like I've wasted several hours on this book.
The book begins with a good story line with potential for a lot of suspense. Somewhere along the way, the character development takes over. We learn much about the small town, its history, and all of its inhabitants. The plot starts to take a back seat. There isn't much suspense again until close to the end (with several hints of an imminent plot twist). The anticipated climactic finish is very disappointing.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Regina
  • 2005-07-13

The Last Juror

I hope that this book is an indication that Grisham is returning to the original style that I fell in love with. I had stopped reading his books around the time of The Street Lawyer and the Run Away Jury and a friend convinced me to listen to The Last Juror. This was his best work in my opinion.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Peggy
  • 2004-04-12

Thank you it was a pleasure!

Wow this is a fun read. The pace is fast and the action and details fun to hear and think about. I could just see in my mind the town and the people. It was serious and funny at the same time. The reader really sets the listerner up for a surprise. You will not want to stop reading it and I found myself standing in the street lost in the story and what was happening. I want to hear more books like this!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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  • R
  • 2004-03-14

The Last Juror.......

This was my first Grisham book. The story was well written, no doubt he is a good writer. I gave it only 3 stars because it did drag a lot and he seemed to go off on many tangents that took away from the book. I don't feel he got into the MAIN plot enough. Maybe the apparent main plot was really a subplot and the other plot "relationships" was really the main plot. I found the book entertaining. I would like to make a note on how fantastic the reader, Michael Beck is. He deserves 6 stars out of the possible 5. I would really like to hear him again and will check out Grisham again so I can. He changed character voices like no one I have ever heard.

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5 people found this helpful