I listened to the Last Juror a few months ago. I loved the characters, the descriptions, the southern way of life and how Grisham captured it so vividly. I found myself wanting to have some of Mrs. Callie's meals and having conversations with her. I loved Willie Traynor's character as well as all the characters that he interacted with.
One of my favorite reads in a long time!

This was the first Grisham book I ever read, and I have since read two others, The Firm and The Street Lawyer. The Last Juror has really engaging characters, a likable narrative voice, and a meaningful story that seems realistic and held my interest all the way. This is very good, carefully crafted writing throughout. Unfortunately, The Grisham books I read afterwards are linear, one-dimensional, boring, and give the impression of being carelessly written. The Last Juror is several cuts above the usual Grisham fare, if Street Lawyer and The Firm are any indication.

I can't believe how bad this book is. It's the first John Grisham novel I have ever read. It is simply dead boring. There is nothing about it that makes it a "thriller." The title is completely misleading. Don't even waste your time getting this book out of the library unless you want to read a long drawn out story about a small town in the south. It's not even a good story about that. I agree with everyone else who gave this book one star (or less).

Juror is written in the familiar Grisham style--lots of local color and engaging characters. But here's my beef: every once in a while, like a faulty rendition on a piano, Grisham hits some false notes that leap off the page and jar the reader's brain. These are occasioned by his ignorance of people, geography or whatnot. And you wonder what happened. Where's his research? Where's his editor? Some examples: A character named Piston cleans offices in the downtown area. Grisham writes that no one knows where Piston lives. You can be damn sure in a small town almost everyone knows where everyone else lives! Small error? Sure, but careless. Grisham describes a river as running straight as though a cut channel. Geologists, cartographers, and other people familiar with landforms know rivers never take a perfectly straight course; they meander. He describes a dinner cooked by Miss Callie as featuring lamb stew. I challenge anyone to find lamb meat outside of the larger cities in the South during that period. In those days most fresh meat was local or within no more that 200 miles. There were no sheep ranches south of the Mason-Dixon. Even today most southerners do not eat lamb. We know nothing about the hero's love life outside of a couple of one night hook-ups. Are we to believe he lived in a small town without a love life? Or if he had girlfriends over, he wasn't the subject of gossip? Come on! Has Grisham got a tin ear? There are merits to the book, but, for me, they do not outweigh a series of false notes.

That is well worth reading.

I am a real fan of Grishom's work, having read most of it. This book represents his style perfectly; he creates a vivid southern setting and characters that kept me interested in the crime, courtroom thriller/drama.

The narrator is especially likeable, starting out as a recent college graduate who buys a local small town paper. He is cocky and self assured at first, but he matures in a very realistic way.

My favorite thing about this book is the characters and the southern setting. Grishom paints a beleiveable picture of a southern town in the early 70s. The characters are colorful and some are downright hilarious in their actions. I especially like the names he gave some of the characters (Pud Perryman for example).

This book is not perfect. There are several holes in the plot that I wondered about as I read the last page, and I was a bit disappointed at the end, but that's probably because I liked the characters so much.

Overall, a person won't go wrong with this book to read over a vacation lying by a pool with a cool drink in your hand. I bet you'll smile, maybe even laugh a few times.