![]() ![]() “They lie, so we lie,” the officer told McCloskey. The problem is not individuals, but a long-existing “ends justify the means” ethos. Many of us have honorable friends and family members who serve. ![]() McCloskey acknowledges that police work is dangerous and difficult, and many good people do it. We’re not talking “a few bad apples.”įor the rest of my days, I will remember the passage from When Truth Is All You Have in which a Newark police lieutenant, a 25-year veteran of the force, tells McCloskey that he doesn’t know a single officer who hasn’t lied on the witness stand. The Last Juror is commentary on ten years of the history and culture of a small southern town, breaking from Grisham’s typical formula and an easy reccommendation to those who are familar with Grisham’s legal thrillers but who have tired of them, or who have never really experienced his works.If you’re reading Black Lives Matter-related books about the role of police or white blindness to social problems, this timely book is one for your list.Īs Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries tells his stories of freeing wrongfully convicted persons all over the nation, we learn that witness perjury set up by police and prosecutors and police perjury on the stand are pervasive. As much as I like The Rainmaker, it is at its essence only a legal thriller like much of his other works. The Last Juror for me is the most interesting of Grisham’s works for its novelty: none of his other works are like this. ![]() Characters from other books (Harry Rex Vonner and Lucien Wilbanks from A Time to Kill, most notably) appear, sometimes extensively and sometimes only as part of the background. The town is, by the way, Clanton - a favorite setting of Grisham’s, set in his often-visited and fictional Ford County. A ten-year span also provides plenty of time for character development, as Traynor ages and becomes part of the town’s fabric of interesting characters. This is the book that made me curious about the effects of chain stores on local economies, for instance. The book is in a way a loving tribute (and a mild roasting) to Grisham’s childhood background. Grisham uses the timeframe to comment on the culture and history of the rural south from the viewpoint of a local newspaper: religion, politics, funerals, football culture, the response to segregation,the rise of big box stores, and the like all receive Traynor’s curious attention and amused, concerned, or affectionate commentary. While the dramatic murder trial’s lasting effect on the town provides the overall plot, the substance in between its appearances makes the book special for me, for Grisham explores the development of a small town in this tumultous period from the perspective of an outsider (Traynor is from Memphis, which makes him a ‘northerner’ in his readers’ eyes). The Last Juror is notable for its setting and scope: while other Grisham works take place within the span of a few months, The Last Juror spans an entire decade - and that decade happens to be the 1970s, the era of Vietnam, Nixon, and Civil Rights. Traynor is interested in turning the weekly newspaper into a goldmine, and the shocking trial provides an instant boon in his first few months as owner and publisher. His name is Willie Traynor, and he’s a 23-year old lapsed university student who has acquired the bankrupt local paper through a rich aunt. Unlike Grisham’s other works, the main character is only a spectator to the trial. The prime suspect is Danny Padgitt, a young member of the Padgitt crime family, a secretive and close-knit clan of bootleggers, car thieves, and drug dealers who operate from a small island formed by a near-circular bend in the Mississippi river. Like many of Grisham’s works, The Last Juror‘s background plot takes place within the realm of law, as a small Mississippi town is shaken by the rape and murder of a young woman in full view of her children. The two works, probably not coincidently both written in the first person, constantly jockey in my mind for first place. Not whole conviction, mind you, for I’m prone to picking up my well-thumbed copy of The Rainmaker and reading a chapter at random. If you forced me to choose a favorite John Grisham work, I could manage to choose The Last Juror with some conviction. “Every damned one of you!” Danny repeated, louder. “Baliff!” Judge Loopus said as he grabbed for his gravel. “You convict me,” he said, “and I’ll get every damned one of you.” His face wrinkled into pure hatred, and he jabbed his right index finger into the air. As was about to step out of the witness box and return to the defense table, he suddenly turned to the jury and said something that stunned the courtroom.
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