While hanging around the courts in 1984, Grisham met a young girl with an intriguing story to tell about a case in which she was involved. The things she told him about her life touched him so much that he began to write his first novel based on her story. It was published in 1989 and is called Time to Kill. As a new author, Grisham had difficulty finding a publisher for his first book. He finally found one that was willing to let him have a printing of 5,000 copies. While his legal thrillers are what John Grisham is most well-known for, as we’ve already mentioned, he has also written non-legal stories. Standalone Books It's fine if Grisham wants to write something different than a legal thriller, but I wish his publishers didn't advertise this book as if it was. I really didn't want to read a book about small town southern life, especially a particularly boring southern town, but that is pretty much what this book is about. I found the characters to be uninteresting, particularly the main character. I thought it absolutely ridiculous that he sold the paper at the end so he could stay in the town and basically do nothing. The part where he went around to all the various churches in the area did nothing for the plot and it didn't even change his character mentally or spiritually. What was the point???? Similar to the last Grisham book I read, I kept waiting for the drama or excitement but it didn't really happen and I felt let down by the ending. That said, I still had to read to the end which is Grisham's specialty; drawing a reader in so they have to know what happens. When it becomes obvious that the local newspaper will soon be going into receivership a young colt journalist, who is an employee of the papers, decided that he would make an offer to buy the paper.

However, the family began to move around to different areas, still south of the Mason-Dixon Line, while Grisham was in his youth. They settled down again in Southaven, Mississippi and that is where the young John Grisham became determined to be a baseball player for his profession. However, his mother had different aspirations for her son and began grooming him for college, although she herself had never received a formal education. While he is known only as Juror #2 within the trial, his life and his past has led him to this moment. A woman on the outside helped him plot and plan, but now as a corporate empire waits for a decision, the truth about Juror #2 will explode like wildfire.An architect, father, and the single initial “not guilty” vote. The 8th Juror argues that the men should take their time in coming to a verdict. He slowly and painstakingly examines the evidence and testimony to decide if there are grounds for a conviction. The 8th Juror is patient and compassionate, and he often humanizes the defendant in the face of others’ rash, biased judgements. She trembled and managed to shake her head. She couldn’t see what he looked like. He threw her to the floor of the cluttered closet, face down, and yanked her hands behind her. He took a brown wool scarf an old aunt had given her and wrapped it roughly around her face. "Not one sound," he kept growling at her. "Or I’ll cut your kids." When the blindfold was finished he grabbed her hair, snatched her to her feet, and dragged her to her bed. He poked the tip of the blade into her chin and said, "Don’t fight me. The knife’s right here." He cut off her panties and the rape began. Now the proud new owner with all the ambition and energy that only the young can engender he sets forth to make the paper a success. In the ensuing years, as the Times becomes highly successful and steadily increases circulation, Willie keeps an eye on Padgitt. He campaigns against the extremely favorable conditions which his family procured for him in prison. However, Padgitt is paroled after nine years. Immediately after his return to Clanton, two of the former jurors are killed by a sniper rifle and fear spreads through the county. Callie's children and neighbors organize to guard her day and night. The Padgitt family offers alibis as to Danny's whereabouts during the murders. This is taken with great skepticism, but with no tangible proof to the contrary, the authorities hesitate to take action. An owner of car repair shops and a vicious racist. The 10th Juror doesn’t care about due process or the law and is on a single-minded mission to convict the boy because of his race. Angry, self-righteous, and unyielding, he sees his job as protecting America from immigrants.

The German title is "Die Liste" = The List. Since I normally don't compare international titles until I'm about ready to write a review - if at all - I had no idea the original was "The Last Juror."

Publication Order of Camino Island Books

The story of my life, not really sure to make of this. It was not what I expected but I unexpectedly enjoyed it. As a lawyer, Grisham also made changes, switching from being a tax lawyer to trial lawyer, stating a dislike for the burdensome “complexity and lunacy” tax lawyers often face. His career as a trial lawyer was never fated to last long as well. Having graduated from law school in 1983, Grisham was elected to his state’s House of Representatives that same year, serving the Democratic Party until 1990. His legal practice lasted a decade. For the most part the news is pretty mundane to say the least but when a young widow with two children is brutally raped and murdered the paper and the community goes into overdrive. Not really a courtroom drama or legal thriller; instead this novel focuses on the media in a small town in Mississippi.