The Last Juror is a 2004 legal thriller novel by John Grisham, first published by Doubleday on February 3, 2004.The story is set in the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi from 1970 to 1979. Clanton is also the venue for John Grisham's first novel A Time to Kill which was published in 1989. Some of the characters appear in both novels with the same occupation and characteristics. Although A Time to Kill was published 15 years before The Last Juror, it took place in 1985 (on the first page of Chapter 3, it notes the date as Wednesday, May 15), which is a year after Grisham formed the idea for A Time to Kill, his first novel, and began writing it. Therefore the characters who appear in both novels, such as Lucien Wilbanks and Harry Rex Vonner, have matured in A Time to Kill. Harry Rex Vonner also appears in the novel The Summons, published in 2002, as an adviser of the protagonist Ray Atlee.
Some references in the book are clearly hinting at things known to readers of A Time to Kill. For example, in 1970 most blacks in Ford County don't take part in elections - taking for granted that since whites are the great majority in the county, no black candidate would have chance of being elected to local office. However, as A Time to Kill makes clear, a decade later a black Sheriff would be duly elected, with the overwhelming support of blacks and whites alike.
The novel is divided into three parts. The first covers the trial of Danny Padgitt, the second focuses on Willie adjusting to life in Clanton, and the third includes the main events, the murder of the jurors.
