Never underestimate the power of a John Grisham novel. Often synonymous with the modern day court drama, Grisham takes a turn for the literary good with his equally emotional and suspenseful The Last Juror.

Though the novel in paperback is more than 480 pages, the story presents itself as poignantly as a Southern folktale. Like a good Hemingway novel, it asserts a refreshing air of masculinity with the narrator’s maturity nothing short of naïve in the 1970’s era of American turmoil.

Weaving the narrator’s emotional accounts with the sass as the guy behind every good story, the editor of the town newspaper, the reader catches on to young Willie Traynor’s gift: embellishment. Referred to as yellow-journalism by those on the receiving end, he employs it often when writing about the most recent heated mystery of the town: the raping and murder of a young mother by a reclusive nihilistic rich man.

Danny Padgitt, with the notorious Padgitt clan, buy witnesses for the trial and is found guilty and given a life sentence (which is 10 years in Clanton, Miss.).

Reporting all the gruesome murder details and fine points of the trial helps Willie gain desired popularity and friendships and sales soar. Over the next nine years Clanton is allowed a peaceful period of prosperity.

Then news of Danny’s parole hearing stirs old fears and lays a blanket of paranoia on the quiet town as some of the jurors start to die by a mysterious hand.

What happens in the end cannot compare to the clearly sedated lead-in and is nowhere near a chaotic who-done-it. However, Grisham’s character development over almost a decade in The Last Juror reflects the changing mood of the town very well.

Snappy and realistic dialogue surprisingly compels the reader to finish this catchy story, aside from the snail’s pace account of Willie’s personal life and introspective adventures during the peaceful years. This part is worth reading simply because the story looks deeper into the heart of this budding journalist.