The List (novel)

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The list (original title: The Last Juror ) is a novel by the American author John Grisham . The novel vividly tells the life of a small town in the southern United States in the 1970s, against the background of a large murder trial from the perspective of the editor of the local newspaper.

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The book tells the story of Willie Traynor, in 1967 his journalism studies breaks off and, in Clanton south of the United States , takes a job at a local newspaper. After the previous owner had run down the newspaper completely in 1970 and had to file for bankruptcy , Traynor was given the opportunity to acquire the newspaper and the office building. He borrows the $ 50,000 needed for this from his grandmother BeeBee. In the early days, Traynor wrote articles on local topics and managed to keep the paper afloat.

After a short time, a young mother is brutally raped and murdered and a member of the local gangster family Padgitt is clearly identified as the perpetrator . Traynor's newspaper is at the forefront of news coverage and circulation is skyrocketing, including his newspaper's lurid coverage. The perpetrator is sentenced by a jury , but not to the death penalty - as expected and also desired by many - but only to life imprisonment with three votes against . Shortly before the end of the trial, the perpetrator, Danny Padgitt, threatened the jury that if convicted, he would murder everyone after his release. Shortly afterwards, the former lawyer Hooter goes crazy and holed up with a gun on the roof of the courthouse to shoot at random passers-by. Since he only wanted to intimidate the people, he does not meet anyone and is arrested and taken away after he ran out of ammunition. It turns out that Hooter was in a relationship with the murder victim.

While Padgitt is in prison , Traynor gets to know the small town and its inhabitants , especially the black Miss Callie, who becomes his motherly friend, better. He spends time with writing obituaries , human and church portraits until Padgitt late 1970s on probation is released from prison. The former jury members, including Miss Callie, are frightened , and in fact, it doesn't take long before the first one on the list is found shot. Shortly afterwards, the second jury member is shot from behind and people speculate that Padgitt is behind it. The police have no evidence and refuse to arrest Padgitt. Miss Callie tells Traynor that when the verdict was voted on, the two murdered were against the death penalty and only one of the three opponents is left. When a bomb attack is carried out on this third person, but this fails due to fortunate circumstances, the police chief acts and persuades Padgitt's lawyer that his client should surrender, who continues to deny the crime. When Padgitt is supposed to testify in court, he is shot himself. The former lawyer Hooter, who was released from psychiatry some time before , but kills himself shortly before his arrest, is determined as the perpetrator . Traynor is investigating psychiatry in the background and is told, on the condition that this is not printed, that Hooter had already expressed his intention to kill the three people who voted against Padgitt's death sentence and who should not have been released .

In 1980, Traynor finally sold his running newspaper for $ 1,500,000 and after his long-time friend Miss Callie died of a stroke, he decided to leave town and see the world for a while.

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