When The Last Juror was published in January 2004, the book was released to mixed reviews. Critics expecting a "typical" Grisham legal thriller usually gave the book a poor review. But critics open to reading the book as a novel with no expectations for certain genre conventions were more positive.

Publishers Weekly gives the book a starred review, indicating the book is considered of "out-standing" quality. The anonymous reviewer says:

Grisham has spent the last few years stretching his creative muscles through a number of genres: his usual legal thrillers (The Summons, The King of Torts, etc.), a literary novel (The Painted House [sic]), a Christmas book (Skipping Christmas) and a high school football elegy (Bleachers). This experimentation seems to have imbued his writing with a new strength, giving exuberant life to this compassionate, compulsively readable story of a young man's growth from callowness to something approaching...