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Title: Pleading Guilty by Scott Turow ISBN: 0446365505 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: June, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.29
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Story + Mediocre Characters = Pretty Good Book
Comment: This is the third Turow novel I've read and it was the third he wrote. It also ranks third in quality of the three I've read. It's not a bad book at all, and it is well worth reading. It just lacks the higher quality of characters I found in the other two novels, Presumed Innocent and Burden of Proof. The story has plenty of Turow style surprises and is quite interesting. To me, the thing that pulled the book down was the character development. I just didn't find Mack or Brushy to be interesting or well developed. Toots was the most interesting character and he was a bit player in the story. So, overall I'd say read it, but if you only have time to read one or two, I'd pick his earlier novels.
Rating: 3
Summary: Slimy lawyers propelled by unpredictable plot
Comment: "Pleading Guilty" is a gritty story of a down-on-his-luck cop-turned-lawyer who is given an almost impossible assignment by his law firm. He has to find a missing law partner who has disappeared with over five million dollars.
Although I didn't necessarily love this book, I have to give the author credit for writing a rather unpredictable plot. This is my first time reading a Scott Turow book so I don't know if certain aspects of this book that I didn't particularly care for are standard Turow or specific to the characters populating this novel. I'll have to read one of his other books to get a better idea about that and I probably will read more of his work in the future.
In terms of a legal thriller, Mr. Turow writes rings around John Grisham. The characters all seemed rather seedy and sleazy backstabbers, but then they were mostly lawyers so that's fitting, I suppose. It made it difficult to root for anyone involved, but I still kept reading, just to find out what would happen.
If you like books about sleazy lawyers with lots of interesting plot twists, "Pleading Guilty" is definitely worth reading.
Rating: 4
Summary: Turow ranks among the greatest "legal thriller" writers!!
Comment: For some reason, John Grisham continues to be the hugest name in the "legal thriller" business, when that honor ought to be firmly in the grasp of Scott Turow. His books have more "meat on the bone," dabble in moral ambiguity more instead of having such clearly delineated good guys / bad guys, and are written in a more literate style. Grisham's characters are sketched in quickly and seldom grow and change. He's like the lawyer's version of Michael Crichton, all plot and no heart.
By shear coincidence, this was really driven home to me when I first read THE PARTNER, by Grisham, which tells the story of a lawyer who steals a huge amount of money from his shady law partners and disappears with it. It's a fun STORY with many amusing touches, but never makes you truly care for the characters. I followed this read immediately with PLEADING GUILTY, which also dealt with some shady attorneys being ripped off big-time by one of their partners.
The main character is Mack Malloy, an ex-cop turned lawyer, who is grappling with raising on his own a VERY troubled teenage boy and is also a recovering alcoholic right on the edge of no longer recovering. He's a smart attorney but not a terribly productive one for his firm, and he's given the job of tracking down his fellow partner who is suspected of raiding a company settlement fund of millions and disappearing. Mack begins to investigate, and he peels of layer after layer of secrets and surprises...off his firm, off their #1 client, off the local police force and even from his friend, the disappeared lawyer.
Told in the first person, the character of Mack is flawed but totally engaging. And when I say "flawed," I don't mean a little. He's a hard guy to like, but his narrative style is so incisive and his sadness so profound, he gets our sympathy. He (meaning author Turow) is also a very astute observer of character and through his eyes, we get to know a lot of very interesting and varied people. This book really had me turning the pages.
My only gripe is the conclusion. The plot gets twisted enough that when Mack finally gets to "reveal all" it takes a good long time to set us straight on what has happened and why. Turow also assumes that we care more than we do about a couple of the more minor characters in the book, and this slows the ending down a bit too. By no means do these minor flaws make this a book not worth reading though...I was sorry to leave Mack behind.
Turow first came to real national attention with his stellar PRESUMED INNOCENT. But I've read several of his subsequent books, and they are all rock solid. Grisham is like a burger, fast and filling but not all that good for you. Turow, to me, is more like nice, slow steak dinner...satisfying and worth lingering over. Give him a try! ...
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Title: Personal Injuries by Scott Turow ISBN: 0446608602 Publisher: Warner Vision Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Burden of Proof, The by Scott Turow ISBN: 0446360589 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: June, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow ISBN: 0446359866 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: May, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Laws of Our Fathers, The by Scott Turow ISBN: 0446604402 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Reversible Errors: A Novel by Scott Turow ISBN: 0374281602 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 29 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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