Judge must decide on the case of a rape victim and the boys who raped her years ago. ( )

I've never been one for Grisham. While I like a fast, exciting legal thriller as much as the next guy, I've never found Grisham to be a writer who could hold my interest. The plots surely make good films, the dramatic lawyerly speeches make for great grandstanding by well-known actors. Just not good books.

What Turow does in "Limitations" is far from Grisham as one can get. This was a thoughtful, well-paced novel about a judge considering the statue of limitations on a criminal case. The idea of limitations in life and in law runs throughout the book, and it illustrates the lives and motivations of each of the characters. At what point do personal or professional limitations begin to impact how you live your life? How you can move beyond them? Not the usual legal thriller pabulum, for sure.

While not spare, the prose was precise, making for a relatively short novel (200pgs), but even still the conflicts, resolutions and characters were well-rounded, and inhabited the novel like living things.

Based on my enjoyment of "Limitations" I would certainly explore other Turow books - this is the only one I've read. I remember my father enjoying the hell out of "Presumed Innocent" back in the late 1980's.

"Limitations" is more than a beach read, but finds a balance between "throw-away" fiction (Grisham) and more meaningful "literature" which explores and finds meaning within the lives of its prose and characters. ( )

This was a wonderful book. It isn't the stereotypical "legal thriller," but Turow has always been better than that. While there is a mystery to be solved, it is more of a character study of the life of an appellate judge. It is a very thoughtful look at how the truly noble judges manage to survive and thrive while trying to do the right thing on the bench. ( )

One of the reasons I generally dislike long tomes is that I have evidence that good stories can be told well in fewer pages. This observation holds particularly in crime fiction. Scott Turow’s Limitations is exhibit number 1. At a mere 197 pages, Turow still manages to fit in three plots.

(Full review at my blog) ( )

Didn't finish