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Fiction. Literature. Thriller. HTML:Rommy "Squirrel" Gandolph is a Yellow Man, an inmate on death row for a 1991 triple murder in Kindle County. His slow progress toward certain execution is nearing completion when Arthur Raven, a corporate lawyer who is Rommy's reluctant court-appointed representative, receives word that another inmate may have new evidence that will exonerate Gandolph. Arthur's opponent in the case is Muriel Wynn, Kindle County's formidable chief deputy prosecuting attorney, who is considering a run for her boss's job. Muriel and Larry Starczek, the original detective on the case, don't want to see Rommy escape a fate they long ago determined he deserved, for a host of reasons. Further complicating the situation is the fact that Gillian Sullivan, the judge who originally found Rommy guilty, is only recently out of prison herself, having served time for taking bribes. Scott Turow's compelling, multi-dimensional characters take the reader into Kindle County's parallel yet intersecting worlds of police and small-time crooks, airline executives and sophisticated scammersâ??and lawyers of all stripes. No other writer offers such a convincing true-to-life picture of how the law and life interact, or such a profound understanding of what is at stakeâ??personally, professionally, and morallyâ??when the state holds the power to end a ma… (more)
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Turow’s fictional Kindle County and Center City bear a strong resemblance to Cook County and Chicago, Illinois. This makes it more fun to read if you are from that area, because there are many references to places a native Chicagoan would recognize.
The story is told through the eyes of four main characters. Arthur Raven, a partner at a large, prosperous law firm, is enlisted by a federal appellate court to represent a black man scheduled to be executed in 33 days for a heinous murder of three people in a popular Greek restaurant near DuSable Field (read “Midway Airport”). The suspect's guilt comes into question when another inmate makes a deathbed confession to the crimes. The lawyer, the (female) judge who tries the case, the chief detective who obtained a confession from the suspect, and the young (female) prosecutor who was involved in the original trial all interact in interesting and carnal ways. Incidentally, the sex scenes, which involve only middle-aged lawyers and a middle-aged, overweight detective, are sensitive and well wrought.
The reader learns of the “facts” of the case not through the usual investigations of the police or a private eye (that information was all collected a decade before the appeal), but through the legal process known as (post trial) discovery. [It is unusual to allow much post trial discovery, but this is a capital case. Even more unusual is for depositions taken a decade after the crime to elicit important information, but it is all plausible in this narration.] Turow’s knowledge of criminal procedure comes in handy here.
I found myself racing to find out if the final habeas corpus action would be successful. [A writ of habeas corpus challenges the legality of imprisonment.] The plot includes several guest appearances of a black civil rights leader. He disrupts the normal appellate procedure and ruins the opportunity of the white appellate lawyer to make a financial killing on the inevitable civil damages action. But the conclusion of the book is not so much about the fate of the accused, whose guilt is put in doubt, but never resolved. The ultimate denouement is the closure of the relationships among the narrators—cop, judge, trial prosecutor, and appellate counsel. I won’t give that away.
Evaluation: The plot is more complicated than my summary suggests—you’ll enjoy the twists. The prison scenes are artfully crafted and (I can’t speak from personal experience) seemingly realistic. I liked this book very much, but since the last two fiction books I reviewed were Moby Dick and The Road, I can’t give it the highest possible grade. Instead, a well-earned 4 stars out of 5.
Raven is not your typical attorney-he is somewhat shy
A spellbinder and fast-paced novel-a must for Turow fans and suspense fans everywhere.
The plot revolves around the approaching death of a man convicted of a triple murder. But did he really do it or not? He's on death row as the book opens, next up for execution.
The actual story, they lawyer and investigation bits were par for the course. What made this book, for me, were the characters, particularly Arthur, Gillian and Susan. Those were of enough depth and interest to keep me going, not the "he's guilty/he's not guilty/oh maybe he's really guilty/maybe not" arc of the story.
I'll pass this on via BookCrossing or perhaps see if a friend would like it for the Ruthe/bumma connection.
Pretty good story, pretty good writing, pretty good characters, and another window for those of us, peeping toms with a morbid fascination with the dark side, and a penchant for personal redemption even when it falls short of a completely happy ending. Strong characters with parallel love stories, and the police/legal system complicating their lives.
loves of their lives — leaving + going together
Corporate lawyer Arthur Raven is the court-appointed attorney for a Death Row inmate. Convinced his client is innocent thanks to new evidence, Raven is a fervent crusader--and also a rookie in the vicious world of criminal
However once the plot moved firmly into the time period in which it was set (2001) the story did
As such, I wasn't particularly enthused with the way the story came to resolve the plot, I would have preferred for them to tangle it out all the way to the end in the courtroom, yet I can see the way it did unfold conveyed a particular message.
Overall, it was a good legal story, not quite as thrilling and captivating as Grisham's works yet perhaps more thought provoking.