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Limitations

(Kindle County Legal Thriller #7)

Scott Turow (Goodreads Author)

3.33 · Rating details · 2,094 ratings · 246 reviews

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Paperback, 208 pages

Published November 14th 2006 by Picador

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Start your review of Limitations (Kindle County Legal Thriller #7)

Feb 21, 2017 Steve Hall rated it it was amazing

I have always enjoyed Scott Turow. Legal "thrillers" almost always leave me unable to suspend disbelief, because, as a lawyer, I rankle at the obvious legal flaws introduced by authors either unintentionally (by those who wouldn't know better) or intentionally (by even such greats as John Grisham) in order to make the plot work. I cannot recall any instance where Turow has succumbed to that temptation.

But Limitations goes far beyond avoiding that flaw. I attribute the less than stellar ratings I have always enjoyed Scott Turow. Legal "thrillers" almost always leave me unable to suspend disbelief, because, as a lawyer, I rankle at the obvious legal flaws introduced by authors either unintentionally (by those who wouldn't know better) or intentionally (by even such greats as John Grisham) in order to make the plot work. I cannot recall any instance where Turow has succumbed to that temptation.

But Limitations goes far beyond avoiding that flaw. I attribute the less than stellar ratings by some readers to the fact that the greatness of this small work may possibly be appreciated best by an attorney.

There is always a tension between the turmoil and messiness and emotion and humanity of life, on the one hand, and the idyllically rigorous logic of the law that is supposed to rise above that other, messy milieu. At its best, especially at the level of appellate practice where this novel is set, reason should reign supreme. Above all, a court's decisions must make excellent logical sense on many levels. That is not nearly as easy a task as it may seem to a lay person, because the language necessary to the drafting of statutes and rendering opinions is inherently less than mathematical in its clarity, while the events of life rarely confine themselves to the circumstances foreseen by legislatures or presented to appellate courts.

In this novel Turow is completely true to both sides of this tension, crafting a story with both the reality and complexity and messiness of life, and the aspiration of the law and courts and judges to use logic and reason to render a decision that rises above and makes sense of that messiness in the context of the law.

In doing so, using a case ostensibly about the statute of limitations, he recognizes the human limitations that judges (and lawyers) have to deal with in the attempt to meet the ideal of the law. I do not want to spoil anyone's reading of this fine book, but let me just say that the climax of this novel for me was not the "dramatic" climax that may have, for many readers, seemed less than ideal. For me it was the text of the judge's draft decision, which was ultimately the focus of the protagonist's most difficult challenge -- rendering a decision in a difficult case.

The greatness of this book sneaked up on me. But it is great. It may not be the "thriller" that the genre seems to demand or that a reader may expect, but I doubt that is the target at which Turow was aiming. The target is the tension between life and the law, he hit that target straight dead center. ...more

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Aug 24, 2015 Una Tiers rated it liked it

While a judge grapples with actions the defendant is charged with, the story was stale. This does not equal some earlier books.

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Mar 25, 2019 Carol rated it really liked it

Presumed Innocent is one of Turow's primo best books. Now there comes legal mysteries featuring George Mason from Personal Injuries. Originally commissioned and published by the New York Times Magazine, this edition contains additional material.

Life would seem to have gone well for George Mason, His days as a criminal defense lawyer are long past. At fifty-nine he has sat as a judge in the Court of Appeals in Kindle County for nearly a decade. Yet when a disturbing rape case is brought before ...more

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Sep 23, 2017 Margaret rated it liked it · review of another edition

Although not my favorite Scott Turow story, I felt the turmoil George Mason, one of the presiding judges in the Court of Appeals, is faced with as he examines the facts in the rape case recently assigned to him. The case causes George to look into his own life, reevaluate his stance on the law and his responsibility to it. Many novels present the story from the lawyers viewpoint of a case and it was refreshing to consider the story from the judges perspective. I would like to think that most ...more

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Jun 02, 2010 Angie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fave-writers, i-recommend

I find this book hard to describe. There is not much action--but whenever an event is described, an incident in the past or in the present, it gains its power from the fact that you have been reading some chapters containing primarily the ruminations of a judge on a court of appeals deciding the fate of a case (he's casting the deciding vote), all while handling the end of his wife's brush with cancer, and strange, vague threatening messages received on his cell and e-mail.

Character, as always ...more

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Jan 18, 2010 Larry rated it it was amazing

Turow's shortest (197 pp) novel is one of his most interesting. At its core, someone is sending death threats to appellate judge George Mason, long a model of what a judge and lawyer should be. He is what he seems to be, so what is behind the threats? The novel tells the reader a lot about how justice works. The quote from Oliver Wendell Homes that the law is not about logic but about experience is born out by its fairly moving if imperfect conclusion. Turow has always written with precision and ...more

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Sep 27, 2011 Jill rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: scott turrow, legal thriller, rusty sabich

This book took me a couple trys but after having done so, I have to say it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I think that readers should be warned that it starts out slow. But once you get past the first few chapters it slow picks up.

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Sep 24, 2011 Lena rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: legal beagles

Shelves: disturbing, dont-believe-the-hype

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I probably should not have read this book. I read Presumed Innocent when I was 14 or 15 and fell in absolute love with it. However, for some reason I never read another Scott Turow book. So, after many years of remembering my love for the one book of his I read, I picked up another one. Of course, it was bound to disappoint.

If Presumed Innocent was anything like this book, I cannot believe that I loved it as a teenager. I got bored early on with this one. The case was interesting enough, about a I probably should not have read this book. I read Presumed Innocent when I was 14 or 15 and fell in absolute love with it. However, for some reason I never read another Scott Turow book. So, after many years of remembering my love for the one book of his I read, I picked up another one. Of course, it was bound to disappoint.

If Presumed Innocent was anything like this book, I cannot believe that I loved it as a teenager. I got bored early on with this one. The case was interesting enough, about a group of high school guys who gang-banged (and videotaped the incident) a 15-yr-old while she was unconscious, and years later, the tape surfaces and they are arrested. It sounded interesting. Especially since three of the guys are supposedly good guys now, or at least decent human beings/good citizens on the surface. If that was the whole of this book, it would have been very interesting and much more disturbing. Especially if Turow had gone on to show each of the men and how they lived good lives now. If he'd made the reader see their good lives and sympathize with them even after this brutal crime (and the way they describe it, it's pretty horrifying), it would have been one of those books that make you look at yourself and your beliefs, disbelieving that you could think two different things so strongly at once. Unfortunately, that's not what the book is about.

The book is more about the judge of the case who participated in something similiar forty years before and he struggles to judge the new case b/c of the similarities between their case and his past. That part was all so boring to me. In fact, around page 100, I started skimming and skimmed the rest of the novel. I didn't care at all about the judge, his past, his marriage, or his death threats (although they tied in at the end and made it a little better). Anyway, this was a book that could have been amazing and caused a major psychological upheaval, but Turow didn't dare go there. Or didn't because he wanted to focus on the law aspects which made his other books so successful. But for me, it was just an okay book that could have been AMAZING and instead was just lacking (and lagging). I probably will not read more of his books, but his hard-core fans will probably like this one as much as any of his others. I guess I'm just not interested in legalities as much as I am the psychological disturbance a talented author can inflict with the power he wields when weaving an absorbing story. ...more

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Aug 24, 2010 Joan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I've enjoyed Scott Turow since I read '1L' about a million years ago. I very much appreciate that he writes both non-fiction and fiction and has the confidence/following to work on projects that he must feel are important. Limitations is not a large book, but rather sparse in terms of characters and narrative. I enjoyed it as I enjoyed Michael Crighton's last couple of books - as both authors had an idea that they wanted to explore (or have me explore vicariously) with enough of a story around ...more

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Nov 08, 2018 Diane rated it really liked it

Found this book while rearranging / repacking. Not a bad story May have to go back and read some others by Scott Throw.

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Feb 15, 2009 SmarterLilac rated it it was amazing

The only more perfect mystery I have read is Høeg's "Smilla's Sense of Snow." And that's saying something.

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Jan 28, 2018 Patrick rated it really liked it

Anyone who reads this with close attention should earn 2 credit hours for the Scott Turow Law School course, “Statute of Limitations 101.” But it is not all about the trial since the judge has been receiving some death threats, making it a mystery story as well as a legal seminar. A good, quick read!

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Oct 24, 2017 Tania rated it it was ok

One of those books with a good story line to begin with, but then ceased to stay interesting.

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Oct 10, 2019 Karl Jorgenson rated it really liked it

Turow has the most complex, most real characters of any writer I’ve read. This plus his exceptionally beautiful prose make every word worth it. As usual, his weak-point is the plot: here, a lot of anxiety is wasted on red-herring threats, only to resolve things with a simple, non-dangerous outcome. Still, it’s such a good read because of the way he writes. Bonus here, for the first time in his series, he’s managed to limit himself to 90,000 words or so, about half of his usual, bloated book. ...more

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Oct 04, 2017 Mark rated it liked it

Shelves: novel

Judge George Mason is at a moral and professional crossroad with only three choices for a way forward, none of which offer any hope for his nagging conscience.

George, a former criminal defense attorney familiar with internal struggles between loathing, amusement, intrigue, envy, and empathy, is now an appeals court judge hearing motions about a case that has multiple mitigating factors. The case is old, and the clock is about to run out on the law’s statute of limitations for rape. The politics Judge George Mason is at a moral and professional crossroad with only three choices for a way forward, none of which offer any hope for his nagging conscience.

George, a former criminal defense attorney familiar with internal struggles between loathing, amusement, intrigue, envy, and empathy, is now an appeals court judge hearing motions about a case that has multiple mitigating factors. The case is old, and the clock is about to run out on the law’s statute of limitations for rape. The politics of the appeal and the particular way he and his fellow judges on the Appeals bench prefer to deal with it, each for his own distinctively non-legal reasons, is boxing George into choices he’d prefer not to make. He is also struggling with dark fears associated with death threats from an anonymous troll from his past.

This is a great start and more than enough in my experience to keep readers turning pages, not only in the bookstore where a strong start is a competitive advantage yet also on airplanes, park benches and late at night in bed. Scott Turow knows his craft as a legal thriller writer. He is a lawyer. He is a #1 New York Times Bestselling author who has published eleven fiction and three nonfiction books and sold more than 30 million copies. He also served effectively as president of the Authors Guild during one of the most challenging eras for writers and authors in history. He is more than an author. He is an expert who can translate legal arcana and ethics into meaningful tutorials for the rest of us.

There is another thing that Scott Turow is – he is a novelist, which is saying he is something more. He practices the craft side of his talents deftly in ways that don’t let the seams, the diversions, and the subtle mechanics of literature show. It is the storytelling side of work that qualifies as literary art. His characters grow before us on the page as they encounter life challenges and reveal themselves in the way they react, sometimes freezing, sometimes fleeing, more often planting their feet and facing up to their fears.

Gail Caldwell of the Boston Sunday Globe compares Turow to John le Carre for his ability to share “an introspect’s embrace of the gray-zone ambiguities of modern life.” It’s a good observation and, as a long-time fan of Le Carre’s writing, I can mostly agree with it. The critical difference for me between the two authors is that while le Carre is deeply wary of the government and the people responsible for its present and future, Turow seems to be more optimistic and forgiving, which results in more neatly fitting resolutions.

Writing this during these trying times when values such as truth and character are so easily compromised by weak, selfish and narcissistic leaders makes me realize how much we have to appreciate in the works of writers and artists during society’s worst moments. LIMITATIONS was written before our current crisis of faith and confidence in our social institutions, which is both good and not so good. Good because it reminds us that man’s struggle with truth and honor has a long and varied history. Not so good because it enables readers to make allowances for George’s and his opponents' moral and ethical framework. ...more

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Mar 30, 2008 Samantha rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Fans of legal drama

Shelves: crime-fiction, miscellaneous

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 21, 2010 Linda rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery-crime

Limitations served as my intro to the writing of Scott Turow, and it's made a very favorable impression. As expected, it contains The story of an appellate court judge who recognizes striking personal elements within his latest case, it contains, as expected, absorbing courtroom scenes interspersed danger and action. Turow goes further, however, taking his readers inside the heart and head of his protagonist. Judge George Mason must decide the appeal of a high profile case of multiple rape, ...more

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Oct 14, 2011 John rated it liked it

Shelves: legal-thriller

Having read Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, I know what the man is capable of, and it's a whole lot more than what you get with "Limitations." Not that Limitations is bad or anything; Turow shows throughout that he is a terrific writer with a style that is much more literary than you usually find within this genre. However, the story itself just feels kind of flat, the legal jargon overshadows the suspense, and the plot threads resolve in unsatisfactory ways. The book originally appeared in ...more

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Oct 12, 2012 John Harder rated it it was ok

Several college students rape a girl while she is passed out, the statute of limitations has expired, but the rapists have kept and continue to view a video of their nefarious deed during the intervening time. Does the statute expire? Personally, I don’t see why this should be an issue as long as the girl has a father who also owns a baseball bat, but this most reasonable option is never addressed.

Turow does a good job laying out the plot and everything moves along nicely, but this sort of novel ...more

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May 19, 2013 Stacy rated it really liked it

I liked his indecision over the rape case and how it related to his college days. It made him see the boys convicted in a light that most of us would never entertain and I thought that was the most compelling part of the story. But ultimately the story hinges on the death threats and who wants the judge dead and I found the culprit to be a satisfying one. I mean, I didn’t really suspect him or her but it made some sense at the end.

there's more on my blog http://stacybuckeye.wordpress.com/201...

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May 28, 2013 Bruce Wright rated it did not like it

This guys is so inconsistent and tries on a few things that I can't abide. I loved Presumed Innocent, great court room thriller. One of those books that you read and think 'That'd make a good movie' and it did. His next book 'Burden of Proof' was very disappointing made more so by the author wanting us to forgive the main character after raping his friend. Limitations tries on the same thing, this time with what amounts to a gang rape. The author carries on like it's OK. It's not OK. Don't read ...more

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Jan 18, 2010 Lee rated it liked it

I've always liked Scott Turow (Presumed Innocent) and this was pretty good, just short and for some reason, to me, it felt like there just wasn't really enough of a story there for a novel. Seemed like it either should've been shortened and been one of a set of short stories...or more depth to the characters for a complete novel. None of the characters were really fleshed out so you don't really end up understanding motivations or getting their perspective or anything...

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Apr 02, 2015 Richard rated it it was ok

Shelves: read-in-2015

While dealing with an statute of limitations based appeal on a gang-rape decision Judge George Mason rationalizes his own past sexual experience in college while at the same time dealing with his wife's cancer treatment and threatening e-messages. Don't give too much sympathy to George, by the end of the book he is once again Mr. Wonderful. This is the first, and last, book by Turow that I will read.

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Jul 12, 2017 Susan rated it it was ok

This was my least favorite Turow book. I never did "get" the legal argument in the Warnovitz case despite re-reading several times. I also felt that when we found out who the person threatening the main character was, it was kind of a "gotcha". Readers did not have enough information to figure out who the culprit might have been.

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Oct 10, 2017 Eric Parsons rated it liked it

A rather quick read with a couple of confusing threads, this novel is still a good one to pick up for those who are fans of the legal fiction genre. Reappearances by many characters help to make the reader feel a connection with what is going on, with frequent flashbacks that add humanity to the legal question at stake.

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Jan 08, 2008 Michelle rated it liked it

it was a very well written story, but the ending was passe and kind of a let down compared to the rest of the story. but from a legal point of view the writing was great.

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Jul 18, 2018 Kim Tong Lim rated it really liked it

I enjoyed reading Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent some thirty years ago. This fiction was a hit in 1987 when it was first published. Since then I had read Burden of Proof and Identical. The fiction Limitations is my latest read by the author. It was first released in 2006.

Judge George Mason is the central figure in this novel. He sat as the senior judge of a panel of three judges of the Court of Appeals in the criminal sexual rape case of People v. Jacob Warnovits et al. The statute of ...more

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Jun 10, 2019 Airess rated it liked it

So apparently I tried to read Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow like 6 years ago but I marked it “couldn’t finish” here on Goodreads. Well I actually did finish Limitations but a part of me really feels like I didn’t necessarily have to. This was a short read at only 197 pages; so I could’ve finished this a lot sooner but I had put this one down and read another in between for work.

I love legal/lawyer/court room drama books and this one definitely checked that box but I honestly feel like this ...more

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Apr 11, 2018 Sharon Clark rated it it was amazing

This is the second time that I've read this book and my opinion is the same - it is brilliant! The story was believable and fascinating, detailing all of the ethical and legal considerations a judge, George Mason, must make in deciding whether to affirm or deny a horrendous case which is under appeal. Here, the judge's personal history mirrors some of the aspect's of the case and may influence his decision. "Limitations" was extremely well written, presenting two legal perspectives with such ...more

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Mar 06, 2018 Frederick Tan rated it liked it

Shelves: law

Appellate judge George Mason faced a dilemma when the case People vs Warnovits came before him. To affirm the trial judge's judgement against the four young men for sexual assault or reject their appeal on the ground of limitation. He reflected on something similar that has happen in his life when he first starts out as a freshman in college. Turrow is a master story teller who weaves an intricate story of the personal struggle and angst of the judge as he grappled with the illness of his wife ...more

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About Scott Turow

Scott Turow

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Scott Turow is the author of ten bestselling works of fiction, including IDENTICAL, INNOCENT, PRESUMED INNOCENT, and THE BURDEN OF PROOF, and two nonfiction books, including ONE L, about his experience as a law student. His books have been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects. He has ...more