[WPF] Limitations by Scott Turow - 4 stars

[Theresa]

There are limitations everywhere in this short but surprisingly layered legal mystery thriller. There's a thorny statute of limitiations and also evidentiary limitation questions in the horrific rape case in front of Judge George Mason on the Kindle County appeals bench. There's the limitaitons imposed between George and his wife Patrice as a result of Partice's radiation treatments. There's many other limitations, including the limitations imposed on a judge, and many imposed by the nature of relationships. There are also the limitations of one's expectations. Most of all, there are the limitations of law and justice, two very separate things.

In addition to having to decide and write the opinion on a rape case where the law may not lead to justice, George is coping with his wife's cancer and threats of harm coming by email. Turow writes excellent legal mystery thrillers although I found the thriller aspect here rather tame compared to what I usually read for thrillers. Perhaps legal suspense is a better description. You grow to know and like George Mason, appreciating the position he is in and sympathizing with the coping difficulty he's having making any decisions or taking any affirmative act. All the characters orbiting around George are well developed, recognizeable. Turow is a master, even when writing a shorter legal mystery suspense on commission for the New York Times Magazine. He kept me guessing to the very end.