I enjoyed this a lot more than I'd expected to, thinking it would be a quick and dirty legal thriller before I moved on to something (potentially) heavier, but the characters were really well drawn, and the plot was different to what I'd read before, as it covered the prosecution and defence teams equally.

This very long story gives us to understand the detail of a story about execution. As with Turow’s other books about how the legal system works, he gives us some (really, a lot) insights into the process of an execution. The book is almost 20 years old and the style of writing shows the wear and tear. But, it’s still a good book that does much more than keep is entertained on summer days.

Pros

Well written prose.

Interesting flawed characters

Cons

As ever, far too long: 431 pages - should have been 100 pages less.

Flitting between timelines becomes annoying.

Too much navel gazing.

Too much legal information. Concentrate on the thriller and dial down the legal stuff.

Tired plot. Death row inmate in last gasp plea. All been done before.

By the end I didn't care who did it.

Far from Turow's best. As usual, there's an underdog who has been hard done by - in this instance charged with three murders and awaiting execution on death row - and there follow many twists and turns before the truth eventually emerges. But at each of the many crux points, Turow insists on delving into the emotional baggage of that particular character at that particular stage of the story and this all slows down the narrative thrust of the book. Once again, the editor's big red pen would have helped.

I had a hard time getting through this book - the plot, the characters, the writing, all of it. It was very tedious for me... very tedious. The book picked up for me about 3/4 through, but before that I really struggled to get through it. Basically, I finished it because I started it. The book did have a good outcome, so in the end it was okay - but only okay. I have read other books by Scott Turow which I have liked, but this one was definitely not even close to my favorite.

Kindle County defense attorney, Arthur Raven, unlucky in love and downtrodden in spirit, is assigned to appeal Death Row inmate Rommy "Squirrel" Gandolph's case. And lo, against all odds, Squirrel, who confessed to murdering three people, may actually be innocent, and framed.

Turow is a master of character, and it was the portrayl of Arthur Raven and a former judge, Gillian Sullivan, that I found thrilling. Here are two characters so well-crafted that all other lawyer/suspense/who-done-it characters seem like cardboard cutouts in comparison. Instead of bravado and macho bullshit you've got geniuine pain, and crumbled lives (she's an addict, he cares for a mentally-ill sister). The grace of the novel was in the ache of them both as they tried to merge their lives while preserving themselves in case it doesn't work. It was unexpected and authentic.

However, I wasn't invested in Rommy's case, nor did I care about all the time spent with the opposing counsel. Because of this, I'll designate the novel to three stars. Presumed Innocent remains Turow's best, but really, what a gifted writer.

"There were periods—most of the time now, and always for several years—when the sheer shame of her situation left her mad, mad in the sense that she knew every thought was disrupted by it, like a vehicle bouncing down a cratered road."

"...the whole significance of her upbringing was that it had inspired her to go on. It was like coming from Pompeii—the smoldering ruins and poisoned atmosphere could only be fled. Civilization would have to be reinvented elsewhere."

"They didn't understand that desert thirst for money or the security it bought. They didn't understand what it was to be at the world's mercy."

"It was as if her heart were driven forward by a great turning wheel—beneath which, over time, it was crushed. She lived with the absence, a form of mourning, that would continue to her last day."

Reversible Errors refers to the legal term that gets trials thrown out on appeal. Rommy Gandolph is about to be executed for three gruesome murders. The federal appellate court (I'll never understand the USAn legal system, so I'm careful to copy-paste the terms) has drafted corporate lawyer Arthur Raven to help him draft his last appeal. Arthur used to be a public prosecutor, then moved to the richer fields of corporate practice. He's a gone case, unattractive and sentimental, and has resigned himself to never marrying. He also has a schizophrenic sister to look after, which doesn't help. Ex-judge and ex-con Gillian Sullivan had judged the case originally. She's been disgraced as taking bribes for cases, blackmailed by lawyers who found her guilty secret. Larry Starczek the detective who ran the original case, is still trying to get somewhere with his true love, Muriel Wynn, the prosecutor. Both are married to other people whom they don't love. The reopening of the case throws them together.

The story see-saws between Arthur's team proving the client innocent, and Muriel's team proving their case was solid all along. Except that both sides are being played. As each side sees an ascendant in their case, so do the two couples, Arthur and Gillian and Muriel and Larry, seem to come together. As their cases slide downward, so do the relationships. Since I'm not going to spoil the end for those who want to read the book, let me say that one relationship survives, and the other crashes, exactly in tune with the respective cases. Yeah, wait for the last chapter. It's a decent whodunit as well; don't get misled by the author's emphasis on the relationships.

Read Reversible Errors if you like legal thrillers. Scott Turow writes well. This is not his best book, though. John Grisham fans will probably like Scott Turow books.

[Review written in 2014; uploaded now]

Ten years ago, a man confessed to three murders in a restaurant. Now, his death has been scheduled and he is claiming that he is innocent.

The story follows four points of view. Muriel Wynn was the prosecutor then and now. Larry Starczek is the investigator who forced a confession out of the man on death row. Gillian Sullivan was the judge who condemned the man to death. She is now disbarred for drug offenses. And Arthur Raven is the lawyer seeking to overturn the man’s conviction. These individuals take on three dimensions as they try their best to do what they consider right. It’s up to the reader to decide who to like.

Lending fuel to the case, an inmate dying of cancer confesses to the murders and says the man on death row is indeed innocent. Muriel and Larry insist this inmate is lying. Raven and eventually Gillian believe he is telling the truth, but it’s hard to prove against Muriel’s expert arguments.

I don’t care much for dark novels, and this is dark. The give and take of the view-point characters don’t do anything to lighten it. Muriel and Larry have what seems to be a love-hate relationship complicated by her political ambitions. Raven and Gillian grow closer as both have personal issues they are working on. And as the story progresses, I see Raven and Gillian as sympathetic characters.

With so much happening, it is unclear whether an innocent man will die. And of course, the relationships between individuals are also uncertain. However, by the novel’s end, we are given a note of hope and can decide how we want the story to end. Consequently, that promise of hope is my favorite part of the novel.

I have actually read a number of other books by Scott Turow. This is possibly the first audible book. I think I have liked many of his other books more than this one because of the familiarity of the characters. This book did not really feel much like a part of the Kindle County series at all.

This book displays some of the skill of mystery writing that this author has. It has a certain complexity and some of the twists and turns that you find in a riveting mystery. But it is also somewhat reminiscent of what I would call a soap opera. I don’t want to portray myself as someone extremely familiar with soap operas but that is just a feeling this book leaves me with. There are two love stories in the book that make that connection for me.

The mystery/crime story in the book is a 10-year-old murder with the convicted killer on death row. The resolution of the story has a lot of interesting complexity. The fact that the story was published nearly 20 years ago does not detract at all.

What a tedious book. Turow sucks at character development—everyone is so cynical and impossible to empathize with.

Plot was boring, and just poorly executed. I picked this book up because I love Law and Order, and anticipated something of the same ilk. I’m going to give the rest of Turow’s stuff a hard pass.

Another uneven effort from Turow. An interesting premise (Let's save an innocent man from death row!), a few fairly pedestrian twists (He did it! Wait, no he didn't!), a mostly lackluster investigation and a whole lot of personal drama.

I actually cared more about Arthur and Gillian's private lives than the case here. Arthur's sister, too was a character I grew to like and Turow is a good enough writer that I felt fully invested in their eventual fates.

But I had big big problems with the limited, shallow characterization of Larry the cop. So poorly written and so single-mindlessly intent on keeping Gandalph in jail that he seriously almost stopped me from reading. With no explicable motivation (Is he corrupt? Just stupid?), he ultimately seems to be just an excuse to keep driving the story to it's not very gripping conclusion. I found him so unbelievable that it kept me from caring about the not-insubstantial side story of him and Muriel.