Sonia Klonsky, who appeared as a young prosecutor in The Burden of Proof, is now a Superior Court judge presiding over a murder trial. The victim was June Eddgar an old activist from the 60's, who was shot and killed in a ghetto. Charged with ordering the hit is her son, Nile. There are flashbacks to the golden years of anti-war activism. How can children break away from strong, ideologically committed parents?

This book is 728 pages long. I repeat, 728 pages long. I cant decide if it wasreally good or really boring, but finishing it became a personal quest. Am i glad i read it ? yes. Would i recommend it to a friend ? Hmmm, Not sure.

The main court trial could have been covered in 128 pages so the other 600 are background on the characters and that they knew each other from college 30 yrs earlier. So if you like background on characters its good, if you like rapid action its not for you.

And i am a big Turow fan by the way.

I often find that books that alternate between past and present come across as uneven or choppy. It can really break up the narrative when you toggle back and forth so often. In The Laws of Our Fathers, Scott Turow manages to defy this tendency with a intriguing legal drama that is complimented by the back story of the main characters from 25 years in the past. It's not quite at the level of Presumed Innocent and Burden of Proof, but it's a nice rebound from a somewhat disappointing effort in Pleading Guilty.

Reading this was about as enjoyable as watching paint dry.

From the perspective of craft, Turrow's writing is flawless (almost). My opinion is missing a couple of stars because I expected a court case, and it was there if buried among the histories of every fucking character mentioned and in every detail of thinking they thought through every period of their respective lives. And, it's a long, long story (or stories), and much of it incidental.

Seth wants to escape the draft--he does. Eddgar wants political clout--he gets it. Nile has no tomorrow in his vision--it remains absent. Sonny is unsure of which path of several to take--and remains unsured. Lovina is of the moment--and so remains. And Hardcore knows both sides of the street--and proceeds. Oh yeah, there are others, all with the effect of a good dose of Melatonin.

Through a number of Turrow's novels now, and find vicarious pleasure in most, but this was a drag from the beginning--for me.

I started this book and almost gave up on it from the beginning. The first chapter was written in this gangster's tone of voice, and it just pissed me off. But I didn't have anything else to read, so I stuck with it, and a few chapters in it started to get really interesting, and never went back to the gangster's point of view again. Then I got to the last 50 pages or so and completely stopped caring, and consequently stopped reading. Oh well.

We listened to this novel on our way home from North Carolina. It was entertaining with lots of twists and turns, and a surprise ending much like the one in "Presumed Innocent." There is a lot of very foul language throughout the book, some of which is gratuitous. AS for his other books that I have read, I didn't like "Burden of Proof," which I read just after "Presumed Innocent" many years ago. But, I think it was because I thought it was a sequel to the first one and it was not, just many of the same characters. For the most part, I enjoy Turow's writing style and the way he develops the characters.

Goodreads has more than one description of this title. The one for this edition tells too little, while another I've seen borders on spoilers. I have liked others in this series enough that I probably don't need to read any of them. However, I have marked in my private notes that this series is probably better read in order. I might be wrong about that, but I thought I needed reminding, just in case.

The opening pages tell of an older white woman driving up to the public housing project and getting out of her car. A young black woman is there who tells her "Lady, you in the wrong place." And she definitely was in the wrong place. A few seconds later a young man on a bicycle with a gun rides by and shoots the older white woman in the head.

The story unravels, mostly in the courtroom. June Eddgar, ex-wife of a State Senator, was the victim. Nile Eddgar was a probation officer whose clients numbered several in the project, including Hardcore, an ex-con, now drug dealer, who spins a tale about how and why this killing took place.

The chapters are dated. The courtroom chapters are dated 1995. And then, disconcertingly, we are taken back to 1969/1970 in what can only be Berkeley, California and the time of the anti-war marches and attendant violence of the Black Panthers and the allusion to the kidnapping of Patti Hearst. Berkeley is called Damon and Patti Hearst is called by another name, but there is no real disguising any of it. I was stumped. Why oh why do we have to go back there? The 1995 and 1970 chapters alternated, and I wasn't thrilled. I didn't care about this 1970 and wanted to know more about the trial and 1995. I should have trusted Turow.

After I'd finished I thought this was less a legal thriller than a commentary on society. I've read elsewhere that Kindle County of this series is really Chicago. And so I know the housing projects have been razed. If what is portrayed in this book was anything like the reality of the projects - and I have no reason to doubt that it is - then tearing them down was definitely the right thing to do. This is definitely an R-rated book. The language of the gang members, especially Hardcore, is about as blue as you can get. There is also some sex - both in the 70s and the 90s.

Because I was of a mindset for a legal thriller, I'm going to downgrade this to 3-stars. But that might just be because I was ready for something else. It won't deter me from reading more. I have 3 on the Kindle and have checked that my library has some of the later ones. I hope it isn't forever before I find myself in front of another.

I usually like Scott Turow, but I just couldnt get interested in this one, and quit 150 pages in. Life is too short for boring books.

A group of friends from Kindle County find themselves involved in radical antiwar politics in SF in the 1970s. Decades later, they are back home in Kindle Co after one is murdered, one is judging the murder case, one is defending, one is a journalist covering the trial, and the kid has grown up to be the accused.
I suspect the gang members are caricatures. I don't find the part about the bombing realistic, either. Still, this is an entertaining page turner.

Solid 4 stars. Turow is the best in the business in legal thrillers. This story revolves around a group of former student activists from the 60's in the Bay area. Fast forward 30 years, and they are all involved in a high stakes trial back home in Kindle county.

Again I find myself pondering the difference between most of the books I read which are entertainment, and the rare weighty novel the makes its way into my book bag. This is definitely one of the latter. I found this book enormously thought-provoking in its dissection of the tumultuous culture shifts of the 1960's - the decade I came of age. Turow's characters find themselves examining and re-examining the events that shaped their lives from the distance imposed by 30 years of living, as each of us must, within our own flawed shells and our imperfect understanding of those we choose to surround ourselves with. While the story is ostensibly a murder-mystery, it is in reality so much more.