I liked this one better than Pleading Guilty, the other Turow novel I've read dealing with a financial crime rather than a murder. The character depth in this book was amazing. I found myself hating Robbie Feaver and then, by the end of the book, forgiving him for all his indiscretions. Evon Miller was the other character I really felt attached to by the end of the book. I thought Turow did an incredible job filling out her character, which left me feeling like I didn't really know her until near the end of the book. Miller's story was really what drove the book for me. I found myself turning pages more to find out what was going to be revealed about her next rather than what was happening with the larger plot. Turow did a great job of developing reader empathy for these character's and their struggles of self-discovery. I believe even Robbie, as deceitful and self-centered as he was, didn't know everything about himself before he met Evon Miller. And Evon Miller discovered herself along the way too, which I suppose was to be expected since the jacket summary pretty much gave us that much. The way their stories worked to complement each other and blend together was real literary genius in my opinion. I only rate this one four stars because there were still some places I found myself trudging through.

Unputdownable

Incredibly well crafted, well written and absolutely clever in all it's intricate plotting. It's sad to finish a book this good.

Technically, Turow writes legal thrillers. But what he actually writes about is people, threatened and sometimes overwhelmed by the terrible intersection of crime, love, obligation, desire, and the law.

This is to my mind one of his superior books, because it turns so much on the complicated overt and hidden motives that propels our lives and relationships. So I really loved this story, which is all at once a slow-burn thriller, a police procedure, a novel of manners, an examination of racism, and a not-by-the-rules love story about seriously flawed people and a query about what truth and integrity actually are. He orchestrates everything into a tragically elegant story with a skill that reminds me of a Kurosawa film.

Other readers might not have cared for this book for many of the same reasons I liked it. Turow always sets the scene and describes the characters, which does slow down the pace. I am usually impatient with novels that do this, but Turow's descriptions truly do paint a picture. And here they really reinforce his theme that many of us play roles and characters amidst scenery, barely understanding what we do and why.

Because Turow's books are popular titles, it's easy to underestimate his skill and scope. Don't miss this one.

The plot of this book was interesting in that it many turns and twists. This could have been a really good book had the editor spent more time tightening up the prose. Under most circumstances having a detailed understanding of the mental state of the characters is a good thing, this book went too far into the minutia making it hard to read through the passages that dragged and seemed to take forever to get through. This is the fist of Turow's books that I have not been completely in love with.