Rating: 
Summary: Better Than Expected
Review: I didn't expect much out of "Reversible Errors", airport reading and nothing more. It turned out to be a pretty good --if overlong-- read. The title refers not only to the court case that forms the core of the book: a defense attorney's attempt to get a condemned man off death row where he was sent for a triple homicide a decade earlier. It also refers to the lives of the protagonists: the judge in the original case returning from her own setbacks and unhappy past, and the prosecutor and detective who are trying to salvage their reputations and put past mistakes to bed.The characters are surprisingly nuanced, the dialogue credible. Sometimes the characters tendency to engage in internal dialogue gets a bit tiresome and as a result, the book runs 550 pages in the paperback edition. But it's a good book, better than your average legal thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Third time's a charm
Review: I was very reluctant to buy this. The last two novels, Personal Injuries and Laws of our Fathers, were horrible and I didn't finish either one. This time, I waited until the paperback came out and decided to give him one LAST chance. This book was much better than the two previous ones, but still not at the level of his earlier books, Presumed Innocent and Burden of Proof, which I loved! I'll wait for his next one, but maybe only in paperback.
Rating:
Summary: This IS a great book by Turow
Review: I've read most of Turow's books, and I consider this one his best. Turow develops the world of Kindle County far beyond that seen in "Presumed Innocent." And Turow doesn't sacrifice plot development for the sake of these characterizations, as he tended to do in "The Laws of our Fathers." Turow's development of his characters is simply masterful. In more Grishamesque works, the characters all seem to think in the same manner, and the book is driven only by twists and turns of the plot. Here, the characters are all clearly different people, and their internal dialogues reflect that. We know that we're in former judge and junkie Gillian Sullivan's head because of her negativistic doomsday thinking, and that we're in Arthur Raven's head because of his romantic heart and idealism. Not that Turow is a slouch when it comes to plot, which concerns a gruesome triple murder in a restaurant in 1991. The book flashes between the investigation of the crime and 2001, when Rommy Gandolph obtains Arthur Raven as his attorney for a federal habeas petition. The assumption that Rommy Gandolph committed the crime, which seemed obvious in 1991 due to his "confession," becomes increasingly unraveled as the novel continues. We see that the law is an imperfect mechanism and that things that seem obvious are not always so, but that sometimes the law can work if those in the system possess a certain amount of idealism and play fair. All in all, this is Turow at the top of his game, and highly recommended reading.
Rating: 
Summary: As a legal thriller, it is neither.
Review: Scott Turow the lawyer claims to be involved in death-penalty litigation, but you wouldn't know it from reading the work of Scott Turow the author. He was just plain wrong on much of the legal proceedings and procedures he used to further the plot; it made me cringe every time one of his "brilliant" lawyer characters did something that no one in the real world would do. It quickly ruined the suspension of disbelief and re-enforced that this was but fiction. Turow also threw in way too much jargon and cop talk (the over-the-topness of it all made it completely unrealistic), just to be confusing and prove how superior he is to you, the reader. As a thriller, it was painfully obvious. It was a chore waiting for the characters to figure out what I figured out 200+ pages ago. The climatic, Perry-Mason moment was utterly belabored. And I don't think real-world prosecutors would have been content to let things end the way they ended here. Finally, his subplots with failed relationships, the woulda-coulda-shoulda's, and the middle-aged bitterness made me wonder if this book was more autobiographical than Turow had intended. Instead of thinking about what the characters were going to do next, I instead thought about what was going on in Turow's own house, as if these characters were projections of his reality.
Rating:
Summary: Another goodie by Turow
Review: I've been a fan of Scott Turow since he burst on the lawyerly writing scene with Presumed Innocent, which actually is still my favorite of his several books. Reversible Errors is his 6th, and it deals with the myriad issues surrounding the death penalty, and especially how it relates to defendants who are perhaps retarded or otherwise mentally impaired. There are hints of prejudicial testimony, collusion of lawyers involved in the original trial, bribery, legal secrets, and a dying con who muddies the waters with deathbed testimony that may or may not be self-serving.
Convoluted, conflicted, controversial, compelling. It's a good one.
Rating:
Summary: Beats the Heck outta Grisham...
Review: It has been a looooong time since I last read Turow (One L), but this was too good to pass up. My only fear was that it would be too preachy in regards to the errors that the system makes (Turow has spoken and written at length about his objections to the system). Instead, the book is even handed and focuses on the story. The plot can be a bit convoluted--but the strength of the book lies in its complex (and in Gillian's case incredibly complex) characters. Arthur, Gillian, Collins, Erno, Muriel, and Larry all have made "reversible errors" and Turow takes the time to look at all of them. John Grisham can't hope to ever write this well. Turow is worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: Irrervsible Truths
Review: Corporate attorney Arthur Raven is appointed to handle death row inmate's Rommy Gandolph's final appeals and motions. Gandolph, after confessing to three murders to the police a decade ago is now reversing his story and claiming innocence in the crime for which he has been incarcerated. Opposing Raven and Gandolph is the police officer who originally heard Gandolph's confession found the incriminating evidence Larry Starczak, and his old lover P.A. Muriel Gwynn.
Along the route to justice Raven discovers romance with the sentencing, and since disgraced judge Gillian. The plot takes as many twists and turns as a country road starting at point A and finally arriving at point A2 teehee.
While reading this I occassionally flipped back to Turow's about you blurb and discovered an interesting pattern in his publications. It seems that he averages a novel every three years. Now before you object to relevance my fellow(ess) jury of peers, reviewers and consumers, (I know juries can't object call it poetic license) I will try to tie that observation to this review.
Critics and readers' alike seem to hail Turow as the master of the legal thriller. He has had acclaim from his debut novel "Presumed Innocent" down the line to this offering. I think one of the reasons for his success is he publishes every few years as opposed to some (who shall remain nameless but starts with a G and ends with a M)who apparantly have enough in them to churn out a novel on an annual basis. This I think allows Turow to really get into the hearts and minds of his characters, making them almost painfully realistic to the reader.
It is obvious reading a Turow novel that the law is his primary passion in life, good thing as he is a lawyer. Yet he magically uses his novels to point out how flawed the legal system can become if not safegaurded by people of honesty and integrity.
His characters aren't neccessarily the most brilliant(although they are all bright) super lawyers in the world, but flawed each in their own way with their own demons to overcome making them more appealing I think to everyone.
This novel is honestly not a five star read, but it comes pretty close and the minor flaws I think are trivial compared to how enjoyable and intense the book is so if you want to read another legal thriller (and let's face it for a while the market was satuarated) I would recommend this novel before I might recommend others.
Rating: 
Summary: The Price of Justice
Review: As I read this novel I had a hard time putting it down. The description of each character was awazing. I could picture each character and the sistuation they where in. Each chapter flows into the next. The use of flashbacks gives you a clear picture of what each person is feeling and what the have to lose. I would highly recomend this book to anyone who enjoys a gripping novel.
Rating:
Summary: Turow's best in a long time
Review: I enjoyed Scott Turow's early books, Presumed Innocent and The Burden of Proof. I've been less happy with his later ones, notably Pleading Guilty, though I was somewhat happy with Personal Injuries. In Reversible Errors, the author returns to what he was best at in his early days: a legal mystery/puzzle with twists and turns that aren't predictable, and an ending that's satisfying, if not exactly what you expected. It's been 10 years since Rommy "Squirrel" Gandolph was convicted of a triple murder with a rape chaser, and he's sitting on death row a month and a half away from taking "the Walk." He writes letters to everyone he can think of telling them he's innocent, and someone finally listens to the extent that the Federal District Court of Appeals appoints a lawyer from a high-profile firm to oversee one last examination of his case. The attorney involved is Arthur Raven, a middle-aged cipher who's spent all of his spare time during his adult life caring for a schizophrenic sister. As a result of this he has no social life, no love life, no life at all, and he sometimes daydreams about who he could fall in love with. As Raven looks into the case, we are introduced to it in flashbacks. The victims were the proprieter of a local landmark in Turow's fictional Mid-Western city, a restaurant similar to the Pantry here in LA, and two of his customers. All three were shot and killed, the one female customer then being raped. The police are stymied until one of them, a cynical detective named Starczek, catches a break and discovers a low-level street thug named Rommy with an heirloom from the female victim in his pocket. After some creative interrogation, Rommy confesses, and Starczek turns the case over to his occasional lover, Muriel Wynn, a rising star in the prosecutor's office. Since Rommy confesses, there's only a quick trial, and no jury, and the judge sentences Rommy to death. End of story, except... Jump back to the present. Wynn's now the Chief Deputy prosecutor, on her way to the elected office that handles all prosecutions. Starczek's a lieutenant on the verge of retirement or promotion. When the story begins to unfold, they defend the prosecution, but with different motivations, and rekindle their love affair, again with different perspectives. Meanwhile Raven discovers that the judge in the trial was Gillian Sullivan (one of the crooked judges in Personal Injuries, which takes place between the flashback and the present portion of this book) who's been disbarred and imprisoned, and is now selling cosmetics at a department store. He initially contacts her with regard to the case, but ultimately begins to seduce her, clumsily, with interesting results. The four characters and their romances are the backdrop for the back-and-forth nature of the main mystery plot. Witnesses come forward, each with their own agenda, changing the story and what the reader thinks happened in the diner. The result is that right up until the last few chapters I wasn't sure if Rommy was going to get out or not, and even then the ending surprised me. I enjoyed this book a great deal, and would recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Not Turow's best, but darned close.
Review: Turow is a master at fully developed characters, and this book is a prime example of his skill. The ending is not as high-impact as his "Personal Injuries," but this is a great read.
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