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Personal Injuries

Personal Injuries

List Price: $49.95
Your Price: $44.28
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A review from a Brit
Review: This is a superb book. I particularly love the mind zapping detail. If you want to be informed about how the legal process and the operation of the FBI - read this book.

I did struggle with some of the slang; in fact chunks of narrative were totally incomprehensible to me, but being a Brit schooled in the purity of the language this is perhaps not surprising (I jest of course).

The characterisation is very strong and Turell makes the individuals come right off the page and inhabit your brain, even when youre not reading the book. Robbie Feaver - I felt I got to know the geezer (Brit slang for Guy).

Read this book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Character Novel
Review: This is a treat. Characters who are multi - dimensional. Personal Injuries is a delicious character study. It is a study in humanity and how one's actions take on a life of their own. I recommend this to lovers of quality fiction writing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Much Better than Grisham
Review: I was rather turned off to lawyer books after reading a few of John Grisham's books. This was the first book I read by Turow, and I liked it very much. I enjoyed the twists of the plot, and the characters were very well developed. I disagree that there were too many to keep up with. I also disagree with the editorial that didn't like the end. Overall, it was a very good read.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Decent read...
Review: It's been a few years since I've read anything by Mr. Turow, so it was nice to be reacquainted with some of his old characters (albeit briefly) like Sandy Stern and Mel Tooley; however, it was the new characters that gave me some trouble -- too many, too fast. While keeping track of the book's plot, which involves an FBI undercover investigation of lawyers and judges on the take, it was difficult to distinguish some characters from others.

Admittedly, I was just off a Grisham novel so perhaps my senses were dull, but Mr. Turow might have done better to spend a bit more time on character development. Still, this was an interesting read and a great story that produces the expected twists and turns from novels past.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: More literature than legal thriller
Review: While it is not Turow's best novel, mainly because there is less suspense and less twists, it is a great character study of the tragically flawed Robbie Feaver.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An excellent character study
Review: I would have preferred a different ending, and the Kimble County conceit strikes me as a strange device. Why not come out and say Chicago? (I know Turow claims KC is a combination of a variety of cities, but it sure reads like Chicago to me.) The story might not be as engrossing as Turow's previous works, but the characters were the stars here, and they were excellent. Even the minor players were well drawn. I don't agree with the criticism about too many people to keep track of. If you've ever read a Russian novel, this was just small potatoes. Definitely worth the time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Insightful
Review: Using the device of a riveting legal drama -- complete withintrigue, deception, double dealing and plot twists -- Scott Turow haswritten a novel that's really about his wonderfully layed characters and their complex relationships. Whereas in so many other novels of this genre "the plot's the thing," I found myself wanting to know more and more about the characters and what made them tick. And Turow delivered as the story unfolded. Well constructed and literate, this novel reveals much about the human condition in our modern age.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Confusing
Review: I've read all Scott Turow's books and enjoyed all of them except Personal Injuries and Laws of Our Fathers. Has he forgotten how to write? I had a difficult time following the first half of the book and was ready to give up on it. However, my curiosity took over and I forced myself to finish the book. At least in the last half of the book, I could make some sense of it. In my opinion, it was a waste of my time, and from the last two experiences I have had with Turow's books, this one is my last.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: another winner
Review: Despite one instance of a brook too broad for leaping -- that is, one instance of where anyone familiar with the law would not be able to suspend disbelief, either willingly or unwillingly -- Turow has turned out another masterpiece. He paints, with striking realism, the paradigm corrupt court house as well as what it takes to restore honor to those places--a dogged pursuer who uses every weapon available.

Turow, a master in his own right, has, I am happy to say, also picked up the torch of superb character-development from the late George V. Higgins -- who's finest work of his genre was Change of Gravity. Personal Injuries similarly gives us realistic, multi-dimensional, powerfully-drawn characters in an intriguing tale. It is a great read ... it gives us a "close mirror" of how easy it is for honor to be destroyed when most folks do nothing.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Turow's Latest a Diamond in the Rough Needing More Polish
Review: There are two types of legal thriller fans in this world: those who enjoy the cartoonish made-for-Hollywood caricatures drawn by John Grisham, and those who favor the tightly-plotted, always surprising stories of Scott Turow.

Turow is the master of the plot twist. Wherever one thinks his story is headed at the beginning, one can be guaranteed the destination is altogether different, yet still plausible. Grisham, on the other hand, is a Democratic Party hack who writes formulaically in the typical paranoid corporate conspiracy fashion we've come to expect from Oliver Stone and the rest of the Hollywood set. The law is invariably a tool used to set the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy straight in a Grisham novel; with Turow it's a much more ambiguous tool. Choosing between Grisham and Turow is like choosing between comic books and literature.

Enter "Personal Injuries," Turow's latest. Robbie Feaver is a smiling, corrupt attorney in Turow's fictional Kindle County, Mississippi. Feaver gets by on Southern charm, lack of scruples, and an occasional genuine desire to do the right thing, although he tends to rationalize "right" to suit whichever is easiest for him at the time. Feaver coasts along bribing judges to secure courtroom victories until he becomes ensnared in an FBI probe of the Kindle County court system.

Enter Evon Miller, a Clarice Starling-esque FBI agent assigned to protect Feaver as he turns state's evidence and participates in a federal sting operation. Evon's distaste for Feaver is clear from the beginning, although one can bet that she will not remain totally cool and aloof for long.

The investigation which ensues is typically (for Turow, anyway) labyrinthine and compelling, building to a shocking climax one will not soon forget. Turow has drawn more complex characters this time out than was the case with "Presumed Innocent" or "Burden of Proof," and as the story evolves these characters come into their own.

Unfortunately, it takes Turow far too long to build up momentum for his tale. The first third or so of the book is hard going; I believe many readers may simply put it down at this point. Tighter editing and a slightly quicker pace would have helped immeasurably here. Once the story takes off, however, Turow returns to form and readers are in for a rollercoaster ride.

I should also note (without giving plot points away) that Turow is careful to avoid cliches throughout. Nothing is completely as it seems in Kindle County, and even the old standbys of a romantic relationship between the lead characters is handled quite differently from what you would expect here. It is this willingness to walk new paths with his writing which makes Turow so much more compelling than Grisham in the end. It is a shame that more of this novel's payoff couldn't be packed into the first half.

As such, I recommend this book only to Turow's fans. If you're looking to become a Turow fan, start with "Presumed Innocent" instead.


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