Rating: 
Summary: Laugh-out-loud funny and suspenseful
Review: I wasn't prepared for how funny this book would turn out to be. The plot isn't as memorable as Presumed Innocent, but the main character is much more likable.
I'm always looking for a suspenseful book that is intelligently written and this one has great humor besides.
Rating: 
Summary: Overall, not a bad read.
Review: I'll admit that Pleading Guilty is a page-turner, but the ending is really too weak to provide satisfaction. The plot is interesting, if a bit ludicrous in sections. Also, there is a plot discrepancy that really bothered me after I'd finished it. This inconsistency, along with the abrupt, ill-conceived finish, lead me to recommend something else. Presumed Innocent, by the same author, is excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: "Top-notch Turow" saved by humor
Review: In this plot the author identifies himself with Malloy, a timid copper turned attorney. While rowing through the pages you find yourself to be lost in a vast ocean with very little intrigue, while the author dabbles in extensive introspection. Every good plot needs a villain. Meet Pigeyes the notorious comrade from the past. When crossing the equator of this bestseller, I was still in the doldrums hoping for a storm but the story continued to splash along with more introspection. There are a few scenes strewn throughout for laughing out loud, for which I gratefully bestow an extra star. While my mind wandered and Malloy was having another drink, I was rowing on `til the end: "There are only victims." Yes, the ones who think that this book meets the burden of proof to justify its existence. Gerborg
Rating:
Summary: "Top-notch Turow" saved by humor
Review: In this plot the author identifies himself with Malloy, a timid copper turned attorney. While rowing through the pages you find yourself to be lost in a vast ocean with very little intrigue, while the author dabbles in extensive introspection. Every good plot needs a villain. Meet Pigeyes the notorious comrade from the past. When crossing the equator of this bestseller, I was still in the doldrums hoping for a storm but the story continued to splash along with more introspection. There are a few scenes strewn throughout for laughing out loud, for which I gratefully bestow an extra star. While my mind wandered and Malloy was having another drink, I was rowing on 'til the end: "There are only victims." Yes, the ones who think that this book meets the burden of proof to justify its existence. Gerborg
Rating:
Summary: One of Turow's bests......Read this one first
Review: It's been several years since I've read this book, but I highly recommnend it. After reading a couple of the poor reviews (from the looks of the reviews, you either love it or hate it), I felt I had to throw in my two cents. This book is different than Turow's other loosely-connected trilogy and certainly one of the best. It's written in that first person, detective-type cadence that keeps the pages turning fast. If you're new to Turow, read Presumed Innocent and this one, the others are a notch below.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful change of pace for Turow
Review: Mack Malloy is a burned out ex-cop turned lawyer -- he's smart, tough-minded, and pretty much past caring. He's asked by the managing partners at his high-profile firm to investigate something, and as he begins shambling along looking for the truth, his frayed life really begins to unravel.This book is wonderfully perceptive -- it's really a portrait of a very able man defeated by his life who retreats into alcohol and (apt) wry observations and wisecracks, but who still has a few tricks up his sleeve. The book is hilariously funny, a satire of the earnest "redemption stories" (wherein the hero wins one last big case to turn his life around). It's dark, funny, and a delight to read. I think that this is Turow's best book.
Rating: 
Summary: complex plot and very real charcters - beats Grisham
Review: Mack Molloy is a burnt-out civil lawyer who has slaved for much of his life at the dying law firm of G&G. Told entirely from Molloy's POV, the story begins when Molloy is told by the three attorneys of the firm's executive committee that one of its partners - the brash and daring Bert Kamins - has disappeared along with over 5 million dollars of the firm's money. The money was part of an escrow account set up to pay out a settlement in a class action suit brought against G&G's biggest client and stemming from a horrific airliner crash. The fact of the loss, if revealed to the airline/client - without whom, G&G's collapse is assured - requires that somebody locate both Kamins and the money ASAP. With his background as a former cop and his experience as a financial crimes investigator, Molloy seems the best candidate for the job of turning up both attorney and cash. Below the surface (and not that deeply either) Molloy presents a better candidate - he's the firm's least productive attorney: a recovering alcoholic (he did better when he drank); failed father and husband, disgraced ex-cop (Molloy testified against a veteran detective to save his own skin, then poisoned both sides against him when his testimony bungled the prosecution.) and all about middle-aged wreck. In other words, he's the best guy to have around to explain why neither money nor Kamins were ever found. This was a great Turow book - better than "Burden of Proof" though still not as coherent as "Presumed Innocent". Though its title uses a familiar legal phrase, "Pleading" is less about the law or litigation than about people who happen to be lawyers. As in those other books, Turow is a master of constructing characters who are both very real and have a very convincing capacity to analyze each other. As in the other books, the accent is on the failings of the characters. An intricate plot relies on our own weaknesses: the mystery seems to get bigger and more complicated, though the climax shows that the reverse is true - the mystery gets more simple, and we learn that the various clues point to smaller conspiracies separate from each other. Where the plot bogs down is handling its cast of legal rogues - especially the head lawyers of G&G who occupy different areas of the spectra of respectability, morality and greed. (Turow introduces them as a group, though never makes the transition to treating them as real individuals until Molloy finds he must play them each against each other) There's a beautiful and brilliant attorney named "Brushy" who - though no stranger to Molloy - suddenly surprises him by revealing her infatuation for him. Molloy must also deal with Detective Gino Dimonte, a financial crimes investigator whose career Molloy ruined years earlier - nicknamed "Pigeyes", Dimonte was the detective whom Molloy testified against. Then there's Molloy himself. Though the story's narrator, Molloy springs the biggest surprise on us. We're supposed to think that he'll rise above it all despite his weaknesses (which are profound). Instead, and without giving up too much, he rises above it all because of them. The details of the embezzlement that kicks off the story are pretty complicated (if you read "Burden", think of the wheat futures deal), but that won't keep you from getting into the story or the characters.
Rating:
Summary: complex plot and very real charcters - beats Grisham
Review: Mack Molloy is a burnt-out civil lawyer who has slaved for much of his life at the dying law firm of G&G. Told entirely from Molloy's POV, the story begins when Molloy is told by the three attorneys of the firm's executive committee that one of its partners - the brash and daring Bert Kamins - has disappeared along with over 5 million dollars of the firm's money. The money was part of an escrow account set up to pay out a settlement in a class action suit brought against G&G's biggest client and stemming from a horrific airliner crash. The fact of the loss, if revealed to the airline/client - without whom, G&G's collapse is assured - requires that somebody locate both Kamins and the money ASAP. With his background as a former cop and his experience as a financial crimes investigator, Molloy seems the best candidate for the job of turning up both attorney and cash. Below the surface (and not that deeply either) Molloy presents a better candidate - he's the firm's least productive attorney: a recovering alcoholic (he did better when he drank); failed father and husband, disgraced ex-cop (Molloy testified against a veteran detective to save his own skin, then poisoned both sides against him when his testimony bungled the prosecution.) and all about middle-aged wreck. In other words, he's the best guy to have around to explain why neither money nor Kamins were ever found. This was a great Turow book - better than "Burden of Proof" though still not as coherent as "Presumed Innocent". Though its title uses a familiar legal phrase, "Pleading" is less about the law or litigation than about people who happen to be lawyers. As in those other books, Turow is a master of constructing characters who are both very real and have a very convincing capacity to analyze each other. As in the other books, the accent is on the failings of the characters. An intricate plot relies on our own weaknesses: the mystery seems to get bigger and more complicated, though the climax shows that the reverse is true - the mystery gets more simple, and we learn that the various clues point to smaller conspiracies separate from each other. Where the plot bogs down is handling its cast of legal rogues - especially the head lawyers of G&G who occupy different areas of the spectra of respectability, morality and greed. (Turow introduces them as a group, though never makes the transition to treating them as real individuals until Molloy finds he must play them each against each other) There's a beautiful and brilliant attorney named "Brushy" who - though no stranger to Molloy - suddenly surprises him by revealing her infatuation for him. Molloy must also deal with Detective Gino Dimonte, a financial crimes investigator whose career Molloy ruined years earlier - nicknamed "Pigeyes", Dimonte was the detective whom Molloy testified against. Then there's Molloy himself. Though the story's narrator, Molloy springs the biggest surprise on us. We're supposed to think that he'll rise above it all despite his weaknesses (which are profound). Instead, and without giving up too much, he rises above it all because of them. The details of the embezzlement that kicks off the story are pretty complicated (if you read "Burden", think of the wheat futures deal), but that won't keep you from getting into the story or the characters.
Rating:
Summary: Dissolution never felt so good
Review: Okay, first off I am a Scott Turrow fan. That said, I really liked this story. I could relate to the main character and he get's to really stick it to the man! In the process, he also sticks it to just about everybody around him.
Rating:
Summary: quite good
Review: the best thing in this book is that it's funny and well written. the plot isn't really interesting, but anyway this is a good read.
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