Tras una brillante carrera de abogado defensor, George Mason ejerce, desde hace más de diez años, como juez en la sala de apelaciones del condado de Kindel. Su vida transcurre apaciblemente hasta que un horrible caso de violación irrumpe en la sala de los juzgados. Una adolescente negra ha sido violada por cuatro jóvenes, y hay algo en este caso que perturba profundamente al juez. Los hechos reavivan sus sentimientos de culpa por un incidente ocurrido décadas atrás. Casi al mismo tiempo comienza a recibir amenazas anónimas relacionadas con el caso y a su mujer le diagnostican un cáncer. Inmerso en la confusión, el juez Mason no tarda en cuestionarse la naturaleza de la ley y su propia capacidad para juzgar.

Nice mix of fictional story line and legal concepts, at least for the layman like me. ( )

An appellate court judge must decide a case that brings up unpleasant memories from his own past and confuses the matter for him. He's also receiving strange, threatening emails from an unknown source.

I really enjoyed the way this short novel explored the issues of law surrounding the case involved while coupling them with the personal issues of the judge. The suspense-y mystery-y bit about who was sending him the emails was less interesting to me, but it has a really excellent resolution and pay-off in the end. Recommended. ( )

This is my first book by Scott Turow. An LT friend had reviewed it earlier this month, and it wound up on my library wishlist. A court of appeals judge, George Mason, is sitting on a case involving rape of a 15 year old girl by four high school students. The statute of limitations had passed before she brought it to attention, and the video tape of the whole incident may or may not have been legally shown in court. George is one of three judges who must decide whether the verdict should stand, and he is the deciding vote. He is distracted by his wife's cancer diagnosis, and also by death threats that he has been receiving in email. He also has memory of an incident in his own past during college and this is making him question his reasoning in the case. Although classified as a thriller, I wouldn't call it thrilling in the same vein as the book I recently read by Stephen King. It was slower, and maybe more thoughtful. ( )

A very good exploration of a tough subject in a limited context. Appellate Judge George Mason must revisit his own youth after hearing arguments in a case involving an old sexual assault. He and his two colleagues on the appeals court each see the case a bit differently. Although combining any two positions will result in a majority opinion, there is no real consensus, and a split opinion is likely to open many old wounds. Mason must decide how to write an opinion that will not only be supported by the facts and arguments, but will be "just". This gets fairly technical on the legal issues, and it's a little hard for me to judge (sorry) how it will strike the average reader. Having lived with this kind of reasoning for nearly 40 years, I absorbed it easily, but I do think Turow did a decent job of making it accessible to the lay reader. Mason has personal and professional stuff going on that complicates his decision. (It wouldn't be much of a novel, otherwise.) Someone is sending him e-mail death threats, and it might be someone very close to him. His wife is under treatment for cancer, and he doesn't want to upset her by bringing THAT crap home, but his security people insist he must have protection. Intrigue and red herrings...the usual stuff well-handled. But the mature judicial male confronting his randy teenage self, and getting his consciousness raised in real time as well, is the best part of this page-turner. ( )