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Pan Macmillan: This edition published: December 2006
Reviewed by Sunnie Gill
Life has been good to George Mason. After a successful career as a defense
lawyer, he is now a sitting judge on the Court of Appeals in Kindle
County. He is happily married to his wife of nearly forty years and he has
no financial concerns. Then his wife is diagnosed with cancer and has to
undergo radiation treatment. She is just recovering from that when George
is asked to preside on an appeal in a rape case which re-ignites some
memories from his college days.
As these memories begin to haunt him and cause him to question both
himself and his fitness to be a judge, George starts receiving threatening
emails. Are they related to the current case or some other judgement he
has handed down?
Perhaps it’s a disgruntled former client deciding to have revenge for a
long-forgotten lost case. Then there is the car-jacking in which George
not only loses his vehicle and his wallet but also suffers a broken arm.
Is that an unconnected event or is that tied up with a judgement he handed
down against a Latino gang leader?
LIMITATIONS is promoted as a “legal thriller”. I think that’s slightly
misleading. While much of the substance of the book is about the law,
justice and morality of the law, I don’t think it could be classified as a
thriller. That implies there are chase scenes and gunfights and there
aren’t.
Much of LIMITATIONS is written in the present tense. The parts of it that
deal with legal details do seem a little dry at times, but the substance
of the book is about human nature. The title, LIMITATIONS, not only refers
to limitations laid down by law but also the limitations of human nature.
How even the best intentioned of people can inadvertently hurt others:
hurt by lies of omission, thinking to spare the other. Hurt by carelessly
only considering one’s own perspective and not how something will impact
on someone else.
Initially I found LIMITATIONS to be rather dry with very little
excitement. However, after finishing it, I found myself surprised at how
much I had enjoyed author Scott Turow’s examination of the capacities of
human nature.
At just 197 pages LIMITATIONS isn’t exactly a weighty tome. It’s a quick
read and the identity of the person sending the threats came as a surprise
for me. If there is any criticism of the plot, it’s that in this world
where we expect endings where there is either action or someone pulling a
rabbit out of a hat, the resolution is ever-so-slightly anti-climactic,
but in some ways that is in keeping with the overall tone of the book.
Dec 2006 review originally published on Murder & Mayhem
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