Arthur Raven, more versed in corporate law than criminal defense, is not eager to accept the court-appointed task of handling death-row inmate "Squirrel" Gandolph's last-minute appeal of his murder conviction. Fast approaching middle age, Arthur has come to terms with the burdens and disappointments of his life, among which are a schizophrenic sister for whom he is responsible and the realization that he will probably never make an enduring connection with a woman. But when evidence surfaces that might exonerate his client, he rises to the occasion with a quiet determination to see justice done. Facing a formidable prosecuting attorney and her former lover, the policeman whose testimony convinced Judge Gillian Sullivan to find Squirrel guilty, Arthur's persistence not only wins his client a temporary reprieve from execution but also endears him to Sullivan, who has fallen on hard times since Squirrel's trial--fresh out of prison herself for taking bribes, she is a most unlikely candidate for Arthur's affections. Scott Turow's masterful characterization of complex and multidimensional people catalyzed by events into searching reexamination of their own motives and ambitions is matched by the intricacies of his plot, which itself is well served by his insider's knowledge of the criminal justice system and his extraordinary understanding of the vagaries of the human heart. The prose is luminescent, the narrative compelling, and the moral implications of Arthur's personal and professional choices beautifully articulated. This is a tour de force for a novelist writing at the top of his game. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
The sixth novel from bestseller Turow is a big book about little people in big trouble, involving the death penalty (one of the author's real-life legal specialties), procedural foul-ups and a cast of characters who exemplify the adage about good intentions paving the road to hell. Arthur Raven (a middle-aged, undistinguished lawyer taking care of a schizophrenic sister in a suburb of Chicago) lands a career-making case: the 11th-hour appeal of a quasi-retarded death row inmate, Rommy "Squirrel" Gandolph (accused of triple homicide a decade earlier), on new testimony by a terminally ill convict. Muriel Wynn, an ambitious prosecutor, and Larry Starczek, the detective who originally worked the case, are Raven's adversaries. Plot thickener: Wynn and Starczek are engaged in a longstanding, tortuous, off-again, on-again affair (both being unhappily married) that predates the crime, and which may have indirectly influenced the course of the original investigation. Arthur pulls in the original presiding judge from the case, Gillian Sullivan, just emerging from her own prison stretch for bribery (which masks an even darker secret) to assist him on the case, which leads to another tortuous affair on the defense's side. On top of this (Turow is well known for his many-layered narratives) is the dynamic among the criminals themselves: the dying con may be covering up for his wayward nephew, further muddying the legal waters. The first part of the book, which flips back and forth between the original investigation (1991) and the new trial (2001), is structurally the most demanding, but it is vital to the way in which Turow makes Rommy's case (as well as Arthur's and Muriel's). No character in this novel is entirely likable; all seek to undo some past wrong, with results that get progressively worse. Turow fans should not be disappointed; nor should his publisher. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Turow (Personal Injuries) has said that once he acquired a computer, he stopped developing stories in a linear fashion. His latest novel not only bears out that statement but provides a good example of using a nonlinear structure to build suspense and develop characters. Kindle County defense attorney Arthur Raven is appointed by the court to look into a case that was tried more than a decade ago. In the process, he is forced to revisit not only his client's past but his own. To portray the ever-shifting balance of legal issues in the case in tandem with changes in the characters' emotional and philosophical states during the intervening years, Turow moves skillfully between past and present, revealing tidbits of fact, circumstance, and motive as he goes and leaving it up to the reader not only to construct the story's linear progression but to understand the significance of the book's title as both a legal entity within its plot and a personal reality for its characters. Turow's work once again extends beyond the genre he helped create. Highly recommended.Nancy McNicol, Whitneyville Branch Lib., Hamden, CT Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
A mildly retarded petty thief, 33 days away from execution for a triple murder to which he confessed, repudiates that confession. A corporate attorney appointed to handle the appeal reluctantly agrees to be "the designated loser." But then a confession comes in from an unlikely source, and the plot is propelled forward, dappled with the unrequited affairs of the heart that swirl around the story. Veteran television actor David Birney is masterful, lacing his narration with nuanced renderings of the dialects and accents of several characters. Most effectively, he brings an aching wistfulness to the speaking voice of the pro bono attorney, Arthur Raven, vastly unlucky in love but fortunate in the publisher's choice of reader. M.J.B. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Turow takes on the death-penalty controversy in his latest legal thriller and places complex characters on both sides of the issue, battling over a thorny, convoluted case. In 1991, three people were brutally murdered in a Kindle County diner. Prosecutor Muriel Wynn and detective Larry Starczek ferreted out Rommy Gandolf, who soon confessed to the crime. Ten years later, Rommy is on death row, just weeks away from his execution. Arthur Raven has been appointed as his lawyer, but he can't imagine that anything new will turn up despite Rommy's claims of innocence. Then Erno Erdai steps forward. Serving a 10-year sentence for assault and dying of cancer, Erno claims that he, not Rommy, committed the murders in the diner. Arthur is skeptical at first, but he wants to believe in his client, so soon he is pushing the case forward with all his might. Muriel and Larry are incensed, certain that, despite Erno's claims, Rommy is guilty. Gillian Sullivan, the judge who heard Rommy's case and sentenced him, is reluctantly drawn back into the legal wrangling. Turow does an excellent job of balancing the twists and turns of the case with his characters' equally complicated personal lives and relationships, making for a well-rounded, exciting, introspective thriller. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"No one on the contemporary scene writes better myster-suspense novels than Scott Turow."
--Bill Blum, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"When Scott Turow writes about a milieu, he knows whereof he speaks. You know he made it up, but you also know it's real."
--George V. Higgins, Chicago Tribune

"Turow brings a literary sensibility to a grit-and-gravel genre: if he calls to mind any comparison, it's to John le Carre. His novels are shaped by [a] studied bleakness, an introspect's embrace of the gray-zone ambiguities of modern life."
--Gail Caldwell, The Boston Sunday Globe

"Turow is the class act of legal thriller writers."
--Publishers Weekly

"Turow moves skillfully between past and present, revealing tiny tidbits of fact, circumstance, and motive as he goes and leaving it up to the reader not only to construct the story's linear progression but to understand the significance of the book's title as both a legal entity within its plot and a personal reality for its characters."

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
The verdict is in: Popular fiction rarely gets any better, or more involving, than Reversible Errors, Scott Turow￯﾿ﾽs profoundly satisfying legal thriller, which takes on the charged subject of death penalty litigation.

Set in Turow's familiar fictional venue of Kindle County, Illinois, the story concerns a pathetic, hard-luck career criminal named Rommy Gandolph, a.k.a. Squirrel. Convicted of a particularly vicious triple homicide, Rommy is 33 days away from certain execution. When a convicted criminal with terminal cancer comes forward with a story that casts doubt on Rommy's guilt, it soon becomes clear that more than Squirrel's life is at stake. On one side of the legal line stand ambitious deputy prosecutor Muriel Wynn and veteran homicide detective Larry Starczek, former lovers who were responsible for Rommy's original conviction and whose lives seem seem inextricably connected to this case. On the other side stands Arthur Raven, Rommy's plodding, colorless court-appointed defender. His work is complicated by an evolving friendship with Gillian Sullivan, the disgraced judge who presided over Rommy's initial trial. These four figures -- together with a brilliantly delineated gallery of supporting characters -- form the human center of a fiercely contested legal battle that will alter the destinies of everyone involved.

Turow's knack for convoluted plotting, ability to find drama in the most minute points of law, lively, observant prose, and flawless sense of character lift him into a league of his own when it comes to legal fiction. Reversible Errors -- a wonderfully resonant title -- is a account of love and redemption, crime and punishment, the intricacies of the legal system, the high cost of ambition, and the primal importance of our most basic human connections. Bill Sheehan

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Rommy "Squirrel" Gandolph is a Yellow Man, an inmate on death row for a 1991 triple murder in Kindle County. His slow progress toward certain execution is nearing completion when Arthur Raven, a corporate lawyer who is Rommy's reluctant court-appointed representative, receives word that another inmate may have new evidence that will exonerate Gandolph." Arthur's opponent in the case is Muriel Wynn, Kindle County's formidable chief deputy prosecuting attorney, who is considering a run for her boss's job. Muriel and Larry Starczek, the original detective on the case, don't want to see Rommy escape a fate they long ago determined he deserved, for a host of reasons. Further complicating the situation is the fact that Gillian Sullivan, the judge who originally found Rommy guilty, is only recently out of prison herself, having served time for taking bribes.

FROM THE CRITICS

Bill Blum - Los Angeles Times Book Review

No one on the contemporary scene writes better mystery-suspense novels than Scott Turow.

The New York Times Book Review

What Turow has done, in book after book, is to give us page turners that are also pleasing literary artifacts, mysteries that are also investigations into complicated social questions and complex human emotions.

Publishers Weekly

The sixth novel from bestseller Turow is a big book about little people in big trouble, involving the death penalty (one of the author's real-life legal specialties), procedural foul-ups and a cast of characters who exemplify the adage about good intentions paving the road to hell. Arthur Raven (a middle-aged, undistinguished lawyer taking care of a schizophrenic sister in a suburb of Chicago) lands a career-making case: the 11th-hour appeal of a quasi-retarded death row inmate, Rommy "Squirrel" Gandolph (accused of triple homicide a decade earlier), on new testimony by a terminally ill convict. Muriel Wynn, an ambitious prosecutor, and Larry Starczek, the detective who originally worked the case, are Raven's adversaries. Plot thickener: Wynn and Starczek are engaged in a longstanding, tortuous, off-again, on-again affair (both being unhappily married) that predates the crime, and which may have indirectly influenced the course of the original investigation. Arthur pulls in the original presiding judge from the case, Gillian Sullivan, just emerging from her own prison stretch for bribery (which masks an even darker secret) to assist him on the case, which leads to another tortuous affair on the defense's side. On top of this (Turow is well known for his many-layered narratives) is the dynamic among the criminals themselves: the dying con may be covering up for his wayward nephew, further muddying the legal waters. The first part of the book, which flips back and forth between the original investigation (1991) and the new trial (2001), is structurally the most demanding, but it is vital to the way in which Turow makes Rommy's case (as well as Arthur's and Muriel's). No character in this novel is entirely likable; all seek to undo some past wrong, with results that get progressively worse. Turow fans should not be disappointed; nor should his publisher.

Library Journal

Turow (Personal Injuries) has said that once he acquired a computer, he stopped developing stories in a linear fashion. His latest novel not only bears out that statement but provides a good example of using a nonlinear structure to build suspense and develop characters. Kindle County defense attorney Arthur Raven is appointed by the court to look into a case that was tried more than a decade ago. In the process, he is forced to revisit not only his client's past but his own. To portray the ever-shifting balance of legal issues in the case in tandem with changes in the characters' emotional and philosophical states during the intervening years, Turow moves skillfully between past and present, revealing tidbits of fact, circumstance, and motive as he goes and leaving it up to the reader not only to construct the story's linear progression but to understand the significance of the book's title as both a legal entity within its plot and a personal reality for its characters. Turow's work once again extends beyond the genre he helped create. Highly recommended.-Nancy McNicol, Whitneyville Branch Lib., Hamden, CT Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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