Reversible Errors

Reversible Errors demonstrates why Scott Turow is one of the most popular writers of legal thrillers. In his best novel since Presumed Innocent, Turow writes about attorney Arthur Raven, who is assigned to handle the last-minute appeal of death row inmate Rommy Gandolph. J. R. Horne's reading is superb. He provides subtle, yet critical, personality to each of Turow's well-defined characters. His portrayal of Erno Erdai, who offers a deathbed confession to the triple murders, highlights the novel, particularly when Erdai describes how and why the killings occurred. But this book is more than a story about whether Gandolph or Erdai committed the murders. It is a marvelous examination of how factors other than guilt and innocence impact the law, even life-and-death cases. Horne's subtle changes in inflection add the perfect complement to each character's emotions. D.J.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 19, 2002
A tinted review in adult Forecasts indicates a book that's of exceptional importance to our readers but hasn't received a starred or boxed review. REVERSIBLE ERRORS Scott Turow. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28 (448p) ISBN 0-374-28160-2 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. (Nov. 1)Forecast:Turow is
the class act of legal thriller writers—and he sells books. A long stint on the bestseller list is predicted for his latest, which will be issued in a 750,000 first printing. Seven-city author tour.