Life would seem to have gone well for George Mason. His days as a criminal defence lawyer (Personal Injuries) are long behind him. At fifty-nine, he has sat as a judge on the Court of Appeals in Kindle County for nearly a decade. Yet, when a disturbing rape case is brought before him, the judge begins to question the very nature of the law and his role within it. What is troubling George Mason so deeply? Is it his wife's recent diagnosis? Or the strange and threatening emails he has started to receive? And what is it about ...
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Life would seem to have gone well for George Mason. His days as a criminal defence lawyer (Personal Injuries) are long behind him. At fifty-nine, he has sat as a judge on the Court of Appeals in Kindle County for nearly a decade. Yet, when a disturbing rape case is brought before him, the judge begins to question the very nature of the law and his role within it. What is troubling George Mason so deeply? Is it his wife's recent diagnosis? Or the strange and threatening emails he has started to receive? And what is it about this horrific case of sexual assault, now on trial in his courtroom, that has led him to question his fitness to judge? In Limitations, Scott Turow, the master of the legal thriller, returns to Kindle County with a page-turning entertainment that asks the biggest questions of all. Ingeniously, and with great economy of style, Turow probes the limitations not only of the law, but of human understanding itself.
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This was a disturbing legal thriller both because of the subject matter, (the gang rape of an unconscious young woman at a party), and because of the graphic descriptions. Beyond that, the twist is that the judge who is hearing the case has demons of his own to deal with, since he took part in something similar in university and his guilt is overwhelming him. He is also dealing with a sick wife and harrassing e-mails. He asks, "Is a judge disqualified if something in a case reminds him of himself?" His friend answers, "They're supposed to remind us of ourselves, aren't they, George? Isn't that a quality of mercy?"
