Personal Injuries - Softcover

Scott Turow

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140292829 ISBN 13: 9780140292824

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd, 2000

Synopsis

Any fan of mysteries and thrillers knows if you read enough of them, you'll eventually develop a knack for predicting the outcome. Read a handful of Agatha Christies and you've nailed down her pattern. Harry Bosch will prevail over evil, Spenser will find justice, Bernie will be exonerated. It doesn't diminish the fun of getting there --- I've enjoyed every one and can't wait for the next release --- but Scott Turow's legal thrillers are clearly on a different plane. They're never predictable; he can pack more surprises into a plot than you would think imaginable.

About this title

Review

Scott Turow has always pushed himself beyond the expectations of readers and critics. In Presumed Innocent (1987), he introduced fictional Kindle County and ushered in the era that spawned such mega-authors as John Grisham, Richard North Patterson, and David Baldacci. In Personal Injuries, Turow continues to innovate on legal fiction, but his achievement this time is not gained through clever plot twists (though there are several) or intense legal action (though there is much of that too). The achievement of mastery this time is via exquisitely drawn, Faulknerian characters--attorney Robbie Feaver, agent Evon Miller, U.S. Attorney Stan Sennett, and Justice Brendan Tuohey--whose lives become the driving mystery at the core of the book.

The novel begins with Robbie Feaver seeking counsel from the narrator, attorney George Mason. For years, Feaver has been bribing several judges in the Common Law Claims Division to win favorable judgments. Now that U.S. Attorney Stan Sennett has uncovered Feaver's dirty little secret, he wants to use Feaver to get at the man he believes to be at the center of all the legal corruption in the metropolitan area, Brendan Tuohey, Presiding Judge of Common Law Claims and heir apparent to the Chief Justice of Kindle County Superior Court. With Mason as an advisor, Robbie assists Sennett and his team of FBI undercover agents in crafting a massive sting operation that involves an FBI-manufactured lawyer named "James McManis," a cast of fictional clients, and "Evon Miller"--a deep cover agent (and former Olympic athlete)--who poses as Robbie's paralegal and paramour.

With a skill rarely found in genre fiction, Turow composes his narrative with variations on several recurring themes. The novel ripples with paranoia as the FBI enshrouds the legal community of Kindle County in a web of tapped phones, concealed cameras, and wired spies.

At the center of indirection sit Robbie and Evon. The pair dance through an elegant game of erotically-charged hide and seek: Robbie the practiced liar and former actor, and Evon, the agent whose whole life must remain a fiction if she is to survive. At their best, legal thrillers leave readers confronting the core of their values and perceptions of legal and moral rectitude. Personal Injuries is the legal thriller at its very best. --Patrick O'Kelley

From the Inside Flap

Read by Joe Mantegna
Five CDs, 6 Hours

Robbie Feaver (pronounced Favor) is a successful personal injury lawyer, with a burgeoning practice, a way with the ladies, and a beautiful wife he loves--who is dying of an irreversible illness. He also has a secret bank account where he occasionally deposits funds which make their way into the pockets of the judges who decide Robbie's cases.

Robbie is apprehended, and, in exchange for leniency, agress to wear a wire tap as he continues to try to fix decisions. The FBI agent assigned to supervise him goes by the alias of Evon Miller. She is stocky, lonely, uncomfortable in her skin, and impervious to Robbie's charms. And she carries secrets of her own. As the law tightens its net, Robbie's and Evon's stories converge thrillingly and, ultimately, tragically. Turow shows us new sides to Kindle County, the world of greed and human failing he has made immortal in Presumed Innocent, The Burden of Proof, Pleading Guilty, and The Laws of Our Fathers. He also shows us enduring love and quiet, enexpected heroism. Personal Injuries is Turow's most reverberant, most moving novel--a powerful drama of individuals trying to escape their character.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0140292829
• ISBN 13: 9780140292824
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 416