Personal Injuries: A Novel by Scott Turow, 2/5

This book has all the right components–characters with strong personalities and motivations, an exciting, page-turner plot about an undercover FBI agent working with a corrupt-lawyer-turned-informant to bring down a bevy of crooked judges, and expertise on the part of the author, who is himself a practicing attorney.  However, the whole thing just didn’t work for me.  The characters felt cliched and unreal, the plot melodramatically contrived and a bit gimmicky, and the writing style strained.  The technical parts were a little dry, but infinitely preferable to the sexed up sub plot.  I feel that the book should have been enjoyable, but I’m left just wishing I could get back the time I spent reading it.

[Why I read it: An acquaintance who is an attorney mentioned a different book, Burden of Proof, by this author, but the library didn’t have it.]