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birdmanseven's review against another edition
2.0
Look, I only read the first half, so take this with a grain of salt. It's hard for me to stop a book when I'm hundreds of pages in, so I set this one aside for a while. I soon realized I had no desire to ever pick it back up.
In those 200 or so pages, it never really felt like the story began. Very little progress was made and the characters weren't interesting enough to push me through the slow plot.
When I started I was hooked, so there is something in the writing that I enjoy. Maybe I'll try another one someday.
In those 200 or so pages, it never really felt like the story began. Very little progress was made and the characters weren't interesting enough to push me through the slow plot.
When I started I was hooked, so there is something in the writing that I enjoy. Maybe I'll try another one someday.
mjanemartin's review against another edition
4.0
This book seemed like a 3* book. Really, the plot seemed full of holes to me. His first love interest in the book was over the top. His infatuation of her seemed like one of those B horror movies where you're yelling at the girl "don't go down into the basement where the ax murderer is!"...yet she goes anyway. Boom was kind of an ass in this book. I prefer the smart Boom. I like Turow's writing but maybe this story was his ode to his own personal mid-life crisis. IDK. Yet I'm giving it 4* because I kept thinking about it and wanting to make time to come back and finish it. That's what fiction is supposed to do.
booksuperpower's review against another edition
4.0
Testimony by Scott Turow is a 2017 Grand Central Publication.
Absorbing and atmospheric legal drama-
Bill ten Boom, aka, 'Boom", started his life over at a time when the thought of starting over is entirely too exhausting to contemplate. After leaving his wife and his job, Bill is approached about accepting a case with The Hague’s International Criminal Court.
The case in question, is a ten year old cold case, involving the disappearance and presumed deaths, of four hundred Roma refugees during the Bosnian war. It seems like just the kind of challenge Bill has been looking for.
But, he ended up getting a lot more than he ever bargained for. Every person with knowledge or a stake in the outcome has an agenda of their own. Who can he trust, if anyone? Can he, after all these years, discover the truth of what took place in the murky Bosnian conflict?
The Bosnian war, for me, was very difficult to understand, with all the sketchy details and the inability to know what was really going on over there, I often felt confused by it all. What few details I had managed to make heads or tails of have long since left my consciousness.
But, this book brings that conflict into a sharper focus and although it is a work of fiction, the details provided are proof of a great deal of research, reading, and familiarity with the area.
The story, unlike many of the novels that made Turow famous, is nothing like a traditional legal thriller. The international courts are a whole other animal entirely, and rules are vastly different, as are the apparent dangers and intrigues.
The deaths of four hundred Romas- including women and children, who were rounded up and then buried alive, leaving only one lone survivor, is a murder mystery of epic proportions. The suspects are plentiful- including the United States, who may have been seeking retribution due to a double cross by the Gypsies that cost American lives.
“Justice is good. I accept the value of testimony, of letting the victims be heard. But, consequences are essential. People can’t believe in civilization without being certain that a society will organize itself to do what it can to make wrongs right. Allowing the slaughter of four hundred innocents to go unpunished demeans the lives each of us lives. It’s that simple.”
Politics, scandal, secrets, legal complexities, personal missteps, and cover-ups abound, along with plenty of action and more sweaty palm moments than you can shake a stick at.
The story moves along at a brisk enough pace, but it is not a book you can read on auto-pilot. It can be a little dense at times, and occasionally I felt lost and got a little confused, which is why I recommend taking your time with it.
Turow’s trademark twists, are well timed, and effective, but it’s his amazing talent for creating rich characterizations, most notably, Goos, who was ‘Boom’s’ investigation partner, and ‘Attila’ a colorful US Army sergeant who has been told to help assist ‘Boom’, that really stands out.
"There will always be ones like him, won’t there?", asked Goos. “Sure.” I nodded. “The brilliant, charismatic crackpot who gets his hands on the levers of power and exults in mayhem?” “There will always be people like him.”
There is much to contemplate in this novel, and I think it was a bold and ambitious undertaking, offering terrific insights and observations only a writer like Turow could add.
Overall, this one is quite a bit different from other novels by this author, but is every bit as smart, clever, but it is also quite a bit more challenging. Still at the end of the day, Turow delivers another outstanding, thought provoking thriller!
4 stars
Absorbing and atmospheric legal drama-
Bill ten Boom, aka, 'Boom", started his life over at a time when the thought of starting over is entirely too exhausting to contemplate. After leaving his wife and his job, Bill is approached about accepting a case with The Hague’s International Criminal Court.
The case in question, is a ten year old cold case, involving the disappearance and presumed deaths, of four hundred Roma refugees during the Bosnian war. It seems like just the kind of challenge Bill has been looking for.
But, he ended up getting a lot more than he ever bargained for. Every person with knowledge or a stake in the outcome has an agenda of their own. Who can he trust, if anyone? Can he, after all these years, discover the truth of what took place in the murky Bosnian conflict?
The Bosnian war, for me, was very difficult to understand, with all the sketchy details and the inability to know what was really going on over there, I often felt confused by it all. What few details I had managed to make heads or tails of have long since left my consciousness.
But, this book brings that conflict into a sharper focus and although it is a work of fiction, the details provided are proof of a great deal of research, reading, and familiarity with the area.
The story, unlike many of the novels that made Turow famous, is nothing like a traditional legal thriller. The international courts are a whole other animal entirely, and rules are vastly different, as are the apparent dangers and intrigues.
The deaths of four hundred Romas- including women and children, who were rounded up and then buried alive, leaving only one lone survivor, is a murder mystery of epic proportions. The suspects are plentiful- including the United States, who may have been seeking retribution due to a double cross by the Gypsies that cost American lives.
“Justice is good. I accept the value of testimony, of letting the victims be heard. But, consequences are essential. People can’t believe in civilization without being certain that a society will organize itself to do what it can to make wrongs right. Allowing the slaughter of four hundred innocents to go unpunished demeans the lives each of us lives. It’s that simple.”
Politics, scandal, secrets, legal complexities, personal missteps, and cover-ups abound, along with plenty of action and more sweaty palm moments than you can shake a stick at.
The story moves along at a brisk enough pace, but it is not a book you can read on auto-pilot. It can be a little dense at times, and occasionally I felt lost and got a little confused, which is why I recommend taking your time with it.
Turow’s trademark twists, are well timed, and effective, but it’s his amazing talent for creating rich characterizations, most notably, Goos, who was ‘Boom’s’ investigation partner, and ‘Attila’ a colorful US Army sergeant who has been told to help assist ‘Boom’, that really stands out.
"There will always be ones like him, won’t there?", asked Goos. “Sure.” I nodded. “The brilliant, charismatic crackpot who gets his hands on the levers of power and exults in mayhem?” “There will always be people like him.”
There is much to contemplate in this novel, and I think it was a bold and ambitious undertaking, offering terrific insights and observations only a writer like Turow could add.
Overall, this one is quite a bit different from other novels by this author, but is every bit as smart, clever, but it is also quite a bit more challenging. Still at the end of the day, Turow delivers another outstanding, thought provoking thriller!
4 stars
stevenk's review against another edition
3.0
The first of the Kindle County Legal Thriller series I've read, it didn't really take place in Kindle County, or have much courtroom work, it was mostly the investigation following up on a witnesses testimony. Bill ten Boom is tapped by the International Criminal Court in the Hague to prosecute the alleged massacre of 400 Roma during the aftermath of the Bosnian War and his follow up takes him in on an adventure. There are a lot of tangent plotlines that relate to the main story in various ways, cover-ups, lies, affairs, broken marriages, family histories that are touched on but then are kind of left hanging and the resolution of the main mystery was less than satisfying but overall the fictionalized take on some real life events made for an entertaining mystery. I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads giveaways.
gmh711's review against another edition
2.0
This book never really grabbed me. The meat of the story took place nearly 20 years earlier during the Bosnian War. The courtroom is the International Criminal Court in The Hague and the investigation is whether war crimes were committed by the UN peacekeeping force. The chief investigator is new to the ICC and is learning a different set of rules. Along the way he develops a couple romantic relationships, but I have to say the the author John Grisham's wife is correct: men can't write sex scenes. At least this one can't. On to the next read....
skinnypenguin's review
3.0
Received this from the Goodreads Giveaways.
Quite an involved story that was hard to keep all the people straight at times. It is set in The Hague and Bosnia. Bill ten Boom quits his private law practice and goes to work for the International Criminal Court and is working on a case where supposedly 400 Roma have been killed in Bosnia. He is at a crossroads in his life. Sounds like a mid life crisis. He is divorced and reestablishing good relations with his children and feels like it is time for something different. During the course of his investigations into this case he hooks up with two different women, one who is working with him and the other is his landlord. Many of the other characters in the book all seem to have their own problems and/or quirks and he deals with those along the way. He is lied to multiple times by multiple people and you just never know who to believe.
The story deals with things that could have happened during and after the civil war in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Croatia, etc. Talks about the persecution of the Roma (gypsies) and peoples perception of them. Lots of discussion about international laws and how they pertain to the U.S. Alludes to possible behind the scenes dealings the U. S. does.
Quite an involved story that was hard to keep all the people straight at times. It is set in The Hague and Bosnia. Bill ten Boom quits his private law practice and goes to work for the International Criminal Court and is working on a case where supposedly 400 Roma have been killed in Bosnia. He is at a crossroads in his life. Sounds like a mid life crisis. He is divorced and reestablishing good relations with his children and feels like it is time for something different. During the course of his investigations into this case he hooks up with two different women, one who is working with him and the other is his landlord. Many of the other characters in the book all seem to have their own problems and/or quirks and he deals with those along the way. He is lied to multiple times by multiple people and you just never know who to believe.
The story deals with things that could have happened during and after the civil war in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Croatia, etc. Talks about the persecution of the Roma (gypsies) and peoples perception of them. Lots of discussion about international laws and how they pertain to the U.S. Alludes to possible behind the scenes dealings the U. S. does.
johnmarlowe's review
3.0
Probably any Scott Turow novel will be good. This book seemed to be an interesting departure from the norm, in that it was centered in Bosnia, Serbia, and the Netherlands. The ethnic war there was something I never understood and this book did not make it any more clear. But it was a good tale of a rumored massacre of Roma, or gypsies, during the period. Everything that occurred in the beginning of the novel was turned on its head by the end.
sophiebillekens's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
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