A review by erika_is_reading
Innocent by Scott Turow

2.0

I found myself skimming rapidly to find out what happened, which is a sure sign that the writing is bad. Very few of the characters were well developed or made lasting impressions. The few that resonated (e.g., his lawyer) were caricatures, and some of the personal details seemed distracting. The dead wife had bipolar disorder (I, clearly). That part seemed well researched and resonated, but her character was never really drawn out. It was researched adequately to advance the plot and make an impression, but not enough to really bring her to life. The affair between Anna and the Judge was fairly well drawn as well, but again, only enough to advance the plot, not enough to bring them to life. I was a bit surprised at aspects of the ending (perhaps if I’d read more closely I would not have been). But the writing was too bad for me to linger on the page. At least he made the effort to write from different perspectives and different moments in time, but I find it harder and harder to distinguish his oeuvre from Grisham's.