Turow has done his homework, and his incremental presentation of the evidence not only illuminates the legal issues involved, but it also offers a thorough, digestible account of the steps — research, development, testing — by which a newly created drug is brought to market. Turow is particularly good at integrating this arcane material into a dramatic narrative. Readers of The Last Trial will find themselves both entertained and painlessly educated ... Turow teases out these mysteries with immense skill and deliberation. The result is another intelligent page turner by an acknowledged master. Turow, though, has always been more than a popular entertainer. He is a first-rate novelist for whom the world of the courtroom — a world in which the justice done is only 'rough and approximate' — becomes the vehicle for intense investigations into the varieties of human frailty ... No one tells this sort of story better than Turow. No one has illuminated the human side of the legal profession with such precision and care. The Last Trial is Scott Turow at his best and most ambitious. He has elevated the genre once again.

... true-to-form, pleasingly substantial ... In this meticulously devised courtroom drama, rich with character detail, Turow again demonstrates what he does best: roll out a complex, keenly observed legal case yet save a boatload of surprises for its ending. And make it personal. There’s a lot of Sandy’s own life wrapped up in the case with which he’s exiting ... A lot of plot and keen observation keep this book moving. Turow’s regular readers will find him in gratifyingly good form ... The book proceeds just as a trial would, with chapters devoted to procedural stages and the different charges Pafko faces. No writer invests these gradual legal developments with the kind of micro-suspense that Turow does.

Turow makes the most complicated legal matters understandable and even exciting ... His latest sure-to-be-a-bestseller-and-likely-to-be-a-movie-too novel ... One of the admirable aspects of Turow’s work is that he is no showoff. As literate and smart as anyone in the writing biz, he is not given to fancy literary flourishes but rather devotes his considerable gifts to deep insights about the failings of the flesh ... Turow writes like a dream. Obviously having digested piles of information about drug research, data manipulation and insider trading, his courtroom becomes stage for compelling explanations of rules of evidence, the nuances of hearsay and how to conduct effective cross-examination ... These people come to colorful life and though the trial is center stage, it will be Turow’s characters who linger in the mind.

Not everyone will relish the...fixation on legal and verbal minutiae, but the meticulousness is essential to Turow’s distinctive, addictive fusion of the cerebral and the melodramatic. The novel features death, grief, revenge, rage, international fame, vast wealth, breathtaking deceit, attempted murder and illicit passion (Pafko’s wife, lover and ex-lover are in court), all filtered à la classical tragedy through the formality of the five-act trial ... Devotees of Saul Bellow or Philip Roth may be reminded of those of their books centred on the doppelgänger-like relationship of two men warily circling each other, as Stern finds his failings — his reliance on specious charm, his ethical corner-cutting, his defects as a husband — mirrored and magnified by Pafko, who is exposed by the trial’s testimony as a narcissistic serial liar ... Although the comparison may seem far-fetched, Turow’s characterisation and psychology in this superlative performance are by no means inferior to such literary novels, and the writing is just as fine (rhetoric is Stern’s superpower, after all) — while the plot, at once propulsive and impeccably structured, is infinitely more gripping.

Turow has established the gold standard for legal thrillers for decades, and he delivers another bar-raising example of his talent here, with his signature absorbing legal details, cerebral suspense, and fascinatingly flawed characters all on full view.

Turow is also a practicing lawyer with experience in tax fraud and corruption litigation, as well as criminal law, and it shows. Readers have come to expect a high degree of verisimilitude in his fiction, and The Last Trial is no exception to the rule ... where legal procedure and jargon may often become complex and difficult to follow, Turow ensures that his courtroom drama is accessible to general readers. His narrator often takes a moment to clarify the meaning of legal terms in a casual, non-intrusive way, and fuzzy concepts such as the rules pertaining to hearsay evidence are explained simply and without unnecessary detail ... For a person whose primary career has been the law and legal advocacy, Turow should also receive credit for being more than a passable novelist...His ability to create and develop engaging characters is on display to full effect in The Last Trial ... If fault must be found with this novel, it resides in its structure. The prologue, while creating suspense, sits in the back of one’s head throughout like a second shoe that won’t drop. There’s a fine line between Hitchcockian suspense and prolonged irritation, and this prologue arguably crosses the line ... Additionally, where the climax of most courtroom dramas lies in the delivery of the verdict by the jury, this one occurs beforehand, right after Stern’s summation, when he finally keels over and the lights go out. News of the verdict comes to us afterward, at the beginning of a very long dénouement that involves more than a hundred pages of back story explanations, housekeeping, and mystery solving. Too long, too repetitive of earlier scenes, and too anti-climatic ... Despite its structural flaws, The Last Trial is another excellent courtroom drama by a proven master of the legal thriller. Unlike other hall of famers in the genre, Turow is smart enough to stick to what he does best—a solid legal thriller with a page-turning story, an excellent main character, and fresh insight into subject matter that extends naturally from the trial at the center of the novel.

The twisty plot leaves the question of Palko’s guilt unsettled until the very end. While this entry lacks the gut punches of the author’s best books, it’s still a page-turner that makes a trial centered on fraud and insider trading fascinating. Turow remains in a class of his own in conveying the subtleties of criminal defense work while also entertaining his readers.

With its bland prosecutors, frequent focus on technical details like 'double-blind clinical trials,' and lack of real surprises, the novel likely will disappoint some fans of legal thrillers. But this smoothly efficient book gains timely depth through its discussion of thorny moral issues raised by a drug that can extend a cancer sufferer's life expectancy at the risk of suddenly ending it. A strongly felt, if not terribly gripping, sendoff for a Turow favorite nearly 35 years after his appearance in Presumed Innocent.