Instruct: Classify a review as either positive or negative.
Query: Absolutely Awful

This. Is. Terrible. After reading "Presumed Innocent," which I consider one of the genre-breaking books in crime fiction during the past 20 years, I turned to this. The beginning starts off brilliantly as the first chapter is the perfect mix of pathos and plot setting. Everything, however, goes down hill from there. A self-pitying (sexist) protagonist, aimless flashbacks, odd occurrences (and re-occurrences) by weak characters, and a plot that is convoluted (and seriously dated by today's financial standards), the book grows increasingly painful until the final page. Upon completing the work, I set it down, not with satisfaction, but with disgust at having wasted so much time. I gave it two stars instead of one probably because I admired Turow's first book so much that I wished this had been a better reading experience.