The Legal Limit [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Martin Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2008

Martin Clark’s most remarkable novel yet is the gripping, complex story of a murder cover-up that wreaks widespread havoc even as it redefines the concept of justice—a relentlessly entertaining saga that delves deeply into matters at once ambiguous and essential.

While Gates Hunt chose to fight his abusive father head-on, his younger brother, Mason, eventually escaped their bitter, impoverished circumstances by earning a free ride to college and law school. And while Gates became an intransigent, compulsive felon, Mason met and married the love of his life, had a spitfire daughter, and returned to his rural hometown as the commonwealth’s attorney. But Mason’s idyll is abruptly pierced by a wicked tragedy, and soon afterward his life further unravels when Gates, convinced that his brother’s legal influence should spring him from prison, attempts to force his cooperation by means of a secret they’d both sworn to take with them to the grave. And with his closest friend and staunch ally suddenly threatened by secrets of his own, Mason ultimately finds himself facing complete ruin and desperately defending everything and everyone he holds dear.

Intricately plotted and shot through with authenticity, The Legal Limit is a roller coaster of moral relevance. What should govern our actions when family loyalty challenges personal integrity, when the letter of the law defies its spirit, and when fate plays dice with our best endeavors?

Editorial Reviews

From Bookmarks Magazine

In this crime/legal thriller, Clark explores the boundaries between law and justice, sin and forgiveness, fraternal bonds and betrayal. Mason stands at the center of an ethical dilemma, but he is no less compelling than his brother, their mother, and even Mason's partner. Clark "draws characters as well as Scott Turow and crafts plots as well as John Grisham," notes the Oregonian, but reviewers agreed that Clark's background has given him superior understanding of legal intricacies. Humor, sharp, regional dialogue, and impeccable plotting make for an unstoppable narrative. Only the Los Angeles Times faulted Clark for sinking "into that soft-focus therapeutic argot that now passes for American moralizing." In the end, however, The Legal Limit compellingly shows that "doing justice does not always flow from a rigid application of the law" (Chicago Sun-Times).
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Review

"A deep yet playful story...Rather than bury the plot in violence, style and contrived momentum, Clark reaches for and achieves something grander...a novel of ample graces." –Allison Glock, The New York Times Book Review

"Funny, smart and Southern to the bone...[The Legal Limit] packs a wallop...it's so intoxicating that it doesn't just dazzle Clark's reviewers, it inspires them." –J. Peder Zane, The News & Observer

"[The Legal Limit] is filled to the brim with creamy, substantive, compelling prose...the manner in which the intricacies of the law, truth, justice and friendship [are] handled is masterful...This is writing at its best." –Barbara Rich, The Daily Progress

"An edge-of-your-seat legal thriller...[Clark's] ear for dialogue and attention to the details of his rural setting are superb...Take it to the beach and turn its pages breathlessly. Then mull over its deeper themes on that long ride home." –Doug Childers, Richmond Times-Dispatch

"In The Legal Limit, Clark...has struck a fine balance between down-home ambiance and high-octane plot...[But] as good as the atmospherics are, what's best about The Legal Limit is Clark's ability to delineate Mason's ethical and emotional quandary as he is forced to choose between blood and principle. Skillfully weaving a plot that includes lie detectors, wiretaps and arcane legal principles, the author creates a world in which family ties can easily turn into nooses." –Stephen Amidon, The Washington Post Book World

"Martin Clark...draws characters as well as Scott Turow and crafts plots as well as John Grisham. The Legal Limit...is a model for how to write a literary legal thriller with a wry sense of humor." –Mark Lindquist, The Oregonian

"With The Legal Limit, Clark has outdone himself again. His novels just keep getting better...He's got the right gifts to draw the raw materials from real life and spin them into well-plotted, beautifully phrased, imaginative works of fiction...Martin Clark is the new standard by which other works of legal fiction should be judged." –Linda Brinson, Winston-Salem Journal

"Perfect summer reading...engrossingly realized...A kind of corkscrew riff on Cain and Abel told with a gritty sort of specificity that reflects the spirit, as well as the practice of criminal law. This one, in other words, is sort of Elmore Leonard meets John Grisham, but very smart and procedurally realistic–think Scott Turow with lots of crackling Southern dialogue and a plot wound as tightly as a watch." –Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times

"Clark conveys the joys of small-town life with an eye for detail and the beauty of worn, familiar things." –Salem Macknee, The Charlotte Observer

"The sharp dialogue and clockwork plotting that have become Clark's signature permeate every page [of The Legal Limit]. But this time, a gravitas accompanies his masterful telling of a story of life and death, crime and punishment, sin and redemption, and the chasm that sometimes opens up between the law and justice...Biblical in it's simplicity and profundity." –Michael Roden, Chicago Sun-Times

“Clark’s wise, knowing novel [is] a superb thriller that ponders family, fraternal loyalty, marital love, child rearing, loss, integrity, tolerance, the fault line between law and justice, and even the economic well-being of a community.” –Booklist, starred review

“A masterful mix of legal arcana and white-knuckle suspense.” –Kirkus, starred review

“Profound and moving…[Clark’s] most substantial and thought-provoking work to date.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (July 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307268357
• ISBN-13: 978-0307268358
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 1.3 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #843,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Justice: "We should be concerned with how the soup tastes and not so damn worried about the particulars of the chef's hat.", July 8, 2008

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Legal Limit (Hardcover)

(4.5 stars) In this absorbing fictionalization of a real murder case from 1984, author Martin Clark, a Virginia circuit court judge, explores the increasingly fraught predicament of Mason Hunt, who, as a naïve young man makes a decision that he must live with for the next twenty years. The product of a terrible home life, Mason has been protected from his sadistic father, during his teen years, by his older brother Gates. Mason eventually escapes the family to attend college and law school, while his brother Gates, at home, grows into a man so filled with rage and so damaged that he believes the world owes him for the abuse he has suffered.

At the outset of the novel, Mason, a young law student, accompanies Gates to a party, where Gates, drunk and high on drugs, becomes involved in an altercation over his girlfriend and shoots and kills Wayne Thompson, her would-be suitor. There are no witnesses--except Mason, who moves instinctively to protect his older brother, crafting an alibi for himself and Gates, and then acting as if nothing has happened. The case remains unsolved, and the two go on with their lives, albeit in different directions. The Thompson case reopens dramatically, however, when Mason eventually becomes a Virginia Commonwealth's attorney, and Gates is in prison on another matter.

Clark tells such a lively can't-put-it-downer that many readers will read well into the wee hours. His characters, often quirky, leap off the page in their realism and the reader identifies with them and their problems, even while recognizing they may deserve the disasters that are obviously awaiting them. The story of the murder eventually insinuates itself into Mason's marriage and family, his long-term friendship with his black assistant, his decisions in the cases before him, and his desire to help his community become revitalized with new jobs, while the setting in Stuart, Virginia, where the actual case took place and where the author now resides, is so vibrant it becomes almost a character.

As in his two previous novels, The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living and Plain Heathen Mischief, Clark examines justice as a relative term, with each character defining it based on his own understanding of right and wrong, innocence and guilt, sin and salvation, and real-life success and failure. As Clark explores the consequences that result when someone commits a short term wrong in order to achieve what he believes is a long-term right, he shows that no decision is ever made in a vacuum or can remain in one. The novel's conclusion contains one or two more complications than are necessary or appreciated, but the author's themes are so fully developed, and the suspense is so fine-tuned that the reader will long ponder whether Mason's ultimate decisions are the "right" ones, or whether, once again, they are expedient. n Mary Whipple

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars realistic, complicated, and riveting, August 4, 2008

By 

Angela Williams (Bassett, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Legal Limit (Hardcover)

The difference between "The Legal Limit" and other books about lawyers/court cases is that in "The Legal Limit" the reader gets an in-depth honest look at the complicated issues lawyers and judges face in their jobs and in their personal lives. This is true of "The Legal Limit" in part because it is based on a true event, Clark uses many real people in his book, and he is himself a judge.

However, this is more than a book about a crime in a specific locale. "The Legal Limit" is a fast-paced, riveting story that could be set anywhere. It's a story about relationships (about which Clark writes so well) as well as difficult situations where the law must be followed but sometimes is unjust.

I read this book in a day. When I finished, I was impressed by Clark's skill as a writer. His previous books (The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living and Plain Heathen Mischief) are excellent, but it's clear Clark's heart is in "The Legal Limit." He must be a compassionate judge, which is good for anyone who comes into his court, but after reading this book, I think readers hope he will give up his full-time job for writing.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make time for this one!, August 1, 2008

By 

R. Ward (Stuart, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Legal Limit (Hardcover)

This book will grab you from the first chapter, suck you in and not let go until you finish it! It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and has more twists and turns than Squirrel Spur Road where they say if you look back quick enough, you can see your own tail lights!

Having grown up in Patrick County, I can relate to the action as it takes place, but the story could apply to any small town in the US. A fast-paced and adroit novel about the legal system and our own human failings, it will keep you reading long into the night. I couldn't put it down until I finished it! I have read all of Martin's novels and this is his best yet! Highly recommended.