The Legal Limit

Author Martin Clark, a Virginia circuit judge, has written that while he has an interest in both the law and writing he had decided not to mix the two for a variety of valid reasons. His decision changed in 2003 when he was told a story, which he verified. We're in his debt for changing his mind as The Legal Limit is one of the most absorbing, though provoking tales to come along in many moons. Clark quickly notes that this is not a literal diary but as he puts it "there are plenty of facts in these pages , but I've definitely retooled them to serve the story I wanted to tell." "Retooled" is the author's word, it would not be mine to describe this remarkable work. Clark's writing is precise, distinct, assured, painterly, if you will, as he describes a person or the small town of Stuart, Virginia. His skillful technique never overshadows his sensitivity to human foibles, and his plotting is so adroitly constructed that one is compelled to keep reading yet doesn't want the book to end. The Legal Limit's story is both as old as the Bible and as fresh as tomorrow. It is a tale of two brothers - Mason and Gates Hunt. Visiting home during his last year in law school, Mason is relaxed and happy. He's glad to be enjoying his mother's cooking and enjoying his older brother's company, even though Gates keeps cocaine in a Crown royal bag under the seat of his car and guzzles "SunDrop and vodka without any ice to dilute the potency." Most would probably see Gates as an intemperate jobless ne'er-do-well who still lives with his mother. But Mason sees him quite differently as he is the stronger older brother who protected him from the abuse of their father. What begins innocently enough as a visit to Gates's girlfriend, Denise, turns dark and ugly that night when Gates and Mason are pursued by Wayne who is a rival for Denise. Once the two cars stop on a dirt road Wayne tries to goad Gates into a fight - it doesn't take much doing, and then the totally unexpected tragedy. Mason quickly decides that for once he will be the protector and help his brother conceal his crime. That decision would change the course of his life, challenge his beliefs, and cause us to thoughtfully ponder the sometimes difference between law and justice. Highly recommended. - Gail Cooke

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.

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.

The LEGAL LIMIT truly is better than all the great reviews promise. I first heard about it on NPR. Next was the high praise in The Washington Post. The thing is: It's not so much "a legal thriller." It's a big, sweeping book that has legal issues in it, but it's also a story full of family and child raising and life in a small town. There's politics and friendship, too. The writing never misses the mark, and most important, the plot keeps you guessing to the very end. An AMAZING, ENTERTAINING book.

(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