The first pages of “Limitations,” the 10th book by lawyer-author Scott Turow, give a glimpse of what a judge may think during oral argument.

Turow’s George Mason, a judge on an intermediate appeals court hearing a high-profile rape case, has a lot on his mind. His wife has cancer, he’s received menacing e-mails from a mysterious stalker and he is growing tired of a colleague whose goal always seems to be “proving he is the smartest lawyer in the room.”