Twenty Years Later, this Book Can Still Pack a Punch

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	• Presumed Innocent: A Novel Scott Turow Farrar Straus Giroux, 1987 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 86 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Time Killer - Nothing More

For his first work of fiction, Scott Turow opted for that creature of an infinite number of crime noir books - the innocent man falsely accused. But PRESUMED INNOCENT is not noir, falling instead into the more generic genre of standard mystery. Rusty Sabich, a prosecutor in a fictional Midwestern county, becomes the center of suspicion when Carolyn, a former co-worker and lover, turns up dead. That Carolyn seemed like the type of woman who would have collected a number of enemies at the point in her life when she died, many of whom might have been happy to do the ghastly deed, seems not to dampen anyone's enthusiasm about pointing at Rusty instead.

Turow takes us through several plot twists and legal maneuvers. Rusty is, of course, a lawyer and knows the system. But so is Turow, the author, and his knowledge of the field comes through. The story line flows easily enough and, if not exactly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is at least as good as the average mystery writer. Although we do not know for sure if Rusty is the killer until the end, we kind of suspect he is not.

While none of the characters are necessarily weak or poorly drawn, none of them are really all that memorable either. Well, with one exception, and it is a detriment that the most interesting character, the coroner, is also the one that is destroyed. Rusty's wife, and his relationship with her in a faltering marriage, is concrete enough for us to connect. But again, nothing memorable.

None of this is meant in a necessarily bad way. Plenty of books stay with me - because of how bad they are. PRESUMED INNOCENT is ok, and if you like your mysteries straight up, then give it a go.

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Great Book - Thoroughly Enjoyed It

One of Turow's best, if not the best. I have not seen the movie, therefore the ending was a complete surprise.
I will not repeat what the other Reviewers have written, just wanted to rate the novel as I thought it was truly a 5-Star read.

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Twenty Years Later, this Book Can Still Pack a Punch

I first read PRESUMED INNOCENT when it first came out in 1987, back when I was in my mid-teens. Having recently re-read it as an adult, I wonder how much of it I actually understood as a teenager. This is a book meant for mature adults.

This book is also quite good, a finely crafted legal thriller that succeeds at multiple levels. The prose in PRESUMED INNOCENT is first rate, and the major characters are drawn with great complexity and depth. This novel starts slowly, but once the trial begins about a third of the way through, it really takes off and becomes a highly suspenseful page turner. All the courtroom scenes are also terrifically well done and brim with authenticity, which shouldn't be surprising given Turow's background as a prosecutor in Chicago.

PRESUMED INNOCENT also succeeds as psychological drama. The protagonist of this novel, prosecutor Rusty Sabich, is 39-years old and is forced to deal with numerous career and relationship struggles that many men typically face at that age. I'm still not as old as Sabich, but this time around I found him much easier to relate to as a person. He's hardly perfect (all of the major characters in this novel are severely flawed in one way or another), but I felt quite a bit empathy for him by the end.

This book was published quite some time ago, before the high-profile debuts of writers like John Grisham, Patricia Cornwell, Michael Connelly or Jonathan Kellerman. For 1987, PRESUMED INNOCENT was quite a groundbreaking effort, and it largely holds up twenty years later. This novel has a richness and complexity to it that most thrillers sorely lack these days.

While PRESUMED INNOCENT may not be as cutting edge as it was in the 1980s, it's still a great read that is well worth your time. Turow is apparently writing a long-awaited sequel to this novel, and I am eagerly looking forward to it.

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Better than your average beach/airport novel

This is a strong, compelling story with a page-turner drive. Though longer than average, it's easy to read and took only a couple of days of concentrated effort to finish, and it was a pleasure to do so. My impression is that the most powerful element of this book is the characters - they are well drawn, with good voices, and consistent through the arc of the story. My only criticism is that some of the strong voices are stereotypical - but, of course, stereotypes come from somewhere.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Scott Turow's #1 runaway bestseller comes to theaters everywhere as a major motion picture from Warner Bros., starring Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, Raul Julia, and Bonnie Bedelia, directed by Alan Pakula, best known for his award-winning work in "Klute." Reissue.

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