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Summary: Book Review Presumed Innocent
Review: Rusty is a normal man, an attorney, that fell in love with a woman that he shouldn't have, Carolyn, which is later discovered dead. He had an affair with this woman while he was married to a loving wife, Barbara, the mother of their only son, Nathaniel. Through Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow we see the development of Carolyn's murder case and witness the scintillating tension of the courtroom drama that takes place when Rusty is no longer the prosecutor but takes the place as the defendant after being charged with Carolyn's murder. However, what separates Scott Turow's novel from the rest is how he cleverly contributes his "inside knowledge of the American legal system" (Los Angeles Times) to the story line. Fortunately, graduating from both Harvard and Stanford University prove to have been worth the effort for Scott; landing him a spot as assistant attorney of the Seventh District United States Court of Appeals and later making him a partner of the Sonnenschein, Carlin, Nath, and Rosenthal Law Firm. Scott Turow brings a freshness to law stories by allowing his readers to become part of his story. We uncover evidence as the characters do--sometimes even before the characters do creating an unbearable suspense--letting us untangle a possible motive for the killer's actions. All the way, Turow leaves behind subtle hints and clues that he pulls together intelligently piece by piece. When Rusty finally realizes what is actually happening around him, Turow expresses his own legal expertise through Rusty's persona. "Yeah, but I'm a big attorney, not a dummy. I was supposed to recognize the glass--not ask for prints", Turow writes, "in a major murder case you ain't gonna ask for prints. Maybe she didn't know they could make a laser match" (Presumed Innocent,416-417). With lines like these, Scott Turow applies insight of our justice program with an uncanny amount of accuracy that it crawls beneath your skin. His work may be fiction but the influence behind it is all too real. This "gripping tale of murder and courtroom drama" (New York Times Magazine) is the work of a profoundly gifted writer, asking us questions like "What is harder? Knowing the truth or finding it, telling it or being believed?" (Presumed Innocent,418) to allow our minds to develop into that of a killer--a woman desperate to keep her husband and willing to do anything in her power to make sure she keeps her family together. However, her plans are altered when the last person she ever expected to be on the case, Rusty, is handed it being the police's last resort to ever soolve Carolyn's murder. Therefore, taking homicide very seriously, he refuses to give up on Carolyn's killer determined to help the memory of a loving friend. However, suspicion grows when the evidence found starts to hit close to home. Futhermore, Turow does an excellent job of foreshadowing the conflict that arises in the courtroom and an even better job of wrapping up all the loose ends left behind leaving his readers with a sense of overwhelming surprise until the last, riveting page. Scott Turow pulls our strings and allows our suspense to grow out of control with every sentence, giving an ending that you'll be dreaming about for weeks. Torn between the loss of a woman he yearned for, which is not his wife and her murderer which is, Rusty is forced to put everything he loves and values on the line. However, it's not an easy choice to make and what he decides to do is sure to affect his life forever. With this book, Scott Turow establishes himself as jone of America's most compelling and artistic novelists probably causing "more sleppless nights than caffeine." (Vogue)
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Summary: Crime of passion
Review: This is, in all probability, the best mystery I have ever read, or ever will read. "Presumed Innocent" has so much to recommend it: compelling characters that seem to leap off the page, motives from every possible angle, interconnecting subplots that keep you guessing, and a passionate writing style. Scott Turow has created a masterpiece. To add to the intrigue, the mystery is narrated first-person by Rusty Sabich, the deputy DA. His latest case is the murder of his co-worker, a strikingly attractive attorney by the name of Carolyn Polhemus. Carolyn has been killed in a manner that suggests she was quite closely involved with her murderer, and as an added twist, she has been "involved" with several members of the DA's office, including Rusty himself. Rusty, in spite of his marriage vows, found himself obsessed with Carolyn, even long after Carolyn ended the affair. Turow provides so many interlocking plots and peripheral characters that spotting the "red herrings" is a virtually impossible task. Each character, including Carolyn , is so sharply drawn and three-dimensional, that there are a number of possible scenarios. What may seem like "obvious" solutions are not so obvious at all. Turow has also managed to create a number of memorable characters: Rusty, whose eagerness to please rarely gets rewarded. His wife, Barbara, a silent, uncommunicative woman who continues to smolder with resentment long after Rusty's affair with Carolyn has ceased. Carolyn, the coldly opportunistic "user" who has learned from her abusive past to hurt others before they hurt her. Raymond, Rusty's slave-driving boss whose selfishness prevents him from looking out for anyone but #1. Sandy Stern, the brilliant soft-spoken defense lawyer whose theatrics are the high point of the novel. Dan Lipranzer, the cop who's a street punk at heart. Nico Della Guardia, who finds himself having to live up to his shameless self-promotion. Larren Lyttle, the judge who still falls into "street jive" even while seated on the bench. And so many more--even the minor characters are standouts in their own way. Definitely a "stranded on a desert island" selection.
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Summary: One of the best books I have ever read
Review: I picked this book up after reading "1L" and I'm certainly glad I did. Turow's writing style is impeccable and a pleasure to read. There is no wasted space in this novel - everything written contributes directly to the end result of the novel. Turow really does an excellent job of respecting the intelligence of his audience. . .he doesn't ruin the story by stating the obivous and he really keeps you engaged.I enjoyed every page of this book and the end was a complete surprise to me, although it made complete sense. Don't read too many of these reviews because the some of the plot descriptions contain inadvertent spoilers! This is an excellent read.
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Summary: Presumed Innocent
Review: I just read a review on this site that made me wonder if that reviewer and I had read the same book. Her obvious disappointment with the characters and plot was sad to read. "Presumed Innocent" was a fascinating read I thought. Rusty Sabich is accused of murdering his colleague and, unbeknownst to his accusers, his ex-lover. He tells his own story, and if Scott Turow is a lawyer first, his career as a writer must follow a very close second. First person narrators are barely to be believed if they are telling their own stories. The fragmented technique used by Turow to tell Rusty's story has two vital uses. First, it reflects the state of his mind: he narrates in vivid flashback and in first person present. Rusty is a fragmented man himself. He is emotionally fragile and is being pounded on by elements he feels he cannot control. Rusty believes that he was in love with the dead woman and for the kind of man that he unfolds into being, this is not at all difficult to accept. He makes himself out to be quite dispassionate, but all his actions reveal that he is very passionate and needs to be around people who are as well. Watch out for storytellers who are promising to be objective and truthful. They rarely ever are and more lie in what they say about situations and others than in what they say about themselves directly. Also, this is a wonderful technique to leave the reader wanting more. Turow does not protect his reader from harsh realities in the world of a prosecuting attorney: rape, murder and violent acts. The seemingly large number of characters do not detract from Rusty's story, as they all have their roles to play in the telling. Fragmented narrators seem to feel the need to describe a lot of people around them so as to deflect attention away from themselves and this happens here too. Yet, Turow manages to make all his characters interesting and colourful: Rusty's emtionally distant wife, his politricking boss, his sauve defence lawyer, the larger-than-life judge, the sexy, know-what-she-wants-and-how-to-get-it ex-lover. They all have their stories and very dark sides. Turow may be a "real" writer, but he is not an insensitive one. Barbara Sabich may not be very likeable, but her love for her son is without question, as is Rusty's gentle and intense devotion to their child. The strange kinship between Rusty and his best friend, Dan Lipranzer, is sweet, without being cloying, and it makes you hope to have a friend like that. Turow allows the story to unfold easily and naturally, not hurrying to let things happen, so he keeps the reader in suspense. The investigation into the murder reveals more about others than it does about the accused and when characters begin to become worried about exposure, the book picks up. Flashbacks into Rusty's early career are raw and not for those with a weak stomach. The trial scenes are clear and there is one scene where Rusty's lawyer goes after a pathologist that makes you want to cheer. The film, although sound, didn't do justice the novel and should be read, if just to fill in the blanks. the ending is truly a suprise for a first reader, and not just discovering whodunnit. Turow's novel flows easily, keeps the reader interested and is definately unputdownable.
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Summary: A Tremendous Book
Review: Scott Turow takes on two of fiction writing's most difficult tasks in Presumed Innocent--and succeeds marvelously! One is to write in first person narrative. This is an overused technique, usually employed by rookies, that makes more sense in literary novels than this type. It certainly makes telling a complex story such as this more difficult because of the limitations in how information can be passed to the reader. The biggest problem is in making the writing readable. Without great talent, first person narratives quickly become bogged down with repetitive "I did this ... but then I saw that... and then I went there." Turow makes this narrative invisible, allowing the crucial "suspension of disbelief." His second accomplishment is to write a book with a truly surprise ending. You will not see it coming, and you will be amazed. His understanding of the legal process, of which he writes, is obvious. His characters are interesting and very three dimensional. The movie is good too, but read the story first. My hat is off to Turow. He is a professional writer of the first order, and Presumed Innocent is one the best works in the genre. When I grow up, I want to write just like Scott Turow. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.
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Summary: Fascinating all the way to the last page
Review: "Presumed Innocent" is a book that combines all of the aspects of a mystery novel with the aspects of a courtroom drama. At the start, Rusty Sabich is living a normal life. He has a fine job as a procuting attorney for Kindle County and is marred with one son. Suddenly, something completely unexpected happens. Mr. Sabbich has been accused of murduring a fellow P.A. The trial has begun and Rusty's attorneys are hard at work solving the mystery. It hits the defense team that there is some chance that Mr Sabich might have been framed by his co-workers. The mystery develops into an indepth trial filled with many twists and turns. Mr. Turow does a great job in keeping the reader guessing. At no point does Rusty Sabich give any indications as to whether he is innocent or guilty. Throughout the novel you will be asking yourself questions like was he set up? Did Rusty really kill her? Scott Turow provides a thrilling third person account of what a murder case would really be like. The ending will put you in a state of shock and haunt you even after you are finished reading
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Summary: Who is innocent, who guilty?
Review: I read this book in 1993 when it was published and to this day consider it an enormous creative achievement and the best and most successful novel I have ever read. By successful I mean it artfully accomplishes everything it sets out to do and holds the reader in suspense until the final revelations. All this is done through the perspective of the protagonist, Rusty, alone. The reader becomes the worldly wise and world weary hot shot prosecuting attorney, and most remarkably,even though we are inside his head and his skin, until the later pages of the book we are not sure if he is the murderer or not. And yet, as a fully drawn if somewhat subdued character, he totally engages us and wins our sympathy and identification. Unlike the opinion of several of the posted reviews here, this is an extremely well written and ingeniously composed work. It was so original when it came out, breathing new life and possibility into the tired murder mystery, legal thriller form, that reviewers did not quite know what to do with it. To my reading this confusion was little more than veiled envy at the writer's staggering accomplishment...The film was a quite professional attempt to encompass a first person, internal narrative that defies easy translation into cinematic exposition. Harrison Ford's performance in this case did not rise to meet the challenge, but the dullness of the film represents the difficulty of getting at the heart of this kind of storytelling. It was crafted to be read and savored page by page by the lucky reader. And to be played back over time in the mind's eye, that best of all movie screen we each possess. But "Presumed Innocent" is more than an entertainment. It is late 20th century popular literature of the highest order. It forces us to recognize and come to grips with one of the oldest tragic truths of human experience, our flawed nature. A magnificent book.
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Summary: Absolutely Amazing
Review: This book grabbed my attention from the first moment and held on to it until the end. Instead of being a predictable legal thriller, like some others I have read, this great murder mystery/legal thriller has plenty of twists and turns through its thick and nuanced plot. The story is set in Kindle County and is about Rusty Sabich, a man who seems set for life: he has a lovely wife and son, a job in the Prosecuting Attorney's Office at which he excels, and a strong friendship with Detective Lipranzer of the KCPD. After a fellow PA is killed and Rusty is implicated, he must stake everything he holds dear to prove his innocence. After he is found not guilty, the book really gets interesting and it just can not be put down. The ending, though is ambiguous and is open to the interpretation of the reader, testing how well they think they know the characters. I enjoyed this book very much and I think that Turow is a better writer than John Grisham, although the books of the latter always absorb me because of their excellent plots. I would recommend this book to anybody.
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Summary: Excellent writing
Review: Having seen the movie a long time ago, and having read a couple of Turows later books, I was very pleasantly surprised that not only did I not feel I ruined the book by knowing how it all turned out I also felt that this book was his strongest story. Intrigue, romance, lies, betrayal, sex, murder, powerful attorney's and a story with twists and turns, this is a must read for any that are interested in the genre and haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Turow is a master at writing dialogue, it seems to flow naturally off the page and it makes all the characters believable and either likable, dislikable or downright hated. I would certainly recommend reading this before seeing the movie if I had my choice, but don't skip it even if you already know the ending. The writing here is just plain excellent and I give this one a very strong recommendation.
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Summary: Brilliant
Review: Not only really exciting, but extremely well-written with believable characters. Unusually for a book told in the first person, the narrator was human and flawed. Apart from the twists in the tale, I also liked the descriptions of Kindle County etc., which made me feel as though I was there.
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