Latest Scott Turow Legal Thriller Puts 'Innocent' Rusty Sabich in New Murder Trial
After a 23-year gap, attorney and best-selling author Scott Turow has brought the lead character of one of his best-known legal thrillers back into the spotlight again as the defendant in a new murder case.
Rusty Sabich, now over 60 and an appellate judge, is still in his stilted marriage to his volatile wife, Barbara. But not for long: She is dead, in bed, for no clear reason. Once again, the protagonist of Turow’s stunningly successful Presumed Innocent is suspected of murdering one of the women in his life.
If you can get past the improbable premise of Innocent that Sabich and Barbara are still a couple—it is as if a sequel to Fatal Attraction puts Michael Douglas and Glenn Close back together, says a New York Times book review—the rest of the novel is fast-paced and absorbing.
The opening of the new book, which goes on sale today, is excerpted on the Brennan Center for Justice blog, with the author’s permission.
But there’s one caveat, reports Bloomberg:
“If you haven’t read Presumed Innocent, please do. The ending of that book was one of the great shockers of recent literature, and will color your reading of Innocent. And Turow, courteously, craftily, stealthily, never once gives it away.”
In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Turow, who is still in practice at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, talks about his professional and personal life.
The son of a very critical and successful physician, Turow recalls his dad’s reaction to Presumed Innocent back when it was the No. 1 best-seller: “He looked at me and said, ‘I still think you could’ve gone to medical school.’ ”
