Review by Booklist Review
Turow's latest wraps up the story of Rusty Sabich, Sandy Stern's unjustly accused client in Presumed Guilty, Turow's first novel, published in 1987, and in Innocent (2010). Here he transports readers to retired judge Rusty's quiet life in Mirror Lake with his fiancée, Bea. Rusty and Bea have agreed to supervise her adopted son Aaron's probation and are proud that he's maturing into a responsible young man. Unfortunately, Aaron can't kick his volatile relationship with Mae Potter, the magnetic but self-destructive daughter of a prominent local family. Both families are alarmed when Aaron and Mae drop off the radar; then Aaron finally returns alone. He claims they had a fight while camping and that he hitchhiked home and doesn't know where Mae is. Mae's body is soon found, and her autopsy reveals that she was strangled. When Aaron is arrested, Rusty agrees to defend him even though it places his future with Bea on the line. He'll be fighting uphill. Aaron is Black, has a record, and the population in that section of the state is overwhelmingly white. The trial that follows is a master class in legal suspense as Turow weaves together the devastation of Aaron and Mae's families, simmering racial prejudice, and the impact of small-town politics within a framework of deliciously tense courtroom dynamics. This is manna for legal-thriller fans.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Given the hit Apple TV+ adaptation of Presumed Innocent, readers will be avid for this conclusion to the trilogy.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Turow shines in his third legal thriller featuring former Kindle County prosecutor Rusty Sabich (after Innocent). Now 77, Rusty has retired and settled down with elementary school principal Bea Housley. His hopes for a small wedding and quiet retirement are derailed when Bea's 22-year-old adopted son, Aaron, gets into trouble. Ever since he was convicted, 18 months earlier, of felony drug possession, Aaron, who is Black, has been on strict probation that requires him to stay in contact with Bea and Rusty. Then the couple loses touch with him for several days. After Aaron resurfaces, he claims he was camping with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, and that he left her in the woods following a fierce argument. But when Aaron's girlfriend is found strangled to death, he's charged with murder. Against his better judgment, Rusty agrees to defend him, despite having limited experience as a defense attorney. Turow keeps readers guessing about the truth, impressively maintaining suspense across the book's hefty page count. Along the way, he weaves in trenchant observations about the justice system's racial biases, which weigh heavily on Rusty's decision to take up Aaron's case. This easily ranks among Turow's best. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary. (Jan.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Having been falsely convicted of murder himself years ago, prosecutor Rusty Sabich defies common wisdom in defending his romantic partner's adopted son against the same accusation. Now 76, Rusty has retired to the (fictitious) Skageon Region in the upper Midwest, far removed from Kindle County, Turow's Chicago stand-in, where he was a star attorney and judge. Aaron Housley, a Black man raised in a bleached rural environment, has had his troubles, including serving four months for holding drugs purchased by Mae Potter, his erratic, on-and-off girlfriend. Now, after suddenly disappearing to parts unknown with her, he returns alone. When days go by without Mae's reappearance, it is widely assumed that Aaron harmed her. Why else would he be in possession of her phone? Following the discovery of Mae's strangled body and incriminating evidence that points to Aaron, Rusty steps in. Opposed in court by the uncontrollable, gloriously named prosecutor Hiram Jackdorp, he fears he's in a lose-lose situation. If he fails to get Aaron off, which is highly possible, the boy's mother, Bea, will never forgive him. If Rusty wins the case, the quietly detached Bea--who, like half the town, has secrets--will have trouble living with the unsparing methods Rusty uses to free Aaron. In attempting to match, or at least approach, the brilliance of his groundbreaking masterpiecePresumed Innocent (1987), Turow has his own odds to overcome. No minor achievement like a previous follow-up,Innocent (2010), the new novel is a powerful display of straightforward narrative, stuffed with compelling descriptions of people, places, and the legal process. No one stages courtroom scenes better than this celebrated Chicago attorney. But the book, whose overly long scenes add up to more than 500 pages, mostly lacks the gripping intensity and high moral drama to keep those pages turning. It's an absorbing and entertaining read, but Turow's fans have come to expect more than that. An accomplished but emotionally undercooked courtroom drama by the author who made that genre popular. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
