Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Presumed Innocent
Book Review: Great trial book!
Summary: 4 Stars
Presumed Innocent follows Rusty Sabich, the cheif deputy PA, as he investigates the murder of his colleague Carolyn Polhemus, a woman he was also having an affair with months before her murder. While investigating the murder the tables are turned as he becomes the prime suspect.
I hadn't read a good "lawyer" book in awhile and the trial portion of PI I found fascinating! Turow really explained strategies and tactics of both the defense and prosecution.
Overall a good read - not as "thrilling" as it claims - it's easy to figure out the "whodunit" part - but there is an interesting subplot that kept my attention.
Book Review: Gripping and classic legal thriller!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read Presumed Innocent almost fifteen years ago. I'd been thinking of going to law school and Presumed Innocent is on the list of books that many law schools send you the summer before you begin studying. I remember thinking that the book spent more time on legal technicalities than the other thrillers that I'd read. Reading Presumed Innocent with an eye to joining the profession gave it a certain air as well.
Now after years as an entirely different sort of lawyer, the detective work, legal technicalities and procedural law aspects continue to delight me. Though I've read the book and watched the movie and am vaguely aware that a twist is sure to come, Presumed Innocent draws me in as though it were completely new. Scott Turow's writing remains fresh and engaging.
Other reviewers have mentioned that the book has lost its impact for them, that they're not as impressed by it years later. I have a very different reaction to the book -- years later and after close to 15 years studying and practicing law, I find that Presumed Innocent has grown to be even more gripping and entertaining. Though you might have expected me to figure out the ending given that I'd read the book before and seen the movie, but the enjoyment comes from how Turow built up the suspense and described the trial. It's the execution of the concept that makes Presumed Innocent a legal thriller that will last for years to come. I'm very much looking forward to reading Turow's next book Innocent that comes out on May 4, 2010.
ISBN-10: 0446676446 - Paperback
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (December 1, 2000), 512 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Book Review: I Lived This Book
Summary: 5 Stars
I didn't just read "Presumed Innocent," I lived it. After a chapter or two, I became so involved in the plot and its characters, that I rearranged my schedule to make time to dwell in the world Scott Turow created. As a lawyer, I was totally captivated by the realistic mapping of the legal process and courtroom procedures. The plot twists came as complete surprises to me. This huge blockbuster of a novel, now 23-years old, stands the test of time. Scott Turow has just written a sequel, "Innocent," which has received rave reviews. I will read it, but I won't wait 23 years to do so.Book Review: Long Winded Unthrilling Thriller
Summary: 3 Stars
I found much of this book to be a slow, tough slog. I'm not giving away anything by saying that a good deal of the book is composed of first person soliloquies about an illicit affair with perhaps the skankiest female I can remember ever meeting in any book. After pages and pages of the narrator going on about how he's taken by this miserable [can't print it here] I really had had it. I started skimming this drivel filler hoping to find something interesting.
I did. Once the trial gets underway the pace picks up nicely making for a good, perhaps, 1/3 of the book. Clearly the author has a great feel for courtroom drama and maneuvering. So we zoom along for the trial and then, once again, slow down to a snail's pace for the final few pages where once again the narrator goes in to high whine mode about this or that complaint.
In the end, I had no sympathy at all for the narrator or many of the other main characters in the book. In fact, many times I wished I could meet the narrator so I could stuff a sock in his mouth. I also got the sense that the world is a lot cleaner with the victim off the earth and fertilizing cabbages. I ended up with sympathy for those the author probably thought were bad guys - the villain who prosecutes the case, the put upon wife of the narrator and the various streetwise police who pop up from time to time.
I will say that the author's description of prison administration is about the most horrifying I've ever read. I also doubt that it's accurate but if it is, it's a heck of an indictment of our judicial system.
One further comment: the Kindle edition I read is full of laughable typos such as getting the names of people wrong in places. At one point, a person is supposed to take out a 'straight razor' which changes to a 'straight edge'. I got a few laughs courtesy of Mr. Kindle.
Book Review: Presumed Innocent
Summary: 5 Stars
The book arrived in good condition. My husband enjoyed reading
this novel.