Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.37 You Save: $9.62 (64%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Presumed Innocent
Book Review: Turgid prose
Summary: 1 Stars
I left this book on the seat of the plane after reading four chapters. Boring and barely literate, this book is a waste of time for all but hardcore thriller completists.Book Review: Twenty Years Later, this Book Can Still Pack a Punch
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: Wasn't that thrilled
Summary: 2 Stars
Listened to this as audiobook as I do most books. Though many of the reviews are flattering, I simply didn't think that much of it. Had to wait for the very end for a hint of any suspense. Ready to move on to the next read.Book Review: disappointed
Summary: 1 Stars
There are few books I never finish; this was one. I was not "gripped" by this "thriller", got tired of the language and sent it to the thrift store.