Book Review by Robert Wiersema by Scott Turow There are a few reading experiences which one remembers for their entire lives; a few books which one counts as true favourites. My relationship with Chicago writer Scott Turow began in the summer of 1989, almost 40 years ago. I was between semesters, and between jobs, and I took on employment with an inner-city community centre working as a lifeguard for their annual camping trip. Every minute I wasn’t working, though, I was devouring – like millions of other readers that summer – Scott Turow’s first novel, Presumed Innocent. The story of Kindle County prosecutor Rusty Sabich on trial for the murder of his former lover, and fellow prosecutor Carolyn Polhemus, became a literary sensation and international bestseller. And rightly so. The novel – which was adapted on film in 1990 starring Harrison Ford as Sabich, and as a 2024 television series featuring Jake Gyllenhaal in the role – is not only a compelling page-turner, but a deep examination of American relationships and culture, with a tantalizing did-he-or-didn’t-he balancing act which Turow manages to maintain through the novel’s final pages. Since that summer, I’ve reread Presumed Innocent probably a dozen times. I’ve rewatched the movie and listened to the audio book. I’ve taught the novel in university courses. It’s definitely stuck with me. And early this year, like a late Christmas present, there appeared in my e-reader Presumed Guilty – Turow’s 14th novel, and his third to feature Sabich in a starring role. (The first sequel to Presumed Innocent, 2010’s Innocent, found Sabich facing peril following the death of his wife Barbara; it’s a dark, dark read, but fantastic in its own right.) Presumed Guilty finds Sabich, now 77 years old and semi-retired to a small, rural midwestern town. He has a quiet life, a few friends (think regular morning coffee-shop meetings) and a good relationship with his late-life love, Bea. One of the only issues in his life is Aaron, Bea’s son, who has an ongoing struggle with drugs, and a fractious relationship with Mae – the daughter of the town’s prosecutor. When Mae is murdered, Sabich reluctantly takes on his defence (despite the fact that he has never really worked as a defence attorney). Like its predecessors, Presumed Guilty is not only a crackling legal thriller (it might just be me, but the rural setting reminded me a bit of My Cousin Vinny, which is never a bad thing), it’s also an examination of small-town life and relationships, and race in America (Aaron is black). More so, though, it is an opportunity – perhaps our final one? – to check in with Sabich, to follow him as he ages and confronts both his past and his incipient mortality. It’s a powerful reading experience, but you really owe it to Presumed Guilty yourself to read all three books – Presumed Innocent, Innocent, Presumed Guilty – as a single piece. Sabich, in Turow’s hands, is one of the great, unheralded figures in American writing; a deeply flawed, utterly human character. CSANews | SPRING 2025 | 39
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