Presumed Innocent was originally published by Scott Turow back in 1987 and it was turned into a movie featuring Harrison Ford not too many years later. I made the mistake of Googling it before reading it so the entire time I just pictured the main character as Harrison Ford the entire time…I have also not seen the movie.
This is the first book in the Kindle County series about a prosecutor whose friendships are questioned when he gets accused of murdering a fellow co-worker. For the most part I enjoyed the story and the ending was interesting and unexpected.
There was a lot that I didn’t care for. For one, it is very long and wordy. One paragraph could take up an entire page. There were times where it was really slow and I skimmed it. Also the main character is not likeable.
The ending was not set up for a sequel so I’m curious how the series has 12 books and is still going…I will give book 2 a try but this wouldn’t be in my top recommend lists for crime...
★★★ ( )

Just finished re-reading this one. Very good and my memory of the ending was wrong so the finish was an unexpected treat. It's been awhile since I read Turow and this book seemed rougher tan his more recent stuff. Can't decide of that was by design or not. ( )

A slow burn of a page turner. I knew right away who had done it, but am left wondering, was I supposed to? It has a dated feel to it, and so it is conceivable that at the time it was published it would not have been so obvious? It seemed to lean on stereotypes that no longer hold. But I’m not sure, maybe it’s obvious to anyone but you read along anyway because he is good at storytelling and you want to know how it all unfolds?

Glad I read the second in the series first, because this one is a DNF. Too much about his home and sex life for me - read a little over half and quit ( )

Protagonist (and narrator) Rusty Sabich is the Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Kindle County. When his fingerprints are found at the scene of a crime, he finds himself accused of murder. The bulk of the story is a courtroom drama about Sabich’s trial. There are several additional simultaneous plotlines involving a political campaign, Rusty’s family life, and a past case involving bribery.

The courtroom scenes are the heart of the novel, and the author definitely has a knack for keeping the curiosity level high. One of the highlights of the book is the characterization of defense attorney Alejandro Stern – he is such a great character, and I enjoyed his scenes more than any of the main players. The relationship between Rusty and his seven-year-old son is also beautifully portrayed. It occasionally feels a bit long, with subplots going into way too much graphic detail for my taste, especially descriptions of violent crimes unrelated to the murder.

Published in 1987, it is a little dated and the female victim is a standard stereotype. It is set in a time prior to widespread admissibility of DNA evidence. I was a little disappointed in the resolution (I found it rather far-fetched), but the last half is definitely a page-turner.

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