In Presumed Innocent, Rusty Sabich, family man and the number-two prosecutor of Kindle County, is handed an explosive casethe brutal murder of a wo...
read full description
reviews
Oct 29, 2011
Ebookwormy
rated it: 
Voted #5 of 100 best mysteries of all time by Mystery Writers of America (www.mysterywriters.org) and see also World Magazine January 12/19, 2008, pg. 27).
_________________________
Found this at a used book sale for $1. Remembered that it was brilliant and I wanted to read it again with the murderer in mind, but that I had a severe caution on it. Decided to buy and read it once more and then sell it.
However, living in Rusty Sabich's head was so smutty and disgusting and icky More...
_________________________
Found this at a used book sale for $1. Remembered that it was brilliant and I wanted to read it again with the murderer in mind, but that I had a severe caution on it. Decided to buy and read it once more and then sell it.
However, living in Rusty Sabich's head was so smutty and disgusting and icky More...
6 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 19, 2011
June
rated it: 
Presumed Innocent was one of my favorite books and the movie with Harrison Ford, also very good. So eagerly I began Scott Turow’s sequel, Innocent. It won't make my favorite book list.
Its 25 years later and attorney Rusty is still with his wife (if you didn’t read the first book I won’t say why I’m saying - really???? – that’s a stretch and as this story continues the stretch gets tighter and tighter.) Rusty just turned 60 with a party and all. And shortly after we read he still can’ More...
Its 25 years later and attorney Rusty is still with his wife (if you didn’t read the first book I won’t say why I’m saying - really???? – that’s a stretch and as this story continues the stretch gets tighter and tighter.) Rusty just turned 60 with a party and all. And shortly after we read he still can’ More...
Oct 16, 2011
Harmonybites
rated it:
I ultimately found this book disappointing given the high expectations I started with. Blurbs trumpeted this book as a "literary" novel of the kind "that transcend their genre" and claimed Turow was comparable to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Certainly the prose was stronger than what I expect from a popular thriller. It's told first person present tense and it often reads lyrically, with touches of an elegiacal tone. Our narrator is Chief Deputy prosecutor Rusty Sab
More...
Sep 12, 2011
Missthomas
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jul 30, 2011
Sheri
rated it: 
A renowned attorney in the DA's office is having an affair with a sex crimes attorney. When she turns up dead and it looks like rape, he is pinned as the murderer. The majority of the book takes place in the courtroom but it is by no means dull. You'll never guess who was the real killer!
At first, the book starts out as brash, crude and offensive at times because of the 'cop talk' banter. It was too explicit for my tastes and I nearly put the book down for good. I am glad I hung in there becaus More...
At first, the book starts out as brash, crude and offensive at times because of the 'cop talk' banter. It was too explicit for my tastes and I nearly put the book down for good. I am glad I hung in there becaus More...
Jul 16, 2010
Lucca Hallex
rated it: 
There are times when I read a paragraph again, not because I didn’t understand it but because the author uses language so beautifully. Scott Turow obviously delights in the use of the English language. Such delight would be wasted if he didn’t also come up aces in the plot and character department. He captured my attention from the start although not so much with the plot, at first, as with his acerbic descriptions of the characters. By the time I needed to figure out who did what, I knew who wa
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 27, 2010
Gaby
rated it:
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 detect More...
Now after years as an entirely different sort of lawyer, the detect More...
Jul 25, 2011
Wendy
rated it:
Kindle County's chief deputy prosecutor, Rusty Sabich, has an impeccable reputation. He tries his best to be a good father to his son, Nathaniel, and a loving husband to his wife, Barbara. However, Carolyn Polhemus, a fellow attorney, changes all of that. Carolyn has been brutally murdered - and the timing couldn't be worse, just days before Rusty's boss, Raymond Horgan's last re-election campaign. Horgan, busy with his campaign, asks that Rusty head-up the murder investigation. What Horgan does
More...
Jan 26, 2012
Valerie
rated it:
A fantastic legal & psychological thriller filled with courtroom drama, politics, and mystery - all woven around the horror of a man being accused and tried for a crime he did not commit.
The narrator and protagonist, Rusty Sabich, is accused of murdering his co-worker and ex-lover, Carolyn Polhemus. Sabich is an emotionally fragile man, and bordering on obsessed.
One of the things that makes this book so compelling is that Turow masterfully twists the plot and keeps the read More...
The narrator and protagonist, Rusty Sabich, is accused of murdering his co-worker and ex-lover, Carolyn Polhemus. Sabich is an emotionally fragile man, and bordering on obsessed.
One of the things that makes this book so compelling is that Turow masterfully twists the plot and keeps the read More...
Sep 16, 2011
Arun
rated it:
Do you feel a sense of indignation when a fictional character, innocent though he or she is is accused of wrongdoing ? I used to feel that as a child. A long time before I came to understand the tools writers use to tap into our psyches, I felt bristling indignation at the unfairness of it all. None of the collateral damage of a wrongly accused person registered on my mind, rather it was a very naive sense of fairness. The world is rough,unabashed and in many cases not a very nice place to be an
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 17, 2010
Avel
rated it:
"Presumed Innocent" is a book that combines all of the aspects of a mystery novel with the aspects of a courtroom drama. At the start, Rusty Sabich is living a normal life. He has a fine job as a prosecuting attorney for Kindle County and is married with one son. Suddenly, something completely unexpected happens. Mr. Sabbich has been accused of murdering a fellow P.A. The trial has begun and Rusty's attorneys are hard at work solving the mystery. It hits the defense team that there is
More...
Oct 03, 2010
Khaya
rated it:
The best thing about this book, I think, was the clever gimmick of having the story narrated by a man accused of murder who, while giving you plenty of details about the event, manages to keep you guessing all the way through about whether or not he is innocent. Rusty Sabich, a leading prosecuting attorney, starts out investigating the murder of his former lover only to find himself in the role of alleged perpetrator. Rusty's tale abounds with red herrings and surprise twists. It also offers
More...
Aug 01, 2011
Kurt
rated it:
I have heard Scott Turow described as "the thinking man's John Grisham," and to the extent that the expression is a compliment, this debut novel justifies the praise. I had read two minor Turow novels before this one, so I was familiar with one of the minor characters (Turow sets his stories in the fictional Kindle County, and familiar faces pop up from book to book) and Turow's intriguing writing style: outside the courtroom, he tends to narrate in a poetic voice that employs an educa
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
May 12, 2010
David
rated it:
Presumed Innocent
I read the book Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow. This book is in the genre of mystery. The book is set in a Chicago like city but just in the southern part of Illinois. I have to be very vague in summarizing this book because knowing too much information will make the book unexciting in this book one of the prosecuting attorneys is murderer. One of the major problems in this book is that the people in charge of the investigation think they know who killed her but they More...
I read the book Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow. This book is in the genre of mystery. The book is set in a Chicago like city but just in the southern part of Illinois. I have to be very vague in summarizing this book because knowing too much information will make the book unexciting in this book one of the prosecuting attorneys is murderer. One of the major problems in this book is that the people in charge of the investigation think they know who killed her but they More...
Dec 18, 2011
Debra
rated it:
The brutal murder of coworker, Carolyn Polhemus, has unnerved chief deputy prosecuting attorney, Rusty Sabich. Carolyn was a former lover, a woman who still preoccupied his thoughts, much to his shame. Rusty had confessed his adultery to his wife, and is trying hard to keep the marriage together for the sake of their son. His boss, Raymond Horgan, is in the midst of a campaign and wants Rusty in charge of Carolyn’s case, which puts him in an awkward position. But things go from awkward to shocki
More...
Jan 27, 2011
Dick
rated it:
On p. 180 is the funniest line I have read in a while. I laughed out loud for quite a while. I don’t remember it in the movie, which I saw about 20 years ago. It could be considered politically incorrect by the lefties out in Hollywood, so maybe that is why it wasn’t in the movie. It is unusual to see a movie and then 20 years later read the book upon which that movie was made. From what I remember of the movie, it follows the book faithfully. The book is superior in that it goes into grea
More...
Jul 29, 2009
Andrea
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Aug 15, 2010
Grant
rated it:
Some lawyers should become writers, others should not. Scott Turow falls squarely in the latter category. Once you realize that half this novel can be skipped, as it is useless exposition about characters the author fails to make sympathetic in the first place, it becomes a much shorter read. Combine that with the fact that half the character descriptions border on, if not delve fully into, racism, it may not be worth reading at all. (I'm sure Turow would say it's the character speaking and no
More...
Dec 17, 2009
Mark
rated it:
Well, my wife, who is much better at this than I, guessed the true murder suspect long before I did, but even so, I think I would have been impressed by the richly conceived characters and complex plot. Turow is a truly gifted writer who brought his expertise of prosecution and criminal trials to bear on this breakthrough book.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 12, 2011
Denise
rated it:
Many people had recommended me to read Scott Turow's books because I love legal thrillers. I was able to finally read this book and now I just wish I had read it earlier than I did. I wish I had read this years ago because after reading recent legal thrillers I feel like this book for me didn't live up to all the hype and praise that surrounded it. Don't get me wrong it was written very well and it had some great twists and turns but I felt like it wasn't the best legal thriller I had read. I fe
More...
Jan 15, 2010
Bbkld5
rated it:
Here's a heretical thought: better than Grisham. When you're talking lawyer books, most folks consider Grisham to be the measuring stick and I've read most of his novels. Aside from two or three ('A Time to Kill' comes to mind), they're all pretty much the same: easy reading with mostly credible plots. If Mr Grisham were to stretch himself and attempt literature, Mr. Turow could give him some pointers. Unlike his colleague, I didn't tire of the 'lawyer feeling guilty' shtick in this book or 'The
More...
Sep 08, 2010
Engranon
rated it:
This was my second time reading this book. I read it back in the late 80s/early 90s when I was doing a lot of traveling and this was exactly the sort of book that could suck me in and make those cross-country flights tolerable. The second time was nearly as good as the first. I was a bit concerned that knowing whodunnit would detract from my reading pleasure, but I found that not to be the case. Knowing the ending actually freed me to enjoy more of the writing style and see how the plot was
More...
Jul 04, 2010
Chris
rated it:
Chicago defense attorney Rusty Sabich is accused of murdering a colleague with whom he had an affair. As Rusty navigates the treacherous political landscape (his boss is up for re-election), he also helps prepare his own defense. I read this book because Turow just published another book with the same character. The courtroom drama was probably more engaging when it was published, before the explosion of legal thrillers. Through Rusty's experienced perspective, the reader gets a gritty and r
More...
Oct 23, 2010
Michael
rated it:
4 1/2 stars
Raymond Hogan is running for re-election for the Kindle County Prosecutor's office. He's challanged by Nico Della Guardia, who is winning the race.
Rusty Sabich is Hogan's deputy and narrator of the story.
Carolyn Polhemus, a prosecutor is Hogan's office is found raped and murdered. Since Hogan is preoccupied with his campaign, he asks Rusty to run the investigation. When the inquiry is slow to find a possible suspect, Nico uses tht to help move further ahe More...
Raymond Hogan is running for re-election for the Kindle County Prosecutor's office. He's challanged by Nico Della Guardia, who is winning the race.
Rusty Sabich is Hogan's deputy and narrator of the story.
Carolyn Polhemus, a prosecutor is Hogan's office is found raped and murdered. Since Hogan is preoccupied with his campaign, he asks Rusty to run the investigation. When the inquiry is slow to find a possible suspect, Nico uses tht to help move further ahe More...
May 02, 2010
drey
rated it:
Presumed Innocent is a riveting tale of murder, politics, corruption, and cover-ups. Rusty Sabich had an affair with a fellow lawyer, who (after parting ways) ends up dead. And guess who is lead prosecuting attorney for the investigation? Don't think too hard...
It doesn't take too long before things start getting hairy for Rusty. Evidence skips off into who-knows-where. Evidence that points to his involvement in the deceased's condition. Next thing you know, he goes from investigatin More...
It doesn't take too long before things start getting hairy for Rusty. Evidence skips off into who-knows-where. Evidence that points to his involvement in the deceased's condition. Next thing you know, he goes from investigatin More...
Aug 24, 2011
Jake
rated it:
The main lesson of "Presumed Innocent" is not to cheat on your wife. At least not if she's the type of woman with an interest in science, a taste for revenge, and access to a turkey-baster filled with your semen. And if you do cheat on this type of wife, definitely do not tell her what you've done, and alert her to the fact that your mistress owns the same drinking glasses as you, because this will give her a really easy way of putting your fingerprints (along with the aforementioned
More...
Jul 27, 2011
An attractive prosecuting attorney is murdered and this crime scene indicates it could be a batched sexual assault. The District Attorney is running for re-election and puts the second in command, Rusty, in charge of the investigation. The case grows colder with each second and the leads Rusty does have doesn't sit too well with him. A mysterious open bribery charge was last investigated by the murder victim but every peep in the direction of the charge leads Rusty further down the rabbit hole.
More...
Sep 03, 2011
Nicole
rated it:
I first read this book probably twenty years ago, shortly after the film version came out. While I clearly remembered all the essential events, I had forgotten the details of this courtroom thriller. The fact that this novel takes place in the late 1980's isn't even noticable but the great trial drama is without reference to a specific place in time. For those who don't know the story, Carolyn, a prosecuting attorney, is found brutally murderred in her apartment. The deputy prosecuting attor
More...
Aug 10, 2011
Jeff
rated it:
What a twist. This book was pretty good...took some time to get it rolling but once it got started I thoroughly enjoyed it. It the beginning I had an inkling as to who done it, but the storytelling was masterfully written and the author proved that he was behind the driver's seat at all times and would enlighten the reader when and where he saw fit. Also...I pride myself on having a nice vocabulary but this book had me using my kindle's dictionary more than once! Great, evocative language. A ple
More...
May 10, 2011
Lindsay.lewis
rated it:
I knew from the beginning of my quest to fully explore the "legal procedural" genre that eventually I would have to read the "classics." Presumed Innocent is clearly a classic and it elevates the genre to a different level. While I was just as impressed by Connelly's grasp on the law and legal tactics that define these novels, Turow's writing is what sets this book apart from the pack. After reading Grisham and Connelly I realized that what I was missing was not an enterta
More...
