A legal thriller re-visiting the lives of the characters of Presumed Innocent 20 years later, this is an enjoyable enough, well-written sequel.

I would definitely recommend reading the two in sequence--certain crucial events in Presumed Innocent which are central to the plot of Innocent are only obliquely referenced. The protagonist, Rusty Sabich, is basically having another "mid-life crisis" to much the same effect as in the first novel. In Presumed Innocent, the story successfully evoked the moral complexities of loyalties owed to children and spouses; in Innocent, the weight of the characters' past tends to overshadow the ambiguities which distinguished the first book. (I don't want to spoil the story, but it is a difficult task to re-visit the villain(s ) 20 years later--how sympathetic can the author and reader be expected to be to them?)

The opening chapters alternate between the "present " and events which took place 16 months in the past, an approach which can work well in film but which I found choppy and irritating here (eventually the time lines converge into a single narrative).

Despite these complaints, I read Innocent in just a few sittings--it was a fun if not completely fulfilling page turner.