Breakaway Books

Authored by Scott Turow; Published 1987; Thriller

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️

Crime thrillers generally feature an intense search for the perpetrator of whatever horrific deed serves as the centerpiece of the plot, but not Presumed Innocent. For this novel, all of the drama comes from the trial, and the strategies that the lawyers leverage in their courtroom battle.

In Presumed Innocent, Rusty Savage is shocked when his colleague at the county prosecuting attorney’s office, and former lover, Carolyn, is found murdered. In the midst of his boss’s busy re-election campaign, Rusty is put in charge of the investigation into the crime. But when his boss is voted out of office, Rusty faces an even bigger shock: The new prosecuting attorney believes it was Rusty who killed Carolyn. In the blink of an eye, Rusty plummets from chief deputy of the prosecuting attorney’s office to defendant in a murder trial. Will justice prevail?

I’m not sure I’ve ever thought as much about the strategies that prosecutors and defense attorneys employ during a trial as I did while reading this book. A large chunk of the novel is a beat-by-beat, meticulous recounting of Rusty’s trial, and it is no textbook, insisting that the lawyers and the judge all strictly follow the letter and spirit of the law. Instead, the lawyers push the limits as far as they can before they are penalized, and both sides delve into the psyches of the jury and seek to manipulate them at every opportunity. Local politics seem to invade the trial on a daily if not hourly basis, and by the end of the novel, it is apparent that Rusty is a bit player in a much larger drama.

This is also clearly a novel written in the 1980s. The commentary about Carolyn verges on victim-blaming nearly every time she is brought up, and she is labeled a slut both implicitly and explicitly by the male characters who are supposed to be delivering justice for her. Racism and homophobia are also (realistically) present, but the sexism is what stands out the most to me. All that being said, the affair between Rusty and Carolyn is actually a fascinating element of the novel. Rusty’s feelings toward Carolyn are intense to the point of obsession, such that even Rusty is confused about why, precisely, he cannot stop thinking about her. It’s a good bit of realism, an apt description of what I imagine a tortured affair would feel like. Of note, throughout the entire liaison, it appears to be Carolyn in control, Carolyn who calls the shots–Carolyn who ends it. Her power might strike me a little bit differently than it did readers in the 1980s.

Presumed Innocent is one for criminal law enthusiasts, but there is certainly no need to be a lawyer to enjoy it!