OK, my bad that I had no idea that there was not one, but two sequels to Presumed Innocent, one of my first and still my favorite legal novels. Although I do like John Grisham books, Turow seems to write the back and forth of in-courthouse drama and testimony really well.
I got through about a quarter of this book before I recognized the main character as the same as the first book – I was reading the third (and final) book in the series. There is a lot of background that is loaded into the beginning of this book so that people that haven’t read the others will be OK.
All of this background information gets a little tiring in the beginning, and the lead up to the actual arrest takes a while. Most of the book is spent in the courtroom, however, which is for the best.
In the case that is presented in this novel, there is a lot of evidence based on location and geography, and I felt it would have been helpful to have a map included to help the reader visualize it. And sometimes the character of Aaron had dialog that felt a little forced – an old guy’s idea of how a young guy would talk.
However I thought that it was a pretty good story and it ended on a satisfying note. It isn’t written in a groundbreaking style, but I think I enjoyed it for what it was. I’m thinking I’ll look into reading more of Turow’s books in the future.
Next I am reading Dream State by Eric Puchner.
