My Review with Spoilers for Presumed Guilty discusses my love for Presumed Innocent, both the original book and the 1990s movie starring Harrison Ford and the Presumed Innocent Apple TV series. Should you read this third installment in Rusty’s story? What did he do now? Let’s discuss!
Presumed Guilty: Jen’s Quick Take
- Presumed Guilty is an updated-for-the-2020s version of the original book
- Not surprisingly, it is a courtroom thriller
- Like Presumed Innocent, the highlight of this story is the courtroom drama
- For me, Rusty Sabich was an unlikeable a character as ever, but as strong in the courtroom as ever
- To be published on January 14, 2025 by Grand Central. Thanks to the publisher for the advance copy for review.
- Also by Scott Turow: according to Goodreads, Presumed Guilty is not considered part of the Kindle County series. I think only three fbooks eature Rusty as a main character: Presumed Innocent (1987), Innocent (2010) and Presumed Guilty (2025).
Review with Spoilers for Presumed Guilty
I love legal thrillers and read Presumed Innocent back in the 1980s. I also watched the first movie adaptation, starring Harrison Ford.
When the Apple TV adaptation of Presumed Innocent, I watched it with interest. Without spoilers (in case you haven’t watched) I felt it was more true to the book than the first movie.
In the book and the Apple TV movie, Rusty was fearsome in the courtroom, but had a lot of psychological baggage and a very messy personal life. An interesting contradiction, but I strongly preferred courtroom Rusty to reading about his terrible childhood and messy personal drama.
Presumed Guilty was long. It was 150 slow pages of Rusty pontificating about his life, then finally segued into the courtroom drama, which I found riveting.
To me, it seemed loosely inspired by the Gabby Petito case, another story of a volatile couple whose camping trip ends in a terrible tragedy.
The plot of Presumed Guilty revolved around the trial of Aaron, the son of Rusty’s girlfriend/fiancee Bea. Biracial and raised in a mostly white area of the Midwest, Aaron went camping with his on-again, off-again girlfriend Mae.
Of course, Rusty reluctantly springs into action and agrees to defend Aaron.
Spoilers for Presumed Guilty and the Ending Explained
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Did you read this? Questions or disagree with what I said? Let’s discuss it in comments and spoilers are fine!
Thanks for this. After 150 pages I was bored senseless.
Happy to help. I am in the middle of a different book and really want someone to tell me how it ends so I can stop listening….
Gone back to reading it! Ffs!! I’m a glutton for punishment!
lol. I did think the courtroom stuff was good. And an interesting choice to age Rusty up to the present. I also thought the Apple TV series was interesting!