This Spoiler Discussion for Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow, a 1987 legal thriller, will include a plot summary and the ending explained. Since there is a new 2024 adaptation of Presumed Innocent on Apple TV, let’s discuss the book!

Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow: Overview
- Published on August 1, 1987 by Grand Central Publishing
- 421 pages
- More by this author: I had no idea that this was the first in a series. Book two, Burden of Proof, features Sandy Stern. Book eight, Innocent, is a 2010 sequel to Presumed Innocent. What even? I thought I was done with Rusty and his philandering, but apparently not.
Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow: Full Plot Summary with Spoilers
- Presumed Innocent is written in first person from the point of view of Rozat “Rusty” Sabich, a 39 year-old Chief Deputy Prosecutor in Illinois. It’s unusual, though possible, to have an unreliable first person narrative.

Spring
- Raymond Horgan is preparing to deliver a eulogy for his murdered colleague, Carolyn Polhemus. Raymond is the Chief Prosecuting Attorney for Kindle County in Illinois. He’s also facing an election challenge from a former deputy prosecutor, Nico Della Guardia.
- After the service, Chief Deputy prosecutor Rusty Sabich meets with his investigator, “Lip” Lipranzer. they discuss the evidence thus far: Carolyn died of a skull fracture from an unknown weapon. There is seminal fluid present, but the pathologists wonders if the assailant was infertile, as the sperm were dead. The victim was tied up afterwards. Fingerprints that did not belong to the victim were found on a bar glass.
- The two agree to rush the fingerprint analysis and to pull Carolyn’s phone records. They also discuss that there was no sign of forced entry. In addition, a neighbor of Carolyn’s thought she saw a man on the stairs
- Rusty recalls discussing his affair with Carolyn with his therapist. At home, Rusty’s wife Barbara tells Rusty that his handling of the Polhemus case is a conflict of interest and that he needs to tell Raymond about the affair.
- Rusty goes over Carolyn’s case files for any potential suspects. He notices a missing “B file” for one of her cases, an accusation of bribery of a public official. After Raymond gives Rusty the B file, he discovers that a man called Leon has accused someone in the DA’s office of taking bribes.
- Lip mentions to Rusty that there were calls in Carolyn’s phone records to his house. He realizes that he made those calls to Barbara during the affair and asks Lip to leave it alone.
- Rusty talks to “Painless,” the pathologist, who says that spermicide was found in the tests on Carolyn and that he believes Carolyn was wearing a diaphragm that was removed by her killer. This raises the possibility that she was killed by a romantic partner. Rusty asks Raymond why he had Carolyn’s case file and Raymond admits that he slept with Carolyn.
- Raymond loses the election to Della Guardia and offers to resign immediately. He also calls Rusty into a meeting with Della Guardia and his new deputy, Tommy Molto. Molto says that Rusty’s prints were found on the bar glass from Carolyn’s apartment and that her phone records uncovered many calls between them. Raymond advises Rusty not to answer any questions.
Summer

- Rusty meets with Alejandro “Sandy” Stern, his defense lawyer. Rusty has been identified as the source of the semen in Carolyn’s body. Carpet fibers on Carolyn’s clothing match samples from Rusty’s home. And Rusty’s fingerprints were on the bar glass.
- Rusty is confused. He hadn’t been to Carolyn’s house for six months. He’d been babysitting his son on the night of the murder while Barbara worked on her dissertation research at the university.
- Rusty pleads not guilty and requests a speedy trial. His case is assigned to Judge Larren Lyttle, a former associate of Raymond’s.
- Sandy and Rusty visit Raymond at his new law firm job, as they are concerned that he is a defense witness. Even though Sandy asked Rusty to let him handle the conversation, Rusty gets into an argument about whether Raymond asked Rusty to take Carolyn’s case.
- The judge grants the defense access to Carolyn’s loft, where Rusty notices that the set of bar glasses that match the ones with his fingerprint is a complete set. He checks Carolyn’s address book and finds multiple phone numbers for Judge Lyttle.
- Rusty’s trial begins, with Della Guardia and Molto for the prosecution. They admit they have misplaced the glasses with the fingerprints.
- When cross-examining Raymond Horgan, Sandy brings up the fact that Rusty was the one who fired Nico Della Guardia. Rusty is surprised that Sandy plans to suggest that Della Guardia framed Rusty for revenge.
- Rusty continues to investigate Carolyn’s “B file” and learns that Carolyn had also slept with Judge Lyttle.
- Stern presents the fact that Carolyn’s medical records indicate that she’d had her tubes tied, so there would be no need for her to wear a diaphragm or use spermicide.
- Lip tells Rusty that Della Guardia is considering dismissing Rusty’s case. Lip finds Leon, who says that Carolyn and Judge Lyttle were the ones who were taking bribes.
- After Della Guardia calls Rusty’s therapist as a witness, the judge says he is considering dismissing the case, but then Della Guardia says he’d like to dismiss it.
- Rusty asks Sandy why he thinks the judge dismissed his case. Sandy says that Judge Lyttle was a good man with a former drinking problem who had a moment of weakness, and that Raymond had shut Lyttle and Carolyn’s bribery scheme down. Rusty accuses Sandy of telling the judge about the B file, but Sandy suggests that it was probably Raymond.
Fall

- Raymond invited Rusty to lunch and claims the Della Guardia poisoned him against Rusty.
- Rusty is working in the yard and finds a hammer/crowbar tool with blood and hair on it. He rinses it off and buries it in the garden.
- Barbara is taking a teaching job in Michigan and taking their son with her. She tells Rusty that if Stern had put her on the stand, she would have confessed to killing Carolyn.
- Lip shows up at the house with a present for Rusty: the missing bar glass. He says that he had the glass when he got taken off the case. He put it in a drawer, but no one ever asked him about it.
Who was the killer in Presumed Innocent? SPOILERS AHEAD
- Lip admits he thought Rusty was guilty. As they talk, Rusty washes the glass and mentions an angry wife who knew her husband was having an affair. She called her husband’s mistress, arranged a meeting, and hit her over the head. Then tied the woman up, planted her husband’s semen (which she had emptied out of her own diaphragm) in the mistress’s body, and left the bar glass with her husband’s prints. She’d bought two sets of bar glasses: one for them and one for Carolyn as a gift. After Carolyn broke up with Rusty, he tearfully confessed to Barbara while using that very glass, and she saved it.
- Rusty says that the minute he saw that Carolyn’s set of glasses was complete, he knew that Barbara killed Carolyn. He thinks Barbara knew he’d figure it out and wanted him to know what she’d done.
- Lip disagrees and thinks that Barbara wanted to frame Rusty and see him in prison.
- The city council orders a recall election and Della Guardia loses. Rusty becomes Chief Prosecuting Attorney.
Thoughts on Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
- I love Presumed Innocent because I think it’s even a stronger mystery than it is a legal thriller. For me, it was a shock ending, yet ALL the clues are there if you look back.
- Rusty is also a (somewhat) unreliable narrator a trope that became WAY more popular in the 2010s with books like Gone Girl.

- Fairly early in the book, Rusty does know that Barbara killed Carolyn, and that it is, in an ethical sense at least, partly his fault. (In the 1990 movie, Rusty doesn’t realize until he finds the bloody tool and Harrison Ford does a great job of listening to Bonnie Bedelia’s confession with an incredibly shocked face.)
- The book does a pretty good job of letting Rusty describe his complete obsession with Carolyn, through his own reflections and his discussions with his therapist.
- Carolyn’s character does seem a bit one-dimensional: she’s a woman who will sleep with (and discard) anyone to get ahead. The 1990 movie definitely continues this characterization, which is in line with “femme fatale” thriller movies of the time, like Sea of Love (1989), Basic Instinct (1992) and Fatal Attraction (1997).
My Questions
Knowing that Barbara killed Carolyn, would Rusty have allowed himself to be convicted?
Did Barbara tell the truth about being willing to confess on the stand? Would she confess if Rusty were to be convicted?
My Analysis of the Book vs the 2024 Apple TV Presumed Innocent Series
My Guide to Presumed Innocent on Apple TV: Premise and Character List
Episode One of Presumed Innocent on Apple TV: Bases Loaded
Episode Two of Presumed Innocent on Apple TV: People v Rozat Sabich
Episode Three coming June 19th!