Innocent - Scott Turow

It's been decades since Turow's most famous bestseller, "Presumed Innocent", a novel that became an excellent film with Harrison Ford. That novel had a lovely twist, a surprise ending that made it memorable. Now Turow returns to familiar ground with a novel of Rusty Sabich, his wife and son, and manages to surprise yet again with a twist at the end that puts the events of the book in a new light.

Rusty Sabich, now a judge, has tried hard for twenty years to manage his home and professional life to reduce the stress on his wife, Barbara, who we learned in the first novel was the killer of Rusty's mistress, and who seemed willing to allow him to pay for it with a trial and a possible sentence of murder. Only Rusty knew the truth, and after his acquittal he attempted to repair the marriage and soothe the madness of his wife's jealousy.

Now, however, Rusty is feeling the weight of living a life where nothing is what he wants, and makes the same foolish error - he has another affair. In this case, however, the woman involved is earnest in loving him and ultimately wiser than he, and they part. But when his ex-mistress meets his son Ned, now a college student and much more her contemporary, she has to hide the truth from him while she and Rusty now cannot escape each other's company.

The night after Ned and Anna visit Rusty and Barbara for dinner - the first time Anna meets Barbara as "Ned's girlfriend", Barbara dies. Rusty does not notify anyone for more than a day. Is it shock and grief, as he claims, or is it murder?

Rusty's old colleague and nemesis, Tommy Moto, is now the District Attorney. Tommy still believes that Rusty was guilty of the murder for which he was acquitted so many years ago. Now, Barbara's death has raised his suspicions once again. Eventually, Judge Sabich is indicted for the murder of his wife.

Is Rusty, again, Innocent? As usual, Turow leaves the answers to the very end, and the result is nearly as satisfying.
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Other books read since last entry - The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist; Deception by Jonathan Kellerman; Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane; Roadside Crosses by Jeffery Deaver.