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SUSPECT

Scott Turow

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Presumed Innocent and The Last Trial returns with a riveting legal thriller in which a reckless private detective is embroiled in a fraught police scandal.
For as long as Lucia Gomez has been the police chief in Kindle County, she has cultivated a spotless reputation, knowing that any woman in law enforcement must walk a precarious line between authority and camaraderie to gain respect. Her strict integrity has made her irreproachable - until now. Three male subordinates have accused her of soliciting sex for advancement opportunities, in an ugly smear campaign designed to destroy her career and put her enemies in powerboth outside the police force and within. With few people left who she can trust, Chief Gomez turns to an old friend, Rik Dudek, to act as her attorney in the federal grand jury investigation. Clarice "Pinky" Stern, the granddaughter of one of the country's most celebrated defense attorneys, has yet to measure up to Sandy Stern's formidable legacy. Having spent most of her youth experimenting with an impressive array of drugs and failing out of various professions, including the police academy, Pinky knows that in the eyes of most people, she's nothing but a screwup - but she doesn't trust most people's opinions anyway. Moreover, she finally has a respectable-enough job as a licensed P.I. working for Rik, covering mostly minor cases involving workman's comp, DUIs and bar fights. Rik's shabby office and even shabbier cases are a far cry from the kinds of hard-hitting criminal suits her grandfather handled. But their big chance to break through to the big leagues arrives with Chief Gomez's high-profile case. Guided by her gut instinct and razor-sharp investigative skills, Pinky dives headfirst into a twisted scandal that will draw her into the deepest recesses of the city's criminal networks as well as the human mind. But she will need every scrap of tenacity and courage to dredge up the dark secrets those closest to her are determined to keep hidden. Scott Turow is the author of many bestselling works of fiction, including The Last Trial, Testimony, Identical, Innocent, Presumed Innocent, and The Burden of Proof, and two nonfiction books, including One L, about his experience as a law student. His books have been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects. He has frequently contributed essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic
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Published 2022-09-27 by Grand Central

Comments

Scott Turow will always be linked with his 1987 bestseller PRESUMED INNOCENT. That's usually seen as a courtroom thriller, but it's really a novel about a man's different kinds of relationships... He's a writer rather than just a plotter, as he demonstrates with his winning portrait of the protagonist of SUSPECT... SUSPECT more than earns its payoff.

Turow clearly had fun writing this one, and his fans will have fun reading it. Read more...

Turow [is] in fine form. Comforting, yes, but also satisfyingly fresh and creative... He will make you turn a book's pages, so forceful is his plotting, so eye-popping its twists and surprises, and so colorful his characters... Turow has created one of contemporary fiction's most complicatedly arresting characters... It would be unfair to give away too many of the turns that this case takes. That is one of Turow's great gifts, managing the action in a forceful fashion... One can sense the fun Turow must have had writing this. Read more...

Scott Turow at his best and, in my eyes, still the uncontested king of the literary legal puzzler.... this top notch thriller is never less than believable and topical, and unfolds like clockwork revealing an endearing patchwork of imperfect characters, legal politicking and twists with just the right balance to hold the reader hostage throughout. Read more...

The video team will be glad to work with international publishers to adapt the videos for foreign editions by inserting jacket art and translated subtitles that the publishers provide. Read more...

The development of the twisty case is skillfully handled, Pinky's eccentric voice works, the villains are satisfactorily vile and there are several touching relationships that provide a nice counterweight to the wickedness. Read more...

Talking to Scott Turow about 'Suspect', favorite shows, and more Read more...

UK: Swift Press ; Italy: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore ; Brazil: Planeta

Turow is still mining the endless corruption and intrigue of Kindle County, Illinois, the longtime home of his sophisticated thrillers. In this new chapter, a police chief is accused of soliciting sex in exchange for department advancement, an accusation she vehemently denies and says is part of an insidious campaign against her. Her attorney and his private eye go on the search to find out just how deeply rooted the campaign is, and in the process expose a few dark new layers to the county's underbelly. Turow, as always, provides lush prose and a heady mix of ideas amidst the hard-charging action. Read more...

Pinky's unconventional, socially awkward narration offers a fresh take on sticky legal issues, and Turow's carefully paced, tight plotting complements her dedication to the long game.

David E. Kelley ("Big Little Lies") has optioned film/tv rights in SUSPECT, and Turow's debut novel, PRESUMED INNOCENT (from 1987 and which started the legal thriller boom) will soon be an Apple TV+ television series from David E. Kelley and J.J. Abrams and starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Rusty Sabich.

Without question, this is Turow's finest novel since his breathtaking debut. Read more...

SUSPECT is full of plot twists and surprises, but make no mistake that this is Pinky's novel, and she is an extremely likable and unique protagonist. Read more...

The rare big-time thriller author whose best work transcends into serious literature. He could rest on myriad laurels or simply go formulaic, cranking out what worked so well in the past. He wouldn't be the first. Instead, Turow chose a far-more difficult and interesting path for his new novel, SUSPECT... It works. Really well. Telling this story through Pinky Granum's first-person eyes converts SUSPECT from a solid, well-plotted police-and-courtroom thriller into something unusually fresh and interesting. Read more...

A first-rate legal thriller that keeps you reading. One of Turow's best and that's saying a lot.

SUSPECT lands at #9 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list!