Week 46's read for 52 books in 52 weeks was Scott Turow's new book Identical.
I've been a longtime fan of Turow's, ever since reading Presumed Innocent a long time ago, but after seeing the excellent movie, admittedly. As I often do when I find a new author I love, I went on to read several of his other books, but eventually moved on to other things. That was 'til a couple of years ago, when the sequel to Presumed Innocent, just Innocent this time, came out. A friend who has similar book tastes to mine raved about it and I stayed up all night reading it.
So it was with some interest and anticipating that I picked up this book, the ninth of the "Kindle County" series (side note: Turow picked the name Kindle long before those devices appeared -- a man who can, at least name-wise, see the future!). Anyway, while the setting is the same, the plot is a stand-alone; besides the ever-present Sandy Stern (here in a much smaller role than usual), there is no real connection to any of the other books.
Identical follows the story of two, wait for it, identical twin brothers. One is a successful politician. The other's a convict, serving time for having killed his girlfriend. While the 'bad' brother, Cass, admitted to the killing, no one close to the story has ever been satisfied that he really did it, or at the very least, did it alone. In fact, the dead girl's brother is convinced that 'good brother' Paul was somehow involved. And when he starts to say so publicly, Paul has no choice but to retaliate by suing him for defamation -- a course of action that drives the did-Cass-really-do-it plot that takes up most of the book.
I enjoyed this book. I thought it was a solid outing from Turow. A book that kept me turning the pages and guessing, mostly, about what the real story was. That being said, of the two big twists, I saw one of them coming early on (though the other took me completely by surprise) and I was not sitting on the edge of my seat, up late at night just dying to know how it would all end. So this is a good Turow book, but not his best. Worth the read, but if you haven't read Presumed Innocent, or Innocent, I'd start with those first.
And so on to week 47, where I've picked our second non-fiction title for the year, Bill Bryson's One Summer, America 1927. I love Bill Bryson and his ability to find all kinds of abstruse facts and convey them in a fascinating and funny manner.
And finally, the end is in sight here folks: only a couple more weeks till I hit the big 52 (books, I mean). And so I am soliciting comments going forward -- should I continue with this thing next year? Change the format? Read speculative fiction that no one's ever heard of? Let me know, and in the meantime:
Read on.