Reading Presumed Guilty felt like sitting at a table where every chapter slid a new piece of evidence into the middle and dared us all to argue about it. Scott Turow drops us back into Rusty Sabich’s world older, retired, and finally hoping for peace only to yank the rug out from under him in the most Turow way possible.

What I loved most for a book club read is how deeply personal this story is. Rusty isn’t just defending a client he’s defending his fiancée’s son, the fragile future they’re trying to build, and his lifelong faith in the law itself. That tension makes every courtroom scene crackle, because the stakes aren’t abstract. They’re emotional, messy, and painfully human.

Aaron is the kind of character who sparks instant debate. Is he unlucky? Is he reckless? Is he hiding something? And Mae’s disappearance and later, her murder casts a long shadow over the story that had me constantly reevaluating what I thought I knew. Turow is very good at making you feel confident and then quietly pulling that confidence apart.

This book also shines in how it examines presumed guilt not just as a legal concept, but as a social one. Bias, reputation, past mistakes, and public perception all collide, making it impossible to separate truth from assumption. I can already picture the heated book club discussions about whether justice is even possible when the system and the people inside it are so deeply flawed.

Smart, tense, and emotionally loaded, Presumed Guilty is one of those novels that keeps the conversation going long after the last page is turned and might even make you rethink every true crime podcast you’ve ever loved.

❓️When you’re reading a legal thriller, do you trust the system or your gut? ⚖️📚