There are some authors who consistently produce good books that are interesting, surprising and well written. Turow is one of those authors. I have never read a book of his that was disappointing. He is able to constantly reinvent himself by creating new and unique characters or telling the story from a new perspective despite the fact that he writes legal procedurals set in the same fictitious world of Kindle County which he created many years ago. Suspect is another wonderful novel, with a surprisingly twisty plot, with characters that are quite interesting and engaging and it kept me guessing until the very last page!
Clarice “Pinky’ Granum is a PI working for an attorney named Rik Dudek. Dudek’s practice is pretty shabby compared to the high profile cases she used to work on for her grandfather, Sandy Stern and his firm, but Pinky likes the slow pace of working the DUI’s and workmen’s comp cases that are the bread and butter of Dudek’s practice. But when Dudek agrees to represent the Chief of Police of Highland Isle, Lucia Gomez, in a lawsuit filed by three male police officers who accuse her of soliciting sex in exchange for promotions, suddenly Dudek and the firm are in the national spotlight and Pinky’s investigative skills are put to the test.
Chief Gomez knew that women in higher office within the police force face many challenges, but these accusations are about to destroy her spotless reputation. Insisting to Dudek and Pinky that she is being framed and that this is part of an ugly smear campaign to destroy her career as well as empower her enemies for nefarious reasons, Gomez maintains her innocence. As Pinky investigates, she begins to uncover strange links between the men who are accusing Chief Gomez and a former police officer who runs a questionable business empire. But things are never as clear as they seem and as Pinky finds out, everyone has something to hide. Only when the full truth is revealed can Dudek and Pinky find a way to defend Chief Gomez and expose the motives of those who seek to destroy her.
Turow knows how to pace his novels and the plot in this one had so many interesting turns it kept you on the edge of your seat. Since it is written from Pinky’s perspective, this is less about legal procedure and more about investigating and finding the truth, which may make it much more engaging who may have found Turow’s previous books a bit more “lawyerly” than they liked. Pinky and Dudek are both great characters and I hope that Turow comes back to revisit them at some other time. Gomez was a fierce yet vulnerable character and Turow does a great job in describing the toll these kinds of accusations and subsequent investigations can have on an individual and on their career. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
Brenda’s Rating: **** (5 Out of 5 Stars)
Recommend this book to: Keith, Sharon, Marian and Ken
Book Study Worthy? Yes
Read in ebook format.
Billie, Helen, Natalie and Mary Alice were recruited to work for a clandestine organization called the Museum, forty years ago. Together they have conducted hundreds of assassinations, initially of Nazis who had escaped answering for their crimes and more recently other men and women beyond the law. But now as they enter their 60’s, their skills are considered old fashioned, and their reflexes are not quite as fast at they used to be, so the Museum has invited them on a cruise as a way to thank them for a job well done and encourage them towards retirement. But once on the cruise, the women discover an assassin who is trying to kill them and realize that someone in the Museum wants to make their retirement permanent!
For most of his life Thomas Mann kept to a rigorous schedule. He had breakfast, read the newspaper and then went to his study where he was to be undisturbed until late afternoon, at which time he spent time reading and relaxing. His family followed the dictates of this schedule and as a result it was not until his wife was diagnosed with TB and sent to the Swiss mountains to recover that Mann had any true interactions with his children. When his wife finally returned, Mann again resumed this schedule for the remainder of his life. In some ways this rigorous schedule and the isolation it imposed seems like a metaphor for Mann’s life- always separated from the real world, isolated and protected from ordinary day to day life, Mann could write in peace, but never quite learned how to engage with the world or with the people in his life.
Sunny was caught trying to steal a dictionary at the bookstore in the mall. Not just a paperback, but the big hardback version! Sent to juvenile court, the judge ordered her to work for three months during the summer at the Riverton Public Library. For Sunny, whose parents have home schooled her while living off the gird, the chance to be in one place, surrounded by books seems like a unique opportunity. 
In 1714, a young French girls named Addie LaRue was supposed to get married. Instead she ran away deep into the forest, desperate to get away from her parents and the man she was supposed marry. Deep in the forest, she meets a strange man who offers her a bargain: Her soul in exchange for living forever, but being forgotten by everyone she meets. With the voices of the villagers searching for her, coming closer and closer, she accepts.
Alex was a little girl when the Mass Dragoning of 1955 occurred. Her Aunt Marla dragoned and left, leaving her daughter, Bea, behind. In total hundreds and thousands of women emerged as dragons, leaving a fiery trail of destruction behind, but no one talked about it. In fact, like many who were left behind, Alex’s mother and father acted as if dragooning never happened and Aunt Marla never existed and took Bea in as their own child. Forced into this weird silence, Alex, can only accept this new reality, and since she loves Bea it really isn’t so hard.
For Nell Young maps are everything. As the daughter of map specialists she was raised among dusty drawers filled with maps, some vividly detailed and some spare and utilitarian. She had hoped to follow in her father’s’ footsteps as a researcher in the Map Room of the New York Public library. But after the Junk Box fiasco she had been fired at the request of her own father. After that very public humiliating debacle she finally found work at Classics, a personalized map company where you could order a facsimile of an ancient map and then personalize it with dragons or your initials while still maintaining the maps “antique” look. It was a far cry from what Nell had hoped for her career, but at least it was a living. Needless to say, she had not spoken to her father again. And now it is too late, because she has just received word that he was murdered in his office. 
Brenda's Bookshelf 