Search This Blog

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Identical by Scott Turow

Identical

A story about identical twins, one of whom has confessed to the murder of his girlfriend, Dita.  Twenty-five years later, Paul is running for mayor, and Cass is about to be released from prison.  

Dita's billionaire brother Hal has harbored a hatred of the twins for years and the combination of Paul's running for mayor and Cass' release from prison drives him to launch a series of ads against Paul accusing him of having had a hand in Dita's murder.

The novel is well-written; Scott Turow can certainly make the sentences flow.  With lots of Greek mythology, including the references to Castor and Pollux, Turow spins a complex narrative that leads the reader to certain conclusions, and then throws a spanner in the works.  

I was able to figure out some aspects of the mystery involving the murder, and then to doubt myself.  To conjecture, then to find that I was partially right, and then to discover a new twist in the narrative.

This is a novel of unraveling, picking out the knots, and unraveling some more.  Turow's prose is deceptively effortless and graceful, moving the reader in a labyrinthine plot that at times seems obvious, and then takes an unexpected turn just as the reader expects to see the exit.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing.

Mystery.  Oct. 15, 2013.  Print version:  384 pages.

3 comments:

  1. This sounds good! I'm trying to remember if I've ever read anything by Scott Turow before . . .

    ReplyDelete
  2. His first novel was Presumed Innocent, which was turned into a film starring Harrison Ford. I loved the novel.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I never did read Presumed Innocent as I ended up watching the movie first but I think this sounds good!

    ReplyDelete