Word: turow
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...does one follow such extracurricular success? Apparently, judging from the content of Turow's recently released novel, The Burden of Proof, you stick to what got you there. For Turow, what got you there is an engaging and intricate mystery that pays careful attention to the ins and outs of the legal system. Burden of Proof even retains as its protagonist a character from Presumed Innocent, the defense lawyer Sandy Stern...
Despite the similarities to its predecessor, Burden of Proof creates a separate identity for itself. Its borrowed character, Stern, figured only in the minor role of legal mastermind in Presumed Innocent. In his recent book, Turow creates the fuller character of a man tortured by his wife's death...
Near the end of the novel, Turow reveals the stunning yet plausible connection between these two seemingly unrelated storylines. Resisting the pitfall of many a mystery novelist, Turow does not rely too much on coincidence. The connection is also plausible largely because Turow remains true to his characters...
That connection, however, might just be too stunning. Turow never creates enough suspense for you to particularly care about the technical brilliance of it. He has you convinced for perhaps too long that you clearly understand what is going...
...Turow also devotes far too much time to certain situations that simply are not compelling. Once you know Clara once cheated on her husband, for example, it's not worth waiting 400 more pages to know who it was. Turow fails to make the Dixon investigation suspenseful for most of the book because there is no indication how it relates to the issue of Clara's death. Securities fraud arouses curiosity for a few minutes on the evening news, but it's not really the stuff that 500 page novels should be made...