In The Burden of Proof, Scott Turow probes the fascinating and complex character of Alejandro Stern as he tries to uncover the truth about his wife’s life. Late one spring afternoon, Alejandro Stern, the brilliant defense lawyer from Presumed Innocent, comes home from a business trip to find that Clara, his wife of thirty years, has committed suicide.
The Burden of Proof
By scottturow
I really had to struggle to finish this POS! Nothing like Presumed Innocent!
I loved this book and all the characters. Turow writes so beautifully, you don’t want to skim or miss a word. I forgot what a great author he is! Don’t miss this book!
Too wordy and long winded.
So realistic and such unimaginable plotting that it feels that it must be autobiographical.
I think there is too much complicated legal stuff, I couldn’t finish it.
Scott Turow is a brilliant writer of legal thrillers. His books are so well written that they verge on literary novels. For one of his books that’s a little more personal, try “One L.”
Disappointing slug of narration with boring characters
You can never go wrong with Turow. This is one of his best. Read Presumed Innocent (or catch the movie) to get even more enjoyment out of Burden of Proof.
Loved every minute of this book.
I read this when it first came out years ago. I liked it a lot and would give it five stars except that “Presumed Innocent” is my favorite Turow book of all time, and I tend to compare them all to that one.
This one concerns Sandy Stern and his coming to grips with his wife’s suicide. I really liked that character from “Presumed Innocent” so I was glad to see that he got his own story (Turow’s newest book is a Sandy Stern book also; haven’t read yet, but it is in my TBR stack).
Definitely recommended, especially if you like twisty legal thrillers, or if you like Turow, but have not yet read this one.
This book is a real page turner and has one of the most surprising endings of any mystery I’ve read. The overall tone and atmosphere of the book are gray and bleak, as a result of the actions of the main character. Still you root for him and are on the edge of your seat as the investigation and trial progress.
One of my favorite legal authors. Never disappoints.
Burden of Proof
In this sequel to Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow tells the unhappy story of the defense attorney from the first novel. Alejandro (Sandy) Stern comes off as a genius in Presumed Innocent, an attorney in whom intelligence and intuition are combined with a masterful sense of showmanship. In this sequel, readers see the inside of Stern: an unhappy man, an Argentinian Jew who loves his adopted country but never feels quite at home there.
The precipitating incident of the plot is the suicide of his wife, Clara. Grieving, Stern sets out to uncover the reasons behind her suicide and the disappearance of almost a million dollars from the trust she inherited from her wealthy father. At the same time Stern must deal with the legal problems of his brother-in-law, whose dubious trades in the futures market have attracted the interest of a federal prosecutor.
My issue with the novel at the beginning was the disconnection between these two parts of the plot. They seem at first to belong in separate novels. Worse, the story sometimes drags, dwelling at length on Stern’s personal journey through grief and a rediscovery of his sexuality. I kept going because Turow is such a good writer that he held my interest anyway. And in the end, the seemingly divergent threads come together in a way that is both clever and uncontrived.
Presumed Innocent is more a mystery story and character study than a legal thriller. If you approach the novel expecting the latter, you’ll be disappointed. But if you accept it for what it is, you might find yourself enjoying the story for its memorable characters and intricate plot.
All my life I have been told when I write a story I should show and not tell. The entire book is a story the author tells. The conversations are few and far between. His description is suburb. The reader has no problem picturing each and every character. I like the story. I recommend this book.
I really struggled with this book, this time around. I first read it when it was originally published, 28 years ago, at this writing. I picked it back up because I didn’t recall the plot from all those years ago, but I liked the very brief description of a legal thriller with a backstory of a family dynamic surrounding the suicide of the matriarch. There was quite a bit of family dynamic here; too much.
This is literary fiction, not a legal thriller. There are financial crimes as a backdrop in the story that, 250+ pages into the book, were barely touched upon. The resolutions of the thriller aspects are hardly believable and frankly forgettable which is probably why the book didn’t stand out in my mind, over the years.
The primary story here is about Alejandro ‘Sandy’ Stern and how he deals with his wife’s death/suicide by having sex with – or attempting to – every woman that looks at him for more than two seconds. This book is dated, sexist and tedious. If you want to read about a middle-aged man’s very active sex life after the passing of his wife of many years, in full detail, from a male perspective, and about the sex life outside of marriage of the man/total cad who’s married to his sister, then read this. If you want to read a legal thriller, read any of Turrow’s other books.
I enjoyed the read and found the character personalities genuine and relatable.