Story of twins, one who served time for a murder. Very long and involved. Good story, though. ( )

I really like Scott Turow and generally enjoy the time I spend with his characters but this particular story went a little too off the rails for me to fully buy into it. It was still mostly a good time. ( )

I read a lot of books, and Scott Turow has written a lot of books, and I enjoy legal dramas, but for whatever reason, I don't think I've ever read a Scott Turow book. I think I picked this up from a book exchange shelf in a staff lunchroom (remember those?) and it sat for a while before I started it. Turow is a good writer. I think he is a lawyer or has some legal training, because his descriptions of the legal process are clear, without being filled with too much jargon. The thing that stuck out for me, reading this novel, is the dialogue. You can really picture his characters talking to each other and saying the things they say. The characters are well developed and believable. There are lots of little subplots going on, some of which fill out the story, the characters' motivations, etc., some of which just seem to be there to fill space and divert the attention. This is billed as a "legal thriller," but I would just call it legal fiction (in catalog-ese). I didn't find it especially thrilling, but it is definitely twisty, with all kinds of intrigue around identity, deception, and the self- versions of those as well. We all want to be self-aware, but these characters, well-intentioned as they probably are most of the time, clearly have blind spots, about their own natures and those of the people they are investigating (or being investigated by). On reflection, the main characters (the titular identical twins/defendants/protagonists) are probably less fleshed out than some of the others, including the investigators, which is an interesting choice. We sort of get to know the twins through other people's eyes. I think I saw where the story was going somewhat before the solution was revealed, but there were enough red herrings sprinkled in to keep me interested and reading. It is nicely paced, with no real malice or nastiness, just a bunch of people in a mess, trying to find their way out of it. I'll return to Turow, for sure. ( )

I have read other Turow's that were a fun diversion. This one isn't. Boring and predictable. ( )

I believe I've read one other book by this author because I recognized his name when I saw this title at the library booksale. (I listened to the audiobook.)

The story revolves around 2 families in the Greek community. The daughter of one family died many years before. Her boyfriend (from the other family) pled to the crime and went to a minimum security prison. He's released after serving his sentence near the beginning of the book--and he has an identical twin.

The brother of the murdered girl is convinced that both twins were involved in the murder and sets out to find out if the other twin was in his sister's room that night.

The story takes us through fingerprint identification (apparently identical twins don't have identical fingerprints), DNA (there's apparently a very slight chance that the DNA of identical twins might differ minutely), and other investigative avenues.

The story kept me interested. I didn't suspect the killer until close to when the story revealed it (but I am not very good at figuring out whodunit so your experience may differ.) I didn't expect some of the revelations that came out about both families within the story. The ending surprised me and does make me wonder where Evon will end up next (if we see her again).

Items to Consider When Deciding if You Want To Read This Book:
*the main female investigator is homosexual and one of her relationships features in a side plot (nothing sexually explicit though). Another character besides these two reveals that she is homosexual.
*There's a lot of dishonesty/half-truths--one brother pretending to be the other, political shenanigans, etc.
*Zeus appears to believe more in the Greek gods than he does in the God preached at St. D's (though this is not a big part of the book). Zeus also cheats on his wife (at least one of which was a rape of someone he knows). He also isn't above using people to get what he wants.
*There's some science discussed involving identical twins and what differences there might be in fingerprints, DNA, etc. ( )