Identical
Identical book cover

Identical

Price
$10.00
Publisher
Vision
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1455527229
Dimensions
4.25 x 1.13 x 7.5 inches
Weight
8 ounces

Description

"A compulsively readable tale of love, guilt and revenge that may take its cues from the story of Pollux and Castor and other Greek myths but resonates even more strongly with the near-epic Kindle County narrative Turow has created over some three decades. Even when "Identical's" many twists challenge the reader to figure out who's on first, it is Turow's deftly drawn characters - coping with advancing age, old grief and lost love - that linger in the mind."― Los Angeles Times "Suspense with twists and turns from a master of the form."― Sacramento Bee "Complexity is the hallmark of Turow's brainy legal thrillers."― USA Today "Turow has obvious fun with his mythological conceit...the process of discovery takes nice and sometimes unexpected twists. Amid the super modernity of DNA tests, the austerity of case law and the tangles of contemporary politics, Turow never loses sight of the ancient underpinnings of his story...Classic (in more senses than one) Turow."― Kirkus "A wrenching story of violence, betrayal, and human credibility."― Library Journal "It's classic Turow: love, lies, and lawyers."― Good Housekeeping "A tantalizingly tangled web of betrayal, deception and familial love...this twisty who's-who whodunit packs plenty of drama."― Family Circle "Scott Turow's new novel is the dedicated fiction-reader's version of El Dorado: a driving, unputdownable courtroom drama/murder mystery that is also a literary treasure, written in language that sparkles with clarity and resonates with honest character insight. I came away feeling amazed and fulfilled, as we only do when we read novelists at the height of their powers. Put this one on your don't-miss list." (Praise for Innocent )― Stephen King Scott Turow is the author of eleven bestselling works of fiction, including Identical , Innocent , Presumed Innocent , and The Burden of Proof , and two nonfiction books, including One L , about his experience as a law student. His books have been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects. He has frequently contributed essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as the New York Times , Washington Post , Vanity Fair , the New Yorker , and the Atlantic .

Features & Highlights

  • State Senator Paul Giannis is a candidate for Mayor of Kindle County. His identical twin brother Cass is newly released from prison, 25 years after pleading guilty to the murder of his girlfriend, Dita Kronon. When Evon Miller, an ex-FBI agent who is the head of security for the Kronon family business, and private investigator Tim Brodie begin a re-investigation of Dita's death, a complex web of murder, sex, and betrayal-as only Scott Turow could weave-dramatically unfolds...

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(726)
★★★★
20%
(484)
★★★
15%
(363)
★★
7%
(169)
28%
(677)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Please don't waste your time and money

completely ridiculous. From the continually bizarre names of the characters, to the "plot" that has to shove in incest, rape, murder, and just plain anything else that most people consider queezy -- Octogenarian Teri talking sex and speaking like a longshoreman, Evon (huh?) and her sexuality issues; pretty much everyone is on board this crazy train. The one character who is somewhat okay, you can easily predict what he will say each and every time he opens his mouth -- this is Tim. Turow's politics creep in and then stay awhile. Really a bad book and I am sad I finished it.
3 people found this helpful
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Predictable...read his other books

A quick read, but predictable and partisan (if you apply the formula that all bad people are republicans, and they do all the bad things, there's your plot)...I've read ~10-15 of Turow's books and am a big fan, but this was not his best work.
2 people found this helpful
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Borrrrrrrrring!

The premise of this book sounded quite intriguing so I bought it. I wanted a good audio book to pass the time on some long drives I had to make. Bottom line: great premise; bad execution! This book is boring. It takes way to long to get anywhere and goes off on way too long inconsequential tangents. Don't buy this book!
2 people found this helpful
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A disjointed, uneven read.

Disappointing. I generally love all things Scott Turow, but I have to to reiterate the complaint in a number of other reviews about the uneven, ofter trite prose in this book. I, too, wondered if Turow actually wrote all or even part of it. The first entry in "Paul's" voice is clunky, almost amateurish, then it's seems to get better for a bit. It was clearly either written or edited by a different person. I also found an incredible number of word choice errors, as if spellcheck had gone rogue or the editor had sleepwalked his/her way through this novel. A novice, maybe? But why would the publisher do that to a big name like Turow? One example of many...at one point, the character Evon ( a very major player in the book) is reminiscing about her days with the FBI, and the copy reads: "In prospect, Evon had regarded retirement from the FBI as something akin to dying." Say what? did he (they) mean in "retrospect"? This kind of thing happened so often, I almost put the book down. A shame, because the plot is twisted and engaging.
1 people found this helpful
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Five Stars

ok
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Five Stars

vg
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Three Stars

Predictable.
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Too many characters!

The plot of this story centers around two Greek families who are at odds with each other. An identical twin from one family is just getting out of prison after serving 25 years for killing a girlfriend who was from the other family. The other twin is running for Governor, and the rich brother of the deceased girlfriend is trying to sink the campaign by making a case that the wrong twin confessed to the murder and served the time. There are some convoluted family relationships that pop up along the way that have nothing to do with the story.

The flow of the story is broken up by frequent jumps between 1982, around the time of the murder, to present day, which is 2008. In retrospect, I should have quit after the first chapter, which I almost did. There are just TOO MANY CHARACTERS in this book. Turow introduced eleven named characters in the first five pages. These central characters from the two Greek families all had nicknames as well as given names, making it even more confusing and difficult to follow. As the story unfolded, more and more characters were added to the mix, and I found myself wishing for a list of characters which some authors put in the front of a book that requires remembering a lot of people. I didn’t take the time to go back through and make a list, but I would guess that there are 50 – 60 named characters in this book. Sorry, but that’s too many for me to remember.

As for the plot, it was fairly predictable. The subplot was superfluous. By the time the details of the murder were revealed near the end, I didn’t really care anymore. I just wanted it to be over.

Note: I do all of my reviews on Amazon because I mostly read novels on my Kindle. I picked up a hardback copy of this book for $1 on a bargain table and really looked forward to reading it since it was by one of the great legal fiction writers. Since there are already 785 reviews, and since this won’t be listed as a verified purchase, I’m sure no one will read this. But here it is, just in case you find
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Disappointing

I bought this book at the bargain table at the bookstore as I enjoyed Presumed Innocent many years ago.
The opening chapter is badly written and incomprehensible. Then as the story proceeds, it's a little better, but still seems amateurish in style, like writers in a community writing class would write.
Disappointing. In all fairness, I bailed early.
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Son loved it

Teen Son loved it