Presumed Guilty by Scott Turow

(9. - 1252.) Presumed Guilty
by Scott Turow - Rusty Sabich is back. Nearing 77 he is living in the country. After his release from prison he had tried defence work as  court appointed counsel for the indigent. He has achieved the rarest combination of legal experience in the courts. Sabich has been a prosecutor, defence counsel, judge and defendant. I can think of no real life or fictional lawyer filling all those roles. Finding the representation of the guilty unfulfilling he has further added to his legal portfolio by now working as a mediator and arbitrator. 

Since moving north out of Kindle County he has found love yet again. He is living with Bea, a school principal, who is 23 years younger than Sabich. He is startled that a vibrant lovely woman would love him.

Unconsciously, he had followed the advice of a former lover that if you are looking for a happy life “you should look for someone who is happy”.

They were content with living apart until Covid forced a decision. They decided to live together. They have not decided about marriage. The teacher has settled the restlessness that had caused Sabich so much grief. He is content with his life. 

Bea’s black adopted son, Aaron, and Mae Potter, the “Barbie” like daughter of Skageon County aristocracy (father and grandfather have been county prosecutors) have had a volatile relationship since high school. Aaron is currently on a tight judicial release for possessing drugs that were actually Mae’s drugs.

Aaron and Mae have disappeared. Neither Aaron nor Mae are mature 22 year olds. While Aaron is trying to go straight, Mae is self-indulgent.

Aaron returns. 

Mae does not return and is not in contact. Her family gradually grows frantic.

The opening and back story stretch out for almost 90 pages when the action begins. It need not have taken that long to get to what every crime fiction fan knew was coming - Mae is dead and Aaron will be charged with murder.

It is a rare work of legal fiction that discusses the impact upon parents of the accused being advised their child is charged with first degree murder. Pain as a parent comes in many ways. Few can be harder.

With Aaron denying guilt, who will represent him at trial? With the best local lawyer begging off, a search is made through the Mid-West, handicapped by Aaron not wanting a black defender and by Sabich and Bea wanting someone who at least sounds country.

Ultimately, Bea and Aaron and Sabich’s son Nat all want him to take the case. It made me cringe, which was Sabich’s first reaction. To represent a family member in a major trial is a bad idea. Objectivity is the first problem. Concern over relationships with family members including the accused is second. Obsessing over making a mistake that would imprison a family member is third. The list could be longer. 

I knew Sabich was going to take the case when he went to see Aaron. A lawyer who does not want a case will refuse to see the potential client. It is almost impossible to say no directly to a person wanting your representation. Litigators love feeling wanted and a big case is irresistible.

Sabich convinces himself he is the best lawyer for Aaron. It is a blind spot for lawyers. Sabich tells himself he will not shirk from the responsibility to represent Aaron fearlessly no matter the cost in friendships and other relationships.

I thought of Jake Brigance in A Time for Mercy. He takes on the difficult defence of a teenager who shot and killed his sleeping abusive stepfather. It was hard because the victim was a police officer and the compensation is meager putting financial pressure upon Brigance.

Sabich is relieved of the financial consequences. He has no need to work.

The County Prosecutor, Hiram Jackdorp, is respected in the way the folks of Marenage County regard the God of the Old Testament - “unsparing, and uninterested in excuses from those who cross the line”.

Sabich’s “standard costume” for court "is a midnight blue suit, white shirt and muted red tie - hoping to send a subliminal message of abiding patriotism”. I doubt any juror in America would get the message.

The trial judge is Wendy Carrington, formerly the State Defender.

It is unusual for a judge to have antipathy towards a prosecutor. More often any ill will is with defence counsel. Jackdorp, in his seventh term as County Prosecutor, appears to relish the judge’s antagonism. 

Aaron’s belief he will walk out of court a free man dismays Sabich.

Inevitably, my thoughts turn to Turow’s book, The Last Case, where 85 year old Sandy Stern defended his good friend, Dr. Kiril Pafko.

Though Sabich does not say it is his last case he is in his mid-70’s.

My second post on the book will deal with the trial. 

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Turow, Scott – (2000) - Personal Injuries (Third best fiction of 2000); (2003) - Reversible Errors (Tied for the best fiction in 2003); (2007) - Ordinary Heroes; (2011) - Innocent; (2012) - One L (My Review) and One L (Michael Selnes review) and Thoughts on Reviews of One L by Myself and Michael; (2014) - Identical; (2018) - Testimony and Lawyers and Opportunities in International Criminal Courts; (2020) - The Last Trial - Opening and Mid-Trial and Closing; (2024) - Suspect

Reading to Sharon

I exchanged messages with Anthony Bidulka about reading to my wife. Our exchange is below.

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Dear Anthony,

I am glad to advise that a review copy of Home Fires Burn was in the mailbox last Thursday.

Netta from Stonehouse Publishing sent it to me.

Whether it is my age, soon to be 73, or just the excitement of getting a book in the mail I get a special pleasure in seeing a package from the post office that I know is a book.

There is a sense of anticipation different from seeing a book on a shelf in a bookstore or library.

I try to resist just ripping away at the package yet even when I slow down the wrapping ends up ripped. I do not have the patience to carefully open a parcel I know contains a book.

Holding a new book in my hands is a joy that began when I went to my first library, a small room full of books, in the basement of the school at Ethelton, the hamlet next to Meskanaw. I was 7. The exhilaration remains as strong 65 years later.

I was hoping a copy of Home Fires Burn would come my way. I have been anxious to learn of Merry Bell’s life in Livingsky before she moved to Vancouver and transitioned and then returned to Saskatchewan. I have longed to see her life story completed by hearing about those earlier years.

I have not completed the book.

I am reading Home Fires Burn in a way I have not read a book for 40 years.

As you know, Sharon cannot read a book. She has been interested in Merry Bell.

I asked if she would like me to read Home Fires Burn to her. She said that would be nice.

We started on the weekend. We have read the two prologues and are intrigued and involved with the story.

In the mid-1980’s when my Dad had severe vision problems and there were very few audio books I dictated onto cassettes a few of his favourite books about the outdoors and Western Canadian history.

The book he loved most was Three Against the Wilderness by Eric Collier. It tells the story of Collier, his wife and young son settling in the interior of B.C. and starting to re-establish an ecosystem by building by hand dams where there had been beaver dams. All the beavers had been trapped out. Seeing the potential of further revival they were able to get two pairs of beavers and Meldrum Creek and marshes were restored. I taped the book and Dad would sit in his room at the nursing home weaving the edging on trays, a craft he had learned at the CNIB, and listening to this book and some other books I taped. He never tired of listening to Three Against the Wilderness.

I had forgotten how you appreciate every word in a book when you read it aloud. It provides a different experience from reading with your eyes.

I am curious whether you ever read any of your books aloud from start to finish.

My review is going to be towards the end of the month. We are savouring 10 - 15 pages a day. 

I am heading out to the kitchen to sit at the table and read to Sharon who will be sitting in her armchair with a blanket curled around her.

All the best to you and Herb.

Bill

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Oh, Bill. I love this message, especially the part about your dad. It will bring me joy to picture you and Sharon reading/listening to Merry’s final tale (in book form anyway).

Indeed, I do read each of my books out loud at least once before I send it to editors. The experience is different, richer in some ways.

Be well and happy reading.

Tony

Why Chief Justice?

As she has in both Full Disclosure and Denial, former Chief Justice of Canada Beverley McLachlin creates legal issues during Proof that draw my attention.

While McLachlin is very convincing on the challenges of family life for a lawyer, the obsession of her lawyer, Jilly Truitt, over the murder case she is conducting on a pro bono basis is not realistic. For a firm with two partners, herself and Jeff, I cannot see how she can devote all her time to the case and incur major expenses for the defence. I have been practising law for decades with 1-2 partners besides myself and there is no way she could limit herself to this case. There is reference to other income producing cases but no time spent upon them by her. Having but one case is good fiction but weak reality. In Denial, the second book featuring Truitt, McLachlin had Truitt dealing with the challenges of managing a major case and other files. There is abundant drama in that process. Law office economics demand she continue to bring income into the firm.

Later in the book she spends an inconsequential amount of time assisting other lawyers in the firm with their files. The firm continues to hemorrhage money for months.

As she works on Kate’s defence Truitt decides to personally question a major Crown witness, Selma Beams, the nanny for Tess.

For a lawyer to question Crown witnesses before trial is a delicate area. They have already provided statements to the police which are provided to the defence. They have no duty to respond to questioning by the defence. 

Truitt made me twitch when she did not identify herself as Kate’s lawyer at the start of a conversation with Selma. She passes herself off as a single mother looking for a nanny. Only when Selma asks Truitt who she is does Truitt identify herself for “lawyers aren’t allowed to misrepresent who they are”. Her recognition of her ethical responsibility is late, very late, in the conversation.

Beyond her questionable ethical approach Truitt risked her ability to defend Kate by questioning Selma. She is seeking new evidence or at least evidence that contradicts Selma’s existing evidence. If a lawyer elicits new or contradictory evidence, especially if it is in the form of a conversation with neither recording nor signed statement, from a witness that the witness subsequently denies or recants or claims she was misled, the lawyer risks becoming a witness. If a lawyer becomes a witness they must withdraw as counsel and another firm must take over the case.

There is a further issue involving Selma. It irritates me when McLachlin controverts legal procedure. She had Selma swear an affidavit in family law custody proceedings, that took place before the book, in which she states that she is entitled, because of her time with the parents, to give opinion evidence on their parenting abilities. She is not an expert. Only experts can give opinions. More subtly, Selma could have advised what she observed that gave her concern over Kate’s parenting of Tess and what actions she took because of those concerns. Selma’s opinion in the book would be disregarded by a real life judge and subject her admissible evidence on parenting to be regarded skeptically. Her conclusions on the best interests of Tess would be struck and sanctioned.

There is an adoption proceeding involved in the book which is purported to be legally done through a hospital. Only in fiction can a lawful adoption proceed without the consent of both parents or a court order dispensing with consent. The issue of an unlawful adoption would have been fascinating in the aftermath of the case concerning the rights of the biological and adoptive parents. A twist in the plot eliminated the question.

As with the earlier two books there is a legal aspect to the conclusion that is a purely creative legal proceeding that would never happen in a Canadian court. 

Once a charge is withdrawn the judge is functus. The judge cannot hear an admission of guilt to charges pending in a different court for any reason. Court is over with the withdrawal.

Authorial licence has been repeatedly invoked yet again by the former Chief Justice of Canada in her legal fiction. I despair.

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McLachlin, Beverley - (2018) - Full Disclosure and Full Disclosure Within Full Disclosure; (2024) - Denial and The Law in Denial and What Would You Do If a Suffering Loved One Asked You to Kill Him/Her?; (2025) - Proof

Proof by Beverley McLachlin

(55. - 1238.) Proof by Beverley McLachlin - Jillian Truitt is depressed. Edith, the social worker who rescued her as a baby and as a teenager, considers it post-partum depression 15 weeks after the birth of her daughter, Claire. Truitt is also depressed over the death of Mike, her lover and father of Claire. She has feelings of guilt as he was shot by an assassin trying to kill her in the previous book, Denial. I think she is further depressed by being away from practising law as a criminal defence lawyer. She thrived in the high paced life of a prominent lawyer.

The 5 year old daughter of soft rock star, Tristan “Trist” Jones, and his separated wife, Kate Sinclair-Jones, has been kidnapped. She was with her father on a beach at the time of the abduction. He briefly fell asleep.

After court proceedings Trist has had full custody with Kate limited to supervised access. Such a parenting decision meant that the Court had concerns over the safety of Tess with her mother.

Truitt considers herself unready to return to work. Advice around her is plentiful. About half the people she knows say she needs to stay home longer with Claire while the other half state she should return to work.

She gets a call from Senior Crown Prosecutor, Cy Vance. The police want to interview Kate but she is “hysterical” and the police want a lawyer present to protect her rights.

Every defence counsel knows the police and prosecutor believe she has committed crimes by wanting Truitt present.

Truitt resists until Vance says the police cannot waste hours. They need answers as Tess’s life may be in danger.

Truitt cannot resist the lure of a life and death situation and goes to the police station.

Credible evidence exists of Kate being at and near the abduction.

How long do you search for a missing child on a small island when you do not know if the child is on the island?

Subsequently, Truitt wrestles between disclosing new evidence discovered by the defence to the Crown that could assist in renewing a search for Tess against keeping the evidence a secret until trial when it could be sprung upon the Crown prosecutor. The dilemna is very real. 

Truitt commits to a perilous course of defending based upon the truth. Unless the whole truth is discovered she risks Kate’s conviction in a trial where not all the facts are revealed. There are strong reasons for defence counsel to focus on reasonable doubt rather than attempting to prove innocence.

Truitt, very adept at perceiving what is missing from Crown disclosure and client disclosure, is convinced both sources are keeping information from her. The greater difficulty is getting what her client is holding back.

There is far more defence investigation than usual in a Canadian criminal case. The story is more like an American case.

Truitt is floundering as she struggles to assemble a realistic defence to what I consider a strong case except for the absence of a body.  

While I do not need the action there is enough Hollywood to get a reader’s heart pumping though, in true Canadian fashion, not a person is killed.

It gets bizarre at the ending, in and out of court.

McLachlin has a great feel for the complexities of being a litigator with a 7 month old child. As a single mother the issues for Truitt, related to balancing law and baby, increase dramatically. She could not do it without the aid of her always available friend, Edith, and daycare.

I feel McLachlin, former Chief Justice of Canada, who spent time as a lawyer in private practice and lost her first husband when her son was 12 are reflected in the depths of Truitt’s traumas.

McLachlin has become an accomplished writer. Her plots move briskly. Her characters are credible. I enjoy reading them while I am occasionally frustrated with how she deals with legal principles and procedure. Details of my frustration for Proof are in my next post. (Nov. 11/24)

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McLachlin, Beverley - (2018) - Full Disclosure and Full Disclosure Within Full Disclosure; (2024) - Denial and The Law in Denial and What Would You Do If a Suffering Loved One Asked You to Kill Him/Her? 

A Short Life by Nicky Greenwall

(7. - 1250.) A Short Life by Nicky Greenwall - Set in Cape Town the opening chapters are far from a narrative. 

In the middle of the night Nick and Franky are at the site of an accident where a car has crashed down a slope. 

In the next chapter, set earlier in the day, Sebastian (usually Seb) and Charley are having discussions with a German client over the filming of a car commercial in Cape Town. A host of car commercials have been made in the scenic regions around Cape Town.

Next, at an evening meal, between the day discussions and the night accident, six friends gather in a dark pretentious restaurant. They are celebrating the 5th anniversary of Nick, an engineer, and Franky, an advertising copywriter. Charley and Sebastian own an advertising agency. Adam is “a failed software designer” and Maria “a former model, stay-at-home-mother-of-three who dabbles in sculpture”.

Back to the accident scene, Nick takes a drunk Adam, who had been driving the crashed car, to the home of Franky’s mother. Franky is appalled with them.

In the morning after the accident a distraught Seb calls Franky. He says Charley is gone. For some reason she went out after they went to bed and collided with an oak tree. 

There is a powerful scene where Sebastian waits with Franky to identify the body of Charley. The faint hope the body will not be Charley is extinguished at the identification.

Franky, at 39, is pregnant for the first time. She had been waiting to tell Charley.

Sebastian, Nick, Franky, Adam and Maria are haunted, even months later by the question:

Where had Charley been going that night?

Sebastian copes through denial.

Adam cannot remember what happened.

Franky tries to just get on with life.

Nick is pragmatically getting on and is irritated with the amount of time Franky is spending with Sebastian.

Maria spends most nights sleeping with the children.

In a brilliant line on their frustration, Greenwall, through Franky, captures modern life:

…. so confusing. The not knowing …. like we can’t Google it …

Sebastian hires a private investigator, Jan, as the police have stopped investigating when they concluded it was just an accident. They are uninterested in the Question.

The surviving five cannot move past the Question.

Months after the accident Sebastian has refused to move the blazer Charly left on a chair in their bedroom. Suddenly feeling the need for action he starts cleaning out Charley’s closets. There is a surprise. 

They are the Beautiful people with lives of luxury but unsettled minds. They spend much of their time on introspection; obsessively at times. The story is more about their lives than answering the “Question”. Secrets slip around the characters. Initially I thought all the time in their minds distracted me from the story. Then I realized the portions of the book solving the mystery were more the distraction. At the end all the thoughts and solving the mystery come together. I found Greenwall skilled at penetrating the minds of her characters. All the time on introspection took me time to read as I considered their minds.

The book is a series of very short chapters. As the story proceeds go back and forth into the lives of the characters. Each chapter is in the voice of a major character. Six narrators plus (the six main characters and another) are a lot of voices, especially when they are going back to and fro in history. The story proceeds somewhat choppily. 

I found it an interesting book though it took 150 pages before it really had me gripped. It was an unusual mystery. The ending was brilliant, touching and unique. It answered the Question in a way I would never have guessed. 

A Letter Exchange with Elizabeth Heider

After reading May the Wolf Die I wrote to the author, Elizabeth Heider. She kindly replied. I appreciate her candour. Our exchange of letters is below. I look forward to her next book.

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Dear Elizabeth

Occasionally I write to an author about a book I have enjoyed and am reviewing in my blog, Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan.

I purchased May the Wolf Die late last year after seeing the New York Times recommendation. Whether through some form of divine guidance or merely coincidence I began reading May the Wolf Die the day after returning to Saskatchewan from a 37 day cruise which went from Rome to Cape Town.

Our first stop was in Naples where Sharon and I went on a tour to a pasta factory in Gragnano. As noted in my review we experienced the continuous drama of driving in Naples.

After leaving Europe the cruise went down the west coast of Africa, an area of the world with which you are very familiar through your work with the U.S. Navy.

I find being on a cruise ship for weeks to be an escape from the world. I lose track of the date and day of the week. Having no military experience I have wondered whether it is the same being on a warship. Was orientation to time different for you when deployed with the U.S. Navy on lengthy voyages?

I prefer reading a book by a new author to me before learning about the writer lest my thoughts on the book be influenced by their life. With May the Wolf Die I did not quite reach the end of the book before going online to read about you. The depth of knowledge about Naples and the U.S. Navy in the book prompted me to find about your life.

I was surprised when I read of your work history in physics and the U.S. Navy and the European Space Agency and Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence Science Research Laboratory and the commercial spaceflight industry. It is rare in my crime fiction reading experience to read an author who is both an accomplished scientist and a writer of mysteries.

Nothing I learned about your life affected my thoughts on the book. There is a link at the end of this letter to my review. I consider it a great book.

You stated in your website bio that:

I’ve always processed my experiences through writing. Fiction is particularly helpful because it helps me identify and tell the emotional truth of a situation while keeping my analytical proclivities at bay. My attempts at nonfiction become very academic - replete with facts and analyses, but absent the emotional and spiritual elements that are often the most essential parts of narrative truthtelling.

That passage prompted me to think about my own writing. I have not written fiction. As a lawyer for almost 50 years I have written letters, briefs, arguments, memos and opinions. As a sports columnist for 46 years I have written columns focused on the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. As a blogger I have written over 1,500 posts, mostly about books and authors. As a member of the Roman Catholic parish in Melfort I write and deliver reflections once or twice a year when the parish priest is absent and we have a lay presided service.

Reflecting on my writing made me realize it is analytical. There are few “emotional and spiritual elements” in my writing. There are personal reactions in my sports columns and blog posts but they are limited. The reflections for church are spiritual but also analytical in examining the readings from the Bible for the service.

I would be interested in knowing how you keep your “analytical proclivities at bay” in your fiction. I did not find May the Wolf Die analytical. I have read fiction that was essentially non-fiction with dialogue added. Your characters have developed personalities.

I would be equally interested in knowing your approach to learning about a new author to you.

Lastly I would be interested in knowing where you find the time to write crime fiction.

I will be posting this letter in my blog in a few days. If you are able to reply and are willing I would post your response with this letter or in a separate later post if I have already posted this letter. A reply can be sent to me at mysteriesandmore@gmail.com.

I look forward to reading more of your crime fiction. I think I will forgo looking up your scientific non-fiction.

All the best.

Bill Selnes

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Dear Bill,

Thank you so much for reaching out and for your thoughtful review of May the Wolf Die! I truly appreciate the time and care you put into reading and reflecting on my book. It’s wonderful to hear that it resonated with you. I'm glad to tell you that the next book in the series will come out in 2026 (I'm working on the edits right now).

Your cruise sounds like an incredible journey. Rome to Cape Town is an ambitious and fascinating route, especially with that stop in Naples. You’re absolutely right about the drama of driving there! It’s something that both fascinates and terrifies me in equal measure. I'm proud of my ability to maneuver in traffic there, and I have the traffic tickets to prove it. I also loved much of West Africa - I'm so glad you had those experiences and can treasure them for the rest of your life!

To answer your question about orientation to time on a Navy ship: yes, it is absolutely different. Long deployments, especially at sea, create an insular world where time takes on a strange elasticity. Without the usual markers of daily life, days blend together in a way that’s both disorienting and oddly liberating. There’s a rhythm to shipboard life - but it’s separate from the way time moves on land. Your description of losing track of the date on a cruise actually resonates a lot with my deployed experiences. The Navy culture on the ship was also a new experience for me (and a complete culture shock). The living conditions could be quite harsh, and this created an interesting dynamic with my shipmates. As a civilian, I struggled to earn my place and, at the end of a long deployment, felt intense gratitude and love for some people, and utter loathing for others. 

As for keeping my analytical tendencies at bay when writing fiction, that’s something I’ve had to learn over time. My background in science and analysis trained me to prioritize facts, logic, and clarity, but storytelling requires something different - an ability to sit with ambiguity, to allow characters to make imperfect decisions, and to prioritize emotional truth telling.

For me, writing about emotional and spiritual truths comes from two places. First, a personal need to understand and describe my own emotional landscape and also to sit in the discomfort of those emotions. It’s a process of discovery - one that fiction allows me to explore. I've tried to do this with non-fiction stories about my life, but I think that there's an instinctive shying-away from the vulnerability that's required. I'm somehow able to short-circuit this when I imagine fictional scenarios and people. Second, I love people, in all their messiness and beauty. Fiction gives me a way to inhabit different perspectives, to understand characters from the inside out, and to explore the contradictions that make them human. I think that’s why I gravitate toward crime fiction in particular. It’s a genre that naturally pushes into the most extreme moments of human experience.

Regarding how I approach a new author, I love the way you describe reading a book before learning about its writer. I often do the same. I prefer to enter a story without preconceived notions, allowing the writing itself to shape my perception. Only after finishing a book do I typically look into the author’s background, sometimes as a way of better understanding what shaped their perspective.

As for finding the time to write crime fiction. Well, that’s the constant challenge! I often think of writing as something I'm always looking to make time for, rather than something I find time for. Even during demanding periods of my career, I’ve always written in the margins of my life- early mornings, late nights, stolen moments in between responsibilities. It’s not always easy, but storytelling is something I feel compelled to do, so I make room for it however I can.

Thank you again for your kind words, for reading my book, and for reaching out with such thoughtful questions. I’d be happy for you to share my response on your blog if you’d like. Wishing you all the best, and I hope you enjoy my future books!

Warmly,
Elizabeth Heider

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https://mysteriesandmore.blogspot.com/2025/02/may-wolf-die-by-elizabeth-heider.html