Presumed Guilty by Scott Turow

 Presumed Guilty brings us back to the "star" of Presumed Innocent from 1987. Rusty Sabitch is now a retired judge, living away from Kindle County with his fiancee Bea and her grown son Aaron. One day, Aaron announces he's going on a camping trip with his longtime love, Mae, who's beautiful and bright but also volatile and manipulative. After a couple of days, Aaron comes home without Mae. He explains that they had a big fight because he wanted to seriously talk about their future and she didn't. He took her phone and hitchhiked home.After a few days, she has still not turned up. Her parents are frantic but Aaron thinks she's just hiding out at a campground toying with him. Then Mae's body is found and Aaron is arrested. Bea begs Rusty to be her son's lawyer even though he has little experience as a defense lawyer. Rusty knows that if he loses the case, he will also lose Bea. No pressure.

It's a compelling story. But it could have used a little judicious editing. Indeed, the book clocks in at over 530 pages. There is a LOT of description and Rusty spends a lot of time pondering. I'm a fast reader and it took me a while to get through this book. Still, it was nice to check back in with Rusty and see how his life had turned out. And the court case kept my attention because we really don't know what happened to Mae until the very end.