My boy scott did it again!! this was ALMOST as good as the first one but i can’t wait to keep reading his books

Unfortunately i started the Apple+ series of presumed innocent and it’s so diff from the book (granted im only 2 episodes in) that i don’t really like it. The screen never does book justices tbh. I’ll update as i continue

Like Presumed Innocent (1987), The Burden of Proof is a mystery with the death of an enigmatic woman at the center. Both books force the protagonists on a journey of outward and inward exploration to probe their lives and their relationships with these dead women. In both the case of Rusty Sabich and Sandy Stern, each is so intent on creating a semblance of "normal" life that he refuses to acknowledge the darker influences in his life until compelled to confront them in a dramatic fashion. With Clara's suicide, Sandy must examine his own failings in his relationships with his wife and with his children. At the same time, he comes to realize that the interpretations he has made of other people or events are flawed.The central characters of The Burden of Proof are nearly all members of the Stern family.

At the center of the novel is Alejandro "Sandy" Stern, Rusty Sabich's enigmatic defense lawyer from Presumed Innocent. As this novel indicates, Sabich's trial had increased Stern's practice and he seems the model of the successful professional man. However, when he comes home to discover his wife dead in the garage with only the note, "Can you forgive me?", the fifty-six-year old Stern is forced to face the deficiencies and failures in his life.

He comes to realize that he had chosen to avoid looking at the darker aspects of his wife, including the fact that she had always been an unhappy woman, full of secrets. As flashbacks in the book reveal, he had found Clara's past a mystery; he had never really understood how he, a poor immigrant, had been able to marry Clara Mittler, the daughter of a prominent and wealthy attorney. Clara's death forces him to reexamine and analyze their relationship in a way that he never had while she was alive.

Stern also has to confront the mysteries embedded in his three children — Peter, a doctor, whose troubled relationship with his father continues to deteriorate after his mother's death; Marta, a legal aid lawyer in New York who comes to her father's aid when he himself becomes involved in legal proceedings; and Kate, his youngest daughter, whose beauty seems to have shielded her from many of life's harsh realities.

Each of these children hides a number of secrets whose revelation forces Stern to re-evaluate his original assumptions about them.

Also important in the story is Dixon Hartnell, husband of Stern's beloved sister, Silvia. Dixon, head of a commodities futures trading empire and owner of Maison Dixon, a brokerage house, is Stern's chief client and often the bane of his existence.

Stern half admires this powerful, womanizing, and self-confident businessman as the prototypical American and half despises him for the pain that this self-involved man sometimes inflicts on those around him.

Dixon's shady dealings bring Stern into contact with Assistant U.S.

Attorney Sonia Klonsky. Klonsky, after spending a decade in various graduate programs, had now embarked on a demanding law career while in her early forties. Stern finds this woman, in the midst of her first pregnancy after a bout with breast cancer and in a shaky marriage, a compelling figure; she seems to offer him the enticing prospect of starting over again.

However, he gradually overcomes his infatuation with her and eventually marries Helen Dudak, an old family friend now divorced from her husband.

Like Stern, Helen has had to learn to adapt to the single life after the security of a long-term relationship.

They both have learned by their failures and are ready for the demands of a new marriage.

I wanted to give this novel at least 4 stars for the amazing writing of the story. It was some of the best I have ever read. The characterization of the people was great and never left you feeling that you had no idea of what they were about. Alejandro "Sandy" Stern comes home from his law office to find his wife, Clara dead. She committed suicide and left no note. The mystery of her death drives the story. It brings in her 3 children, her brother-in-law Dixon Hartnell who also is Sandy's client and a lost check of about $850,000. Sandy realizes that his devotion to his clients and time at the office had severely hurt their marriage. But when he goes off the rails as far I am concerned when it comes to his wanton love life after his wife death really spoils his character of an Argentinian gentleman. There is no way to call this book a 'thriller'. It plods along too slowly part of the time and the culprit in the story is not to hard to figure out.

I read the print version of this book a dozen years ago, and now I have just finished listening to the audible version. I liked it when I first read it, and I really liked it listening to it. There is a lot of human relationship material in this book, most of it within one family. I found it to be impressive, material and thoughtful in so many ways. People struggling and people failing, but ultimately with a happy ending. The ending is a bit contrived, but so be it!
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I thought I would try to read some quick mystery books to shorten my TBR pile. This book has 515 pages so it appears that winnowing effort will have to wait a while longer. This book could be 300 pages instead of 500. But it would be missing many of the human interactions that make this book so enjoyable and memorable.

The legal territory we enter by reading this book includes The Grand Jury. For me, that is an education. I have, of course, heard about Grand Juries many times but, with the help of Scott Turow, I have painlessly expanded my knowledge of the process.

I like that this book is more in depth than some mystery/crime books that can at times be skimming the surface with most characters. You have an experience of terrific character development without a lot of extraneous information. Everything matters in this book. The words are well chosen and enjoyable to read.

I sometimes found it hard to follow the trail of the crime or the events as they zigged and zagged along. As I often say, too much detail and twisting and turning for my brain. But I can work up a good deal of acceptance of the proofs or assumed proofs even if I do not fully follow them. That means I can keep up with the story and enjoy it without burning out on details. There is plenty of material and missing a bit does no lasting damage to the reading.

Stern is not young. I am not young. I like that. Heroes do not always have to be young and handsome and trim. And people who are no longer young in years still have all the same feelings as those who are. It is interesting and encouraging to find Stern sexually attracted to a number of women after his wife dies. And to see that he can have a positive interaction with a five year old even as he has doubts about how well he did with his own children. In his own imperfections and doubts I find a likeable character.

As I experienced it, the age of this book (published 22 years ago) did not have a detrimental effect on the story. The absence of cell phones and computers did not distract with dust and cobwebs. I lived in a time without these technologies so it is not hard for me to adjust. I wonder if it is the same for readers who have never known life without electronics. Maybe those people do not read books that are 22 years old!

This is an easy four star book for me. I have other Turow books on my shelf to look forward to reading when he comes up again on my cycle of authors and series.

This was a flawless read until the very end where he takes an easy way out. Very melodramatic (in a good way) and serious.
"Some spoke of the nobility of the law. Stern did not believe in that. Too much of the grubby boneshop, the odor of the abattoir, emanated from every courtroom he had entered. It was often a nasty business. But the law, at least, sought to govern misfortune, the slights and injuries of our social existence that were otherwise wholly random. The law's object was to let the seas engulf only those who had been selected for drowning on an orderly basis. In human affairs, reason would never fully triumph; but there was no better cause to champion."

Not my cup of tea. I will not be reading anymore of Turows novel's.

I expected more thrill than I got from this second entry in Turow’s Kindle County Legal Thriller series. The first book, Presumed Innocent, was full of suspense. This one, not so much. The material was there - a questionable suicide, the disappearance of a near million dollar estate, unethical securities trading, some seriously dysfunctional family dynamics – but the overdone philosophical musings really bogged things down. It did keep me interested enough to finish but not enough that I want to pick up the next book.

Oh, and about that ending -  - you’ve been warned.

A very good novel, and probably my favourite of all of Scott Turow's books. A tale of marriage, family and suicide not to mention a fairly decent thriller. Sandy Stern (first seen in presumed innocent) comes home to find his wife has committed suicide -- and we follow his life in the months that follow as he tries to keep his life together and understand why his wife would do something like that.

For a longer review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_29816...

Alejando Stern, or Sandy as he is known, is at the top of his career. He is an accomplished defense lawyer, respected by those who move in legal circles. Sandy came to the United States as a boy from Argentina. He married Clara and they have three adult children. The marriage has settled into a polite one rather than a passionate one. Clara has always been reserved and fights depression.

When Sandy comes home one day from an out of town meeting, he finds Clara dead by her own hand. Stunned but not really surprised, Sandy starts to settle into his new life only to find that he never knew Clara at all. He starts to uncover her secret life and each new discovery uncovers more secrets until he wonders how he could have been so blind.

His professional life is trying also. His brother-in-law, Dixon, is a wealthy man who trades on the stock market. He is a chrematistic figure but Sandy has long suspected he sails too close to the legal edge and now the SEC and the state attorney have come to bring Dixon down. It is one of the most challenging cases of Sandy's career, not least because Dixon lies and maneuvers constantly. Sandy would leave him to it but he can't desert his sister's husband who also employs Sandy's son-in-law. But the case is thorny and complicated and he can't quite see how it will be resolved easily.

This is Turow's second novel and Sandy is the brilliant lawyer who is one of the main characters in Turow's first explosive bestseller, Presumed Innocent. Sandy is an interesting character and readers will want him to win as he negotiates both the legal world and his new world as a widower back in the dating world. Through issues with his children, his legal responsibilities and his investigation into the woman he married but who hid her life from him, Sandy walks a fine line guided by his morals and obligations to those he loves. This book is recommended for readers of legal mysteries.

Pretty solid! Not as good as Presumed Innocent, but that was a high bar for me. A lot going on here with slight twists and turns to keep you engaged throughout. Interesting characters. There were times when I wanted Stern to fight back more against his children, but the reasoning for not doing so was understandable. The Stern character didn't seem to have it quite as together as I always pictured him, but this is obviously a much more in depth look at him. The character became more human. Looking forward to more from Turow.

First things first. I generally really like reading Scott Turow. I like the legal angles. I loved reading is nonfiction work, One L.

My issue with this book is Sandy Stern. We are meant to feel sympathetic towards him — he loses his wife to suicide, he learns later that she was hiding a herpes diagnosis from him.

He consistently speaks with some charming authority. He’s a celebrated attorney who seems to hold his professional responsibility first, no matter what. It’s the rest of him that makes me shake my head.

This guy is a womanizer who acts as if he is doing it accidentally. From any other perspective, in a version of the book where Stern is not our protagonist, my uneducated guess is he’d be diagnosed as having a narcissistic/ borderline personality disorder.

This guy stumbles into bed with every damn woman he encounters except his daughter. He is “overcome with feeling” and inexplicably cannot help but put the moves on them.

He refers to this as a “temporary insanity” and is unapologetic to the women he has romanced (I use that term loosely, almost ironically).

I’m just done with books romanticizing these behaviors. Is this a lust for life? No. This charm is an alarm.

Was the book well-written? Sure. (It’s maybe 20% too long.) This is not a criticism of the writer’s skill. It’s a plea for writers to give less heroic attention to behaviors / characters like this.

3.5 stars