After a youth where she managed to survive trying any number of illicit substances and “romantic” entanglements, Clarice “Pinky” Granum is, at best, a semi-reformed hot mess. But in Suspect, Scott Turow’s new legal thriller, she’s carving out a living as a private investigator for her lawyer friend Rik Dudek, working boilerplate cases like DUIs, worker’s comp investigations, and bar fights.
But the stakes for both Rik and Pinky are raised immeasurably when they end up defending Highland Isle police chief Lucia Gomez against allegations that she extorted three officers under her command for sex in exchange for promotions. Complicating matters is the fact that Gomez doesn’t deny that she had sex with the men, just that it was in exchange for anything. Rather, she alleges that the accusations are part of a smear campaign against her by a former officer nicknamed “The Ritz,” whom she pushed off the force. He had an unsavory reputation while on the job and it seems his firing was deserved —and the Ritz’s bad behavior has continued even after being stripped of his badge.
In order for Pinky to help the chief keep her job in the midst of a challenging political election, she’s going to have to figure out the truth behind the allegations and discredit the charges. In doing so, she runs up against a number of people willing to do whatever it takes to get rid of the chief and keep their own dark secrets hidden. Along the way, she’ll also have to deal with a past love who doesn’t seem ready to let things go and a mysterious neighbor who both annoys and intrigues her.
I found myself quite intrigued with Pinky throughout the book. She knows who she is and embraces her past mistakes, all the while refusing to let the opinions of others bother her or affect her actions in the here and now. Scott Turow develops the character well, throwing in little bits of information about her past throughout, sometimes to humorous effect.
The legal case in Suspect plays into the notion of gender and sexual politics, especially as it pertains to women acting in a similar fashion to men throughout the ages. But I liked how Turow also demonstrated that just because something isn’t against the rules, doesn’t make doing it a good idea. And I liked the way he showed Rik Dudek to be a more than competent attorney despite his relatively shabby law practice. Rik knows there’s more to the case and is unafraid of confronting his client, his opponents, or the accusers.
Readers will be drawn into Suspect’s narrative and their expectations challenged at each successive development in the case. With each new revelation about the players involved, readers will be left wanting to know more about them long after the book’s somewhat abrupt ending.
