Bestseller Turow (Innocent) is not at the top of his game in this contrived whodunit. In 2008, Paul Gianis, an Illinois state senator, is leading in the race to become mayor of Kindle County, but a decades-old tragedy threatens to scuttle his political ambitions. In 1982, Dita Kronon, the girlfriend of his identical twin brother, Cass, was beaten to death. Cass pleaded guilty to the crime, but on his release after 25 years in prison, Dita’s affluent brother, Hal, alleges that Paul was also involved in the murder. Paul files a lawsuit for defamation, hoping to minimize the damage to his political prospects, but he can’t stop Hal’s investigators from unearthing deeply buried secrets. Assured prose (e.g., “Mario Cuomo said you campaign in poetry and govern in prose, but as far as Paul could tell they were both trips to the abattoir, just different entrances”) compensates only in part for an overly intricate solution likely to disappoint even diehard Turow fans. 5-city author tour. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman. (Oct.)

"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's latest novel explores an unlikely series of adventures starring two identical brothers, one released from jail after serving 25 years for murder and the other poised to be elected mayor of a major midwestern city. The gifted Henry Leyva smooths out some of the rough edges of the novel with his enticing performance, but the actor can only go so far with such a weak script. As outstanding as Turow's early works are, this update of the Castor and Pollux legend is too bizarre to be believed. Leyva draws the listener in, and his characters are strong, fully defined, and memorable, but ultimately his work falls on deaf ears and rolling eyes. M.S. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

Much-practiced legal proceduralist Turow (Innocent, 2010, etc.) steps onto Joseph Campbell turf in his latest mystery. Turf is everything in the world Zeus Kronon--a charged name, that--has carved out for himself in Kindle County, turf that, of course, figures in Turow's oeuvre as Yoknapatawpha County figures in Faulkner's. Rolling in drachmas, he has just one problem: a wild maenad of a daughter, full name Aphrodite ("There have not been many occasions he has seen Dita when she is not smashed"), who has eyes not just for one of a pair of twin brothers, Paul and Cass Gianis, but both. That spells trouble, as twins in mythology always do. Fast-forward a few decades. Cass has been doing time for her murder, while Paul, "followed by two scrubbed young underlings," re-enters the scene as a legal whiz and rising politico. Enter the Sapphic former FBI agent Evon Miller, who, working for real estate magnate Hal (that is, Herakles) Kronon--and who minds mixing Shakespeare with Aeschylus?--is determined to get to the bottom of whether Cass or Paul did poor Dita in so brutally. It would spoil the story to do more here than whisper the name Medea in what she eventually turns up. Turow has obvious fun with his mythological conceit, giving, for instance, a local GOP power the sonorous, if unlikely, name Perfectus Elder; and if sometimes the joke wears a little thin, the process of discovery takes nice and sometimes unexpected twists. Amid the supermodernity of DNA tests, the austerity of case law and the tangles of contemporary politics (Hal, horrors, even threatening to vote for Obama), Turow never loses sight of the ancient underpinnings of his story, with a conclusion that places Hal, Zeus, Hermione and Aphrodite in the vicinity of Olympus, their true neighborhood. Classic (in more senses than one) Turow.