Rusty Sabich comes out of retirement in Scott Turow's thriller 'Presumed Guilty'

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

After a long career as a prosecutor, a defense attorney and a judge, 77-year-old Rusty Sabich is retired. But when a young woman named Mae Potter goes missing, Rusty comes out of retirement to defend the lead suspect – who happens to be his soon-to-be stepson. Presumed Guilty is the latest novel from Scott Turow, who's been writing about this character since he published Presumed Innocent in 1987. In today's episode, Turow joins NPR's Scott Simon for a conversation that touches on second chances, the fallibility of the legal system, and the potential impact of artificial intelligence on literature.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's I'm Pierre's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Time comes first all,
0:06.7	even fictional lawyers written by longtime authors. Scott Toro has been writing about the lawyer
0:12.5	Rusty Savage since 1987. And Toro's new book, presumed guilty, Savage is a 77-year-old
0:19.9	retiree, who, of course, gets pulled back into one more
0:23.7	case.
0:24.7	But this being fiction, Rusty didn't have to age, right?
0:29.0	NPR Scott Simon makes the point in this interview that Rusty could have been preserved
0:33.2	in amber, like James Bond or something.
0:35.9	But Toro explains that he felt like he owed Rusty something.
0:40.0	Just what?
0:41.2	Well, that's after the break.
0:43.4	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:48.1	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:52.6	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
0:54.7	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
0:58.5	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:02.3	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:07.9	Rusty Savage is back.
1:10.4	The character created by Scott Thoreau has been a prosecutor, a defendant,
1:14.2	a defense attorney, a judge. He's been played by big stars on screen, most recently Jake Gyllenhaal.
1:21.0	But Rusty is now 77. He's retired. Living in what city folks might call the sticks,
1:29.1	when a young woman named May Potter goes missing. She'd gone camping with her boyfriend, Aaron Housley, who's on parole for
	...

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