Two formidable men collide in this "first-class legal thriller" from New York Times bestselling author Scott Turow: a "brilliant courtroom chess match" about a celebrated criminal defense lawyer and the prosecution of his lifelong friend -- a doctor accused of murder (David Baldacci).
At eighty-five years old, Alejandro "Sandy" Stern, a brilliant defense lawyer with his health failing but spirit intact, is on the brink of retirement. But when his old friend Dr. Kiril Pafko, a former Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, is faced with charges of insider trading, fraud, and murder, his entire life's work is put in jeopardy, and Stern decides to take on one last trial.
In a case that will be the defining coda to both men's accomplished lives, Stern probes beneath the surface of his friend's dazzling veneer as a distinguished cancer researcher. As the trial progresses, he will question everything he thought he knew about his friend. Despite Pafko's many failings, is he innocent of the terrible charges laid against him? How far will Stern go to save his friend, and -- no matter the trial's outcome -- will he ever know the truth?
Stern's duty to defend his client and his belief in the power of the judicial system both face a final, terrible test in the courtroom, where the evidence and reality are sometimes worlds apart.
Full of the deep insights into the spaces where the fragility of human nature and the justice system collide, Scott Turow's The Last Trial is a masterful legal thriller that unfolds in page-turning suspense -- and questions how we measure a life.
"Since Presumed Innocent rocked the publishing world, Scott Turow has cemented his status as a writer with few peers in any genre. Now the master is back with a brilliant courtroom chess match that shows us the human quotient in all its rot and virtue. The Last Trial is a first class legal thriller."―David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Serious readers should be reading Turow, because he is not just one of our best crime novelists; he is also one of our better novelists . . . What Turow has done, in book after book, is to give us page turners that are also pleasing literary artifacts, mysteries that are also investigations into complicated social questions and complex human emotions."―New York Times
"Turow has established the gold standard for legal thrillers for decades, and he delivers another bar-raising example of his talent here, with his signature absorbing legal details, cerebral suspense, and fascinatingly flawed characters all on full view."―Booklist, Starred Review
"[The Last Trial] gains timely depth through its discussion of thorny moral issues . . . Strongly felt."―Kirkus
"Twisty . . . a page-turner that makes a trial centered on fraud and insider trading fascinating. Turow remains in a class of his own in conveying the subtleties of criminal defense work while also entertaining his readers."―Publishers Weekly
"A timely, whip-smart legal thriller about aging, justice, and what we owe the people we love."―AARP
"The master of the courtroom drama."―Daniel Silva, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"One of the major writers in America."―NPR
"America's very best creator of legal thrillers."―Chicago Tribune
"The king of legal thrillers."―Wall Street Journal
