Presumed Innocent

Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent was a huge bestseller when it was released in 1987 — so successful that it basically launched an entire genre of intelligent modern legal thrillers that would be later filled by writers like John Grisham, Michael Connelly, and others. The book is the first-person story of Rusty Sabich, a big city prosecutor whose secret affair with a colleague leads him to become a suspect when she is found raped and murdered. As the investigation continues to point in Rusty's direction, it becomes both a superb courtroom thriller as well as a very good psychological character study. The novel was made into the excellent 1990 film by Alan Pakula.