The Laws of Our Fathers, Scott Turow's most powerful novel to date, opens with a spectacular drive-by shooting in a notoriously drug-plagued Kindle County housing project. The victim is an aging white woman; within days her son, Nile Eddgar, a probation officer, is charged in connection with the crime.

Nile's trial is presided over by Judge Sonia "Sonny" Klonsky, whom Turow's fans will remember from The Burden of Proof. It brings together a vivid cast of characters from Sonny's student years during the turbulent sixties, among them Nile's father, Loyell Eddgar, and Sonny's old boyfriend Seth Weissman, now a renowned journalist. They are marked by their iconoelastic youth and carry secrets that will have explosive effects on the case at hand.

With its riveting suspense and indelibly drawn characters, The Laws of Our Fathers shows once again why Scott Turow is not only the master of the modern legal thriller but also one of America's most gifted and satisfying novelists.