Scott Turow was once described by Time magazine as the bard of the litigious age, but most of Identical, his 10th novel, takes place outside of the courtroom. Indeed, as the story opens, in 2008, it's almost 25 years since Cassian Gianis pleaded guilty to the murder of his then girlfriend, Dita Kronon. His imminent release from prison coincides with an election campaign being waged by his identical twin, Paul, formerly a successful lawyer, who is ahead in the polls for the mayoralty. But Paul has reckoned without Hal Kronon, Dita's billionaire brother, who is convinced Paul played a part in Dita's death and is determined he be brought to justice.
As the names suggest, Identical takes place in the Greek-American community that has established a significant presence in Turow's recurring fictional setting of Kindle County, although Turow has one eye on a much older Greek culture. Hal's father is called Zeus, and Tim Brodie, the private investigator Hal employs, has a fondness for reading Greek mythology. It is Brodie who amplifies the motif of identical twins that lies at the heart of the novel, specifically referencing the myth of Castor and Pollux, a story that in part provides the inspiration for the tragedy that subsequently engulfs the characters.
A quirky bunch of characters they are, too. Brodie is an unconventional private eye, an 83-year-old retiree bordering on senility who is mourning the recent death of his wife. Evon Miller, reprised from the 1999 novel Personal Injuries, is a gay former FBI agent struggling to extricate herself from an emotionally destructive relationship. The unlikely Paul Gianis, meanwhile, is a former lawyer and aspiring politician whose idealism still outweighs his pragmatism, a man whose faltering bid for power in 2008 is obliquely cross-referenced with the gathering momentum of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
It’s an absorbing thriller with its share of twists as the characters become increasingly entangled in a legal cat’s cradle that is further complicated by DNA identification techniques unavailable to the investigating team 25 years previously. Rooted in Greek mythology, the novel is an ambitious attempt to blend ancient and modern storytelling forms, in the process reminding us that human nature has changed far less in the intervening 3,000 years than might have been hoped, particularly when it comes to our more venal instincts.
Surprisingly, however, Identical is most effective when Turow turns from the public and the political to the private and the personal. He explores a variety of expressions of love and loss in considerable depth, often very movingly and unsettlingly. The result is a novel that is fascinated by character, especially with how love can twist us into creatures unrecognisable even to ourselves when we seek to protect those we love at any cost.
