IDENTICAL By Scott Turow

IDENTICAL, which is loosely based on the myth of Castor and Pollux, the twin sons (one mortal and one immortal) of Zeus.  As the story goes, when Castor was killed, Pollux begged Zeus to share his immortality with his brother so that the twins could remain together – Zeus allowed it, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini.  IDENTICAL tells the story of Paul and Cass Giannis, identical twins, whose future was bright until one fateful day in 1983 when Athena “Dita” Kronon—then-girlfriend of Cass Giannis—was murdered after her family’s summer party. 

The book opens in 2008 as Paul Giannis is mid-way through what looks to be a successful run for mayor of Kindle County, and Cass is about to be released from prison after serving 25 years for Dita’s murder. Dita’s brother, Hal Kronon, is willing to do whatever he can to insure that Cass stays in prison and, using his vast resources, he gets a legal team and an ex-FBI agent—who is the head of security for the Kronon family business —to convince a judge to re-open the investigation into Dita’s murder.  The private investigator on retainer for the Kronons is a former homicide detective who headed the initial investigation.  Tim Brodie, now 81, has his doubts about the way the case unfolded all those years ago.  By the time he was brought in, the crime scene had been compromised several times over by Dita’s family and local police, and then Cass Giannis confessed before everything was fully investigated.  Now that the case is being reexamined, Tim feels personally motivated to get to the bottom of the complex web of murder, sex, and betrayal.  As the story dramatically unfolds and shocking secrets are revealed, a chilling truth comes to light: people will believe what they want to believe.