PLOT TWISTS

Author Scott Turow and his wife, Adriane, find sweet surprises in their part-time Naples life

By Cary BarBor PhotograPhy By audrey Snow owen

’ve always been interested in the way people advance and retreat in your life,” says best-selling author Scott Turow. He is sitting at a round glass dining table in the Naples home he shares with his wife, Adriane. It’s an early morning in late summer and already steamy outside, but it’s cool and inviting in the Turows’ Floridacasual home. The Turows are in Florida for just a short visit before they head back to their Chicago-based residence. There’s some bustling inside as Adriane finishes packing to go north. Both are dressed casually in linen, cotton, and sandals, looking very much at home in the Florida summer.

The discussion centers on Turow’s new novel, Suspect. It’s his fifteenth book; he has published 13 works of fiction and 2 nonfiction. His blockbuster first novel, Presumed Innocent, was published in 1987 and turned into a hit 1990 movie starring Harrison Ford and Greta Scacchi. All told, his books have sold more than 30 million copies and have been translated into more than 40 languages.

Turow readers will recognize some of the characters in Suspect from previous novels. The private

I’ve always been interested in the way people advance and retreat in your life.” –SCOTT TUROW

investigator, Clarice “Pinky” Granum, is the granddaughter of Sandy Stern, the elegant and magnetic defense lawyer who fi rst showed up in Presumed Innocent, a character who has refused to take a back seat for all these years. Stern is clearly an object of the author’s affection.

“Every book is going well,” Turow says, “when, in the course of the writing, there’s a character who—while planned—starts to run away with the book and says, ‘I need more attention; I need bigger scenes.’ Kind of like a diva,” Turow says with a laugh. “And Sandy Stern was defi nitely that character in Presumed Innocent.”

By virtue of the passage of time, Stern’s heyday has now passed and it’s his granddaughter’s turn. She fi rst appeared in utero in Turow’s 1990 The Burden of Proof. Advancing and retreating.

While Turow is talking about his characters, he could just as easily be referring to his life in Naples. He and Adriane started coming around 2016 to get away from Chicago winters. “Coming to Naples has taught me that I am a weather slut,” he quips. “And what I like is blue skies and 80 degrees.” With each passing year, the Turows fi nd they dedicate more and more time to the Sunshine State. In the coming year, they plan to spend about seven months on the Paradise Coast.

Much more than the pleasing weather, the people they’ve met here have been the “surprise gift,” as Adriane, 58, puts it. “We have met just wonderful people—thoughtful, smart, fun, and engaging. And for me, at least at this point in life, it’s not often that I’ve had an opportunity to make genuine friends.”

“We’ve met people down here we genuinely love,” adds Scott, 73. “And at this stage, you have more time to meet and get to know people. You’re open to other people in a way that you weren’t earlier in your life.”

The favorite pastimes of both Turows when they’re in their southern home involve sports. Playing them, that is. “Three years ago, at the age of 70, I decided to take my fi rst tennis lesson,” says Scott,

Scott Turow’s fi fteenth book, Suspect, was released this year on September 27. His blockbuster fi rst novel, Presumed Innocent, was published in 1987.

though he’d always played. While the lessons are helping his game, he doubts he’ll ever get to Adriane’s level. “She’s a much better tennis player than I will ever be,” he says. Both enjoy playing golf and pickleball as well. “I just love running around and playing sports,” says Adriane. “I’m way more enthusiastic than I am good.” Sports is generally how they met their beloved Florida friends and how they spend time with them.

Their low-key approach extends to dining, too. Their favorite spot? The beach. “We have a little table we take,” Scott says. “We may invite another couple and have drinks and appetizers or a full meal down there.”

Scott retired from practicing law in 2020. Despite his status as a mega-successful author, he has always maintained a law practice, often working pro bono. Adriane, also trained as an

When in Naples, the Turows enjoy playing sports and spending time with their dogs, Doug and Brian (at right).

Table f Two

While Scott and Adriane Turow most enjoy a picnic at sunset on a Naples beach, they like a good restaurant meal now and then, too. Some of their local favorites: Bha! Bha! Persian Bistro (bhabhabistro.com) Kareem’s Lebanese Kitchen (kareemskitchen.com) Pelagos Café (239-263-2996) Sushi One (sushionenaples.com) Turco Taco (theturcotaco.com) Zen Asian BBQ (eatatzen.com)

attorney, retired as a banking executive around the time they started coming to Naples. However, Scott has no plans to retire from writing. When they’re here, he says, he gets up at sunrise, makes a pot of coffee, lets out the dogs, and catches up with newspapers online over breakfast. Then he disappears into his offi ce to work for four or fi ve hours.

After book 15, are there things he still wants to write? You bet.

Scott relates, “I’ve always wanted to write what is often called a commonplace book. I loved Norman Mailer books in that vein when I was a college student. He wrote books like Cannibals

and Christians, where he would take his own pieces that had been written years before and introduce them with commentary. I’m intrigued by doing something like that.”

Turow’s early work, like Sandy Stern himself, refuses to give up the spotlight. Presumed Innocent is about to go into production as an eight-episode series for Apple TV+. “There’s a powerhouse team behind it,” says Turow. “J.J. Abrams, David Kelley. They’ll start filming in [Los Angeles] in January.”

Was he involved in writing the screenplay? “I regard myself in these matters like a nineteenth-century child. I speak when spoken to,” he says. “I’ve known David for 30 years, and I have higher regard for him than anybody else who writes in the world of TV. So if he calls me up and says, ‘What do you think about this scene?,’ I answer him. But if he doesn’t have any questions, then I don’t.” A story that came out in 1987 will need a lot of updating, Turow knows. “And one of the really brilliant things about what David did is that updating,” he says. “As I told him, when I got to the end of the pilot script, even I was shocked by it.” That was a good surprise—not unlike a later-in-life cadre of dear new friends, or a new killer backhand to unleash. For Scott and Adriane Turow, it’s another in a line of delightful plot twists. «