One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School

One L is Turow’s debut book, but he primarily went on to write fiction—with his novels often set in the legal world that he grew to love. Turow’s first novel, Presumed Innocent (1986), became an instant bestseller and was adapted into a popular 1990 movie with Harrison Ford as the lead. The book spawned two more in its series—the most recent published in 2025—and became a benchmark in the genre of “legal thrillers.” Many of Turow’s 12 other novels are set in the fictional Kindle County, based on his hometown of Chicago and the surrounding Cook County, Illinois. Other novels are set Boston, Massachusetts, where he went to Harvard. Turow employs the technical skills he learned in school and on the job as a federal prosecutor to create realistic legal cases within atmospheres of suspense and drama. Turow’s fiction work stands among other big names in the legal thriller genre, like John Grisham (A Time to Kill, The Firm) and David Baldacci (Zero Day, A Calamity of Souls). One L has been compared to The Paper Chase by John Jay Osborn Jr.