Rusty Sabich

Rozat K. "Rusty" Sabich is the novel's main character and narrator. A highly successful lawyer of about forty years old, he is chief deputy prosecuting attorney of Kindle County when the novel opens. Rusty is a very bright and logical thinker who has a twelve-year history of putting miscreants behind bars for the state. As his character is developed throughout the novel, it becomes clear that Rusty is sensitive, caring, and honest but that he also knows how to be secretive and even manipulative when necessary, especially in doing his job. He loves the work but he also recognizes that self-interest, lies, and corruption exist not only among the people he prosecutes but among his own peers. Rusty has a light side and a dark side. The lightness is perhaps best demonstrated in his love for his young son but it also is apparent in his devotion...