Fans of Scott Turow would know Kindle County, the locale of most of his novels featuring Rusty Sabich and Sandy Stern as protagonists.
According to the popular narrative, Kindle County is the fictionalized proxy for Chicago.
I believed that until I read THE LAST TRIAL a few years ago. While the true identity of Kindle County is not revealed in this Turow novel, it became clear that it’s not Chicago. For one, a trial witness who is flying into Kindle County from Taipei misses her connecting flight at Chicago. Obviously, you can’t fly from Chicago to Chicago. For another, the area code for Kindle County is 322, which is not assigned to any place in USA (or Canada). Also, according to this book, Kindle is corruption of ‘Le Chandelle’, or Candle, the name given by French settlers to the place.
This became more clear in Scott Turow’s latest novel PRESUMED GUILTY, which has the following line: “He will enter the Coast Guard Reserve, spending a month assigned to port security in Chicago, Kindle County or Milwaukee”.
Some fans say that Kindle County is not Chicago but could be Cook County. Per ChatGPT, Chicago is in Cook County and it makes no sense to take a flight from Cook County to Chicago.
Safe to conclude that Kindle County is not Chicago (or Cook County).
While on the subject, Turow introduces two more locales in PRESUMED GUILTY: Skageon County and Marenago County, both north of Kindle County. In the acknowledgements section at the end of the book, he writes:
“To readers, let me offer … one note to avoid confusion. Like Kindle County, the unnamed Midwestern state in which this novel is set is equally fictitious, partaking of aspects of Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. While I am always happy hear from you…, there is no need to burden yourself with messages telling me that you can’t make sense of the supposed location of Skageon or Marenago Counties. This is solidly – but only – within the peaceful confines of my imagination”.