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Binding: Mass Market PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780345381842 ISBN: 034538184X Label: Ballantine Books Manufacturer: Ballantine Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 544 Publication Date: December 04, 1993 Publisher: Ballantine Books Release Date: December 04, 1993 Studio: Ballantine Books Related Items: Alternate Versions: Click to Display Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com: The core of Richard North Patterson's legal thrillers is characterization, and Degree of Guilt, the novel that relaunched his career in 1993, features two captivating individuals: Christopher Paget and Mary Carelli. Paget, the upstart hero of Patterson's 1979 Edgar-winning The Lasko Tangent, is now a sophisticated trial lawyer doing his best to raise a teenage son in San Francisco. He's a man to be admired: famous for bringing down the president in a financial scandal, he has settled into the comfortable life of a successful attorney. His life is transformed, however, when his former lover (and mother of his son), Mary Carelli, pays a visit. The novel begins in a San Francisco hotel room as Mary, now an NBC journalist, surveys the torn landscape of author Mark Ransom's apartment. Ransom is, or was, America's most eminent writer. As she tells the police, Ransom had uncovered new recorded evidence of an affair between a long-dead starlet and a now-sainted senator (shades of Marilyn Monroe and JFK). While Ransom and Mary were listening to the tapes, she claims, he tried to rape her and she killed him in self-defense. Mary turns to Paget to defend her in what becomes a complex case of missing and conflicting evidence. Old emotions are stirred between the two just as Paget begins to doubt Mary's innocence. The suspense of Degree of Guilt is grounded in the twists and turns of the trial at the novel's center, but just as compelling is the emerging history of Mary and Paget, and Paget's struggles to keep his son out of the media frenzy surrounding his mother's case. As well, Patterson addresses the deeper ethical questions that face many lawyers as they decide which cases to take and which evidence to use. Capturing archetypal characters and situations, Degree of Guilt becomes a parable of American law. --Patrick O'Kelley Product Description: Mary Carelli, one of the most powerful women in TV journalism, is charged with the murder of Mark Ransom, America's most eminent novelist. Her attorney, Christopher Paget, sets out to shock the courtroom with revelations about Ransom as a twisted sexual predator. But as the trial unfolds, it is Paget who will be surprised...by Mary's secret motive for murder...by evidence that Mary is lying...by a woman prosecutor who believes Mary invented the story of rape...and by an enigmatic judge with an agenda of her own.... Average Rating:
 Rating: - Good Characters and Courtroom Drama, but Lots of Explicit Sexual AssaultThis book started out extremely well, carried on strongly through the middle and then, though it tailed off significantly in the last section, concluded satisfactorily. Had the final portion been as good as the start and the middle, it would rate five stars. The strengths here are the development of the main characters and the care of the presentation of the legal machinations. While not at the level of a Scott Turow book in these categories, it is infinitely better in these ... Read More Rating: - The Search For TruthI recently completed this witer"s newest work, Exile, and wanted to back and read some of his earliest work. The book is well thought out and its characters are extremely well developed. In many ways, I found similarities to his recently published work. In both cases, one finds an idealistic attotney who takes a case that is high profile in nature with little upside existing for him. He is a staunch defender of finding the truth, even it will lead to personal harm or harm to the case that is being tried. ... Read More Rating:  - The Best Legal Thriller Ever. Period.Over the years, whenever I've gotten into a discussion of books with people, the topic always comes to legal thrillers. Without hesitation I have recommended this book to every single person who likes the genre, and there has never been a person that's been disappointed by their experience reading this. Patterson's story and delivery are pitch-perfect, and the courtroom scenese and investigation prior to the trial are top notch. Unlike many of the modern legal thrillers, a great deal of this ... Read More Rating: - Great plot, flabby endingThis is a paramount plot, one of a kind for smart guys, where the reader is forced to think deeply in order to medidate about all the offered scattered events so as to understand how the situations unfold and relate Characters are very well created and developed and some of them relate to RNP other books. As we approach the ending, we expect Judge Masters ruling with total anxiety, however this is solved fast paced in just one chapter leaving a bitter taste after 500 pages of legal ... Read More Rating: - 8 stars please !!!Fantastic!!!!. This book is going to go into my top 100 paperback reads of my life. I mean this is a book that has a basic plot which is kind of steered in such a manner to make it really look more complicated. The beauty of the book is the mixing of the flashbacks with the present. I mean few authors given this basic plot line could have told a story which is pushed forward by such amount of sheer relentless tension and suspense for over 500 odd pages. Mr paget is a attorney acting as defence for an alleged ... Read More 
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