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


From Publishers Weekly
This absorbing but overstuffed courtroom thriller revolves around a California attorney's efforts to defend a TV newswoman who kills a famous novelist. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Former Edgar-winner Patterson (for The Lasko Tangent , Norton, 1979) offers what will surely be one of the year's best thrillers. TV journalist Mary Carelli shoots and kills famous writer Mark Ransom in his hotel room, claiming that Ransom tried to rape her. The man she asks to defend her is Christopher Paget, with whom she has had a complicated relationship: Paget is the father of Mary's son, who lives with Paget and whom Mary has not seen for eight years. Paget agrees to defend Mary to protect his son. The puzzle that lies at the heart of this courtroom thriller is the character of Mary Carelli. Is she telling the truth about Mark Ransom? What is she hiding, and who will be hurt most? Superb characterizations and intense dialog make this utterly compelling reading. Patterson also manages to offer a stinging criticism of the way female rape victims are treated by the law and the legal system. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/92.- Dean James, Houston Acad. of Medicine/Texas Medical Ctr. Lib.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
"One intense courtroom clash after another...An intelligent and gripping thriller."
--The Washington Post

A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club


Review
"One intense courtroom clash after another...An intelligent and gripping thriller."
--The Washington Post

A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club


Book Description
"One intense courtroom clash after another...An intelligent and gripping thriller."
THE WASHINGTON POST
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....
A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club



From the Publisher
13 1.5-hour cassettes


From the Inside Flap
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....


From the Back Cover
"One intense courtroom clash after another...An intelligent and gripping thriller."
--The Washington Post

A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club

ANNOTATION

An eminent novelist is killed by a woman who claims he tried to rape her. Now a defense attorney with dark secrets must try to keep the trial of the century from turning into a travesty of justice.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A shocking death. A claim of attempted rape. A tale of sexual pathology. These are the elements of Degree of Guilt, Richard North Patterson's stunning courtroom novel. Christopher Paget is a trial lawyer with a famous past: as a young investigator in Washington, he unearthed a scandal that brought ruin to a President -- and an abrupt end to Paget's affair with Mary Carelli. Now, fifteen years later, they are estranged. Carelli is a well-known television journalist based in New York; Paget lives quietly in San Francisco, raising their teenage son and preserving what privacy he can. Until a charge of murder changes everything. The victim is America's most eminent novelist, Mark Ransom. The accused is Mary Carelli. Her defense is attempted rape. The man she chooses to defend her is Christopher Paget. Carelli does not deny that she killed Ransom, but a fateful question remains to be answered: Was it self-defense or was it murder? In preparation for a trial, Paget sets out to establish that Mark Ransom was the twisted man Carelli claims he was. With the help of an associate, Teresa Peralta, Paget uncovers compelling evidence that presents a complex and disturbing picture of Ransom as a sexual predator. But this evidence may not be admissible in court. And there are other unsettling surprises: a secret in Carelli's past that provides her with a powerful motive for murder; facts that suggest she has been lying; a woman prosecutor who firmly believes that Carelli is using the issue of rape to conceal murder; and an enigmatic judge who may very well have an agenda of her own. With the odds against Carelli's acquittal quickly rising, Christopher Paget is faced with a risky legal decision that leads to an explosive convergence of public trial and private conflict - a decision that threatens not only Mary Carelli's future, but his own, and their son's, as well. From first to last, Degree of Guilt holds us galvanized by its masterful storytelling, its complexity of motive an

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

This big courtroom thriller, which comes garlanded with hefty foreign sales and a huge first printing, is being touted as the best of its kind since Scott Turow's fiction debut. It does not survive such a comparison well, having none of the density, psychological acuity or sense of place and character of Turow's two bestsellers. It is an agreeable, overstuffed and creakily plotted but absorbing piece of work that passes the time well enough and leaves no aftertaste whatsoever.

The hero is Christopher Paget, who had an affair with TV newswoman Mary Carelli many years ago when both were involved in a Washington scandal; he is now an ace defense attorney in San Francisco. Carelli has killed obnoxious, world-famous novelist Mark Ransom in a hotel room, claiming that he tried to rape her. Can Paget defend her, in view of their shared past, and the fact that she seems to be the mother of his only son? And why is so much of what she says about the would-be rape so plainly untrue? Patterson takes more than 500 pages -- including often skillfully handled court scenes before a nicely characterized woman judge, and the discoveries of a lot of highly emotional old tapes, all involving the same Beverly Hills psychiatrist with several principal characters -- before the issue is resolved. Along the way there are subplots galore, involving an evil Kennedy-type senator with a Monroe look-alike ; a tragic lesbian movie queen ; Paget's pretty assistant's unhappy home life ; a shamelessly hokey climactic basketball game ; and ultimate political skulduggery by the DA. Patterson does his best to keep it all moving, and some court scenes tingle. But the characters, and many situations, are pure California cardboard.

Library Journal

Former Edgar-winner Patterson (for The Lasko Tangent , Norton, 1979) offers what will surely be one of the year's best thrillers.

TV journalist Mary Carelli shoots and kills famous writer Mark Ransom in his hotel room, claiming that Ransom tried to rape her. The man she asks to defend her is Christopher Paget, with whom she has had a complicated relationship: Paget is the father of Mary's son, who lives with Paget and whom Mary has not seen for eight years. Paget agrees to defend Mary to protect his son. The puzzle that lies at the heart of this courtroom thriller is the character of Mary Carelli. Is she telling the truth about Mark Ransom? What is she hiding, and who will be hurt most?

Superb characterizations and intense dialog make this utterly compelling reading. Patterson also manages to offer a stinging criticism of the way female rape victims are treated by the law and the legal system. Highly recommended.
-- Dean James, Houston Acad. of Medicine/Texas Medical Ctr. Lib.

BookList - John Mort

A beautiful TV journalist, Mary Carelli, murders a famous novelist in his hotel room. She claims it was because of an attempted rape, and, since she is a well-known feminist and the novelist had a dubious reputation with women, her case could become a cause celebre. But problems surface -- why did Mary close the blinds after the novelist's death, why did she take so long to call 911, and what are those strange, bloodless marks on his skin? Enter Christopher Paget, the lawyer who brought down a President, who as it happens is also Mary's estranged lover, and who has custody of their son, Carlo. His only interest in Mary is that, in defending her, he protects his son. A murky background story emerges, about a well-regarded senator's messy affair with an actress rather like -- not again! -- Marilyn Monroe. Subplot: Paget has a sweet assistant named Teresa, married to a lout who, after much soul-searching, she's forced to jettison. Shades of Scott Turow here, and in his layering of guilt and complex plotting Patterson does indeed rival him. His characters are less attractive and their perfect political correctness is often labored. Too long by far, but Paget's fumbling about for the meaning of fatherhood, and, oddly, Patterson's dour moralizing are appealing. Demand is assured.

Washington Post

One intense courtroom clash after another...An intelligent and gripping thriller.

People Magazine