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ABOUT THE BOOK
Christopher Paget is a trial lawyer with a famous past: as a young investigator
in Washington he unearthed a scandal that brought ruin to the President - and
an abrupt end to his affair with journalist Mary Carelli. Now, fifteen years
later, Carelli is a famous TV journalist in New York and Paget is leading a
relatively tranquil life raising their son in San Francisco. Until a charge
of murder changes everything.
The victim - a world famous (and infamous) novelist. The accused - Mary Carelli.
When Paget agrees to defend her, largely for the sake of their son, her claims
of attempted rape and self-defence seem water-tight. But gradually secrets from
her past come to light and Paget is suddenly facing an explosive mix of public
trial and personal conflict leaving his own and his son's fates vulnerable and
exposed.
‘The pleasure of reading a book
as mesmeric as this… defies the
desire to pick a single hole’
Frances Fyfield, Daily Telegraph
‘Entirely absorbing… a brain-draining
puzzle and great entertainment’
Cosmopolitan
‘Patterson
is one of the best
in the business’
Time
‘Richard North Patterson seems
destined for celebrity status
alongside Scott Turow and John Grisham’
Los Angeles Times
 ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Richard North Patterson grew up in Berkeley, California,
the eldest child of a retired corporate executive and a housewife. After
graduating in 1968 from Ohio Wesleyan University and Case Western Reserve Law
School, he served as an Assistant Attorney General for the state of Ohio and has
been partner in several of the country’s leading law firms.
Richard did not start writing until he was 29 and already
out of law school. He began his first book The Lasko Tangent while taking
a creative writing course, and in 1993 he retired from the practice of law to
devote himself to writing. Since then he has written a series of bestselling
thrillers including No Safe Place, Eyes of a Child and Dark
Lady. His novels have won the
Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Sunday Times, March 1999
"Law is essentially the study of human nature and lawyers are, in a sense,
story tellers. They have to construct narratives in order to present their cases
in a coherent way and they also need to understand the psychology of their clients,
their adversaries, the judge and the jury."
"I have no regrets about leaving law. Writing is entirely self-defined
work and it’s wonderful to have the freedom nowadays to do exactly what I want."
"But I have no regrets about my legal career either. I wouldn’t be a writer
now if I hadn’t been a lawyer first. I think writers need to have a life first
so they have something to write about."
"Readers often try to identify me with the heroes of my books. So far
that would make me both gay and straight, both black and white, both male and
female. The truth is I’m all of my characters and none of them."
"I long ago exhausted my fascination with my own life and I’ve moved onto
other people’s. I try to create characters of complexity and depth who are true
to life, but I’m careful not to simply re-create people I’ve known in my life."
"As a writer I’m chiefly concerned with exploring the psychological motives
of my characters. And I like to think that as well as providing good entertainment
I raise some important issues."
STARTING POINTS FOR YOUR DISCUSSION
- Rape is a central theme of Degree of Guilt, which shows both the
difficulties encountered by women fighting for justice and how rape can be
used as a clever defence. Discuss the moral ambiguities of this complex issue.
- Degree of Guilt features several very successful and forceful women
- what are the difficulties in male writers constructing female characters,
and does North Patterson succeed in making them believable?
- Paget takes on Mary's case even though he has doubts about the veracity
of her story - compare & contrast courtroom ethics with what society deems
to be morally acceptable.
- Degree of Guilt features a Marilyn Monroe type actress and her affair
with a much-loved, boyishly handsome politician - how and why does North Patterson
use real life to inform his fiction?
- The issue of confidentiality runs throughout Degree of Guilt - to
whom do the psychiatrists tapes morally belong and what comment is North Patterson
making on the American therapy culture?
- There are strong examples of both good parenting and the damage that can
be done to children by their mothers and fathers. Discuss the characters attitudes
towards parenthood and the roles they play in their children's lives.
OTHER BOOKS BY RICHARD NORTH PATTERSON
The Lasko Tangent
The Outside Man
Escape the Night
Private Screening
Eyes of a Child
The Final Judgement
Silent Witness
No Safe Place
Dark Lady
Protect and Defend
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING
A Time to Kill ~ John Grisham
Presumed Innocent ~ Scott Turow
The Simple Truth ~ David Baldacci
The Big Picture ~ Douglas Kennedy
The Attorney ~ Steve Martini
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