Degree of Guilt

By: Richard North Patterson

Narrated by: Ken Howard

Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Powerful, glamorous television journalist Mary Carelli is charged with the murder of famed novelist Mark Ransom. However, she pleads self-defense against rape. Christopher Paget, Mary's attorney (and former lover), prepares to shock the courtroom with revelations about Ransom's past as a twisted sexual predator. But as the trial unfolds, Paget is in for some surprises of his own. He learns that Mary may not be telling the whole truth about the rape, and may well have a secret motive for murder. Meanwhile, newly disclosed tapes of Ransom force Mary to confront ugly secrets about her own past, including testimony at Congressional hearings 15 years earlier that led to her stardom and helped Paget bring down the President.

©1992 by Richard North Patterson (P)1992 by Random House Audio Publishing, Inc., All Rights Reserved Under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions, Reproduced by Arrangement with Random House Audio Publishing, Inc.

What Happened?

When reading Richard North Patterson I expect a compelling story, one that is detailed with characters the reader cares about. Perhaps Degree of Guilt is all of that and was victimized by the abridgement and the reading by Mr. Howard. I suspect these are the reasons this collaberation did not work for me. Ken Howard's reading left one to wonder if he was bored, or in a rush to be somewhere else. It was clear he didn't care about the story. Is this what they mean when critics use the term "He phoned it in"? His tone never changed throughout the reading and was reminescent of a history professor who was repeating the same lecture for the one hundreth time. Perhaps I'll look at an unabridged version as the story has possibilities.