Degree of Guilt - Richard North Patterson

A shocking death. A claim of attempted rape. A tale) of sexual pathology. Degree of Guilt has everything: sex, blackmail, political corruption, long-buried secrets, hidden shameful motives, and a murder trial thick with tension and scandal.

The victim – America’s most eminent novelist, Mark Ransom; the defendant – Mary Carelli, the most famous woman in TV journalism; the defence attorney – Christopher Paget, a brilliant young trial lawyer who once unearthed the scandal that ruined a president. Carelli and Paget had separated fifteen years earlier. Her trial now brings them together again, to face a past that is more complex than it seems and a future that threatens both them and their teenage son.