The Guilty by Jason Pinter (Mira - March 2008)

The Guilty by Jason Pinter

(Mira - March 2008)

Rating: Okay

I was really looking forward to this one based on the great reviews. This book had elements I'd normally enjoy: a crime-solving journalist, the historical connection to the Wild West. But flat characters, a focus more on Henry's incredibly pathetic love life, and a complete lack of shades of grey left me bored.  (Warning: this gets ranty.)  

March's Mini-Challenge:

Jason Pinter is the new-to-me author. I chose this book because of the rave reviews in the blogs, because I was in the mood for a good mystery/thriller, and because it came in my Mira shipment.

The story:

Henry Parker is a young journalist who covers the story when Athena Paradis (a Paris Hilton type) is shot dead outside a New York nightclub. The killer leaves behind a quote from one of Henry's own stories.

Why it didn't work for me:

I'm wondering if maybe I'd have liked this better if I'd read the first book. This book is clearly intended to stand alone, because there's plenty of exposition explaining events from the previous one, but emotionally it doesn't work. I had absolutely no sympathy for Henry or Amanda. Perhaps in The Mark, readers had come to love Henry enough to excusde his behaviour in The Guilty, but starting with this one there was nothing for me to like about him.

Henry was sanctimonius about his newspaper's morals compared to the other major paper, The Dispatch, and much of the novel involved his war with EVIL! columnist Paulina Cole. But how was Henry any better? He clearly damaged police investigations, coming across a witness directly after the second shooting, and questioning her until she fainted. He didn't share the information about the killer with the police, and then later the book seemed to think we should admire him for beating the police to the "scoop". But it's not a scoop, it's a murder investigation--and maybe if the police had had all of the information, they'd have caught the killer earlier?

Similarly, Henry seemed like an asshole in his personal life, treating his ex like crap in the past, and then making out with her (accidentally of course!) in front of his current girlfriend. But I couldn't feel too bad for Amanda or Mya, because neither had any character development whatsoever.

The good parts:

I did like the historical information in the book, and the Billy the Kid conspiracy theories were a lot of fun. If the focus had been more on these and on the mystery, and less on Henry's personal life and superiority to all other journalists in the world, perhaps I'd have enjoyed this more.

Series: the second Henry Parker novel