The Guilty by Jason Pinter, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Investigative journalist Henry Parker probes the murders of four prominent people, all within days of each other, in The Guilty, the second thriller in this series by Jason Pinter.

"Some reporters are always a step behind. Some reporters always keep pace. Some reporters are always a step ahead. What kind of a reporter are you?" So asks a plaque placed outside the news division of The Gazette, a hard-hitting newspaper in New York City. Henry Parker has vowed to be a step ahead, no matter what. The murders have the city on edge and Henry tries to not only find the reasons behind their deaths but possibly even the person responsible. The only clue: the victims were killed with an antique Winchester rifle. His investigation takes him from the ghettos of the city to the open plains of New Mexico. And he makes a truly amazing connection between a modern killer and an outlaw from the wild west.

The book's title, The Guilty, is intentionally ambiguous. Who are the guilty? Certainly Henry himself, who is presented as a flawed individual, especially in his personal life, and in particular in his relationships with women. In the killer's mind, however, the victims are "guilty of the degeneration of society by their ethical and moral failures." But why kill them with a famous (or possibly infamous) weapon from the late 1800s? This connection between crimes of the past and the present murders makes for a compelling thriller and the best passages in the story follow Henry's research, watching him link together the pieces of this puzzle. There is a bit of hero worship, or maybe romanticizing, for the outlaws of the past (Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and others) that seems at odds with Henry's investigation of the killings, but that's a minor criticism.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Guilty.

Acknowledgment: Precedent Media Unlimited provided a copy of The Guilty for this review.

The Stolen
Mira Books (Mass Market Paperback), August 2008
ISBN-13: 9780778325727; ISBN-10: 0778325725

The Guilty

A Henry Parker Mystery by Jason Pinter