”…a cleverly plotted, deftly paced page-turner. Treon dispenses the well-earned twists and reveals with the stiletto precision of a master.” (USA Today bestselling author Heather Young)Bartholomew Beck has a secret.He saw who killed his neighbor, but he lied to the police and now the wrong man is on Death Row.Oh, and he wrote a best-selling true crime book on the murder, further cementing his … book on the murder, further cementing his lies.
Twenty years after Summer Foster’s death and his writing career is as cold as her mutilated corpse. He is working on a Texas oil pipeline and trying to get through the day when he finds a co-worker beaten to death with a screwdriver sticking out of her right eye – just like Summer. This time he has to come clean with what he knows and Let the Guilty Pay.
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I enjoyed the book. The plot and subplots were believable and keep my interest. Just enjoy mystery, who don’t, and surprise.
Treon’s nuanced characters tell charming lies with smiles and hugs. Watch your back for the knife. Let the Guilty Pay pulls you in like a glass of sweet tea, then knocks you off your feet like a fifth of whiskey. Treon delivers blow-torch hot Texas noir where no one walks away clean.
What a masterful storyteller. The explanations of Beck’s work environment are thorough and believable. This story has turns that totally catch you off guard, and it is full of surprises. Mr. Treon’s work is one that makes me want to keep turning the pages. Great job! I highly recommend Let the Guilty Pay.
This book has everything–twists and turns that had me breaking a sweat, complex characters who were as mystifying as they were real, and a book within a book within a book that heaped layer after layer onto the story’s plot. A gem of a read from an author to watch.
Curiously named Bartholomew John Beck was a bestselling writer who wrote about a real murder he witnessed, but finds himself working a blue-collar gig after his writing career flounders. He is quickly caught up in murderous déjà vu when he discovers a female coworker mysteriously dead on his construction work site, and all eyes are on him because of the ominous similarities to the murder in his bestselling book. Rick Treon’s intricately plotted Let the Guilty Pay details the timelines of two murders and how they may relate to each other, all the while investigated by two (!!) writers, one of which is involved somehow.
Treon displays his prowess as a storyteller by offering three types of narration: Beck’s first-person account of the more recent timeline, a third-person account of the previous murder’s timeline, and excerpts from Beck’s bestselling book. It’s an intricately plotted, fast-paced, yet suspenseful crime thriller. Treon skillfully alternates between the three narrators, offering a web of deceit that plays itself out over a couple of decades and which involves a cadre of characters willing to straddle the line between truth and what it takes to get things done to make a living. There’s a genuinely thrilling plot twist about two-thirds of the way through the book that is fun and definitely unexpected.
But, even with this its finely tuned plot and multiple narrators, there are a couple of issues. First, the two main characters—Beck and Veronica—come across a little flat and their amorous entanglement is a cliché. Second, the setting of oil pipeline construction ultimately doesn’t turn out to be all that interesting. There are strip club escapades by sexist welders and construction workers who make far more money than the two writers believe possible, but it doesn’t lend itself as a unique or interesting setting. It could have easily been swapped out for the restaurant industry or the finance sector and still offer a murky workplace where women are sex objects and murder could easily happen. Fortunately, these are issues that can be worked out over the course of a series as opportunities present themselves for the reader to get to know Beck better, to possibly become more intrigued by him and, hopefully, cheer for his future adventures.
Overall, this was a good, fun read and I look forward to reading more from Treon. I’d give it 4 stars.
What I loved most about this book were its characters. Warm, likeable, engaging, funny, even if flawed and conflicted. You want to spend time with them. As well, Treon’s journalist’s eye gives the reader a great sense of a host of subjects I knew either nothing or very little about. Using different perspectives to craft the story, with twists I didn’t see coming, ‘Let the Guilty Pay’ pulls at you throughout to learn the truth–with a very satisfying conclusion. Between the characters, the plot, the twists, and general information provided about construction on a pipeline, the true crime genre, and journalism in general, this is a book that is interesting on many levels!