The Mark is the first novel in Jason Pinter's series about Henry Parker. Henry is twenty-four, from a backwoods place called Bend, Oregon, and has left the small-town life to begin a dream job at the New York Gazette as a rookie reporter.

But all is not well in Henry's life. His romance with his girlfriend Mya has been dying a slow death, and even life support is looking like less of an option. His job, where he was hoping to make his name as a front-page columnist, is stuck in the obituary section, or about writing about the creepy metal spiders in the plaza outside his window.

A month of this, and Henry is desperate for any kind of break to get him out of this slump. Along comes Jack O'Donnell, star reporter, and the reason why Henry wanted to work at the New York Gazette. Jack needs Henry to interview Luis Guzman, a parolee of New York's judicial system, and get some information about Luis' time in prison for an article Jack is writing.

This begins Henry's descent into a web of lies and murder, and turns an upright, smart young man into a wanted fugitive from the police and the worst of New York's mob families.


I don't have a lot of experience writing reviews, and I have less experience writing about reviews about a suspense/thriller book. So please, I beg you, go easy on me. The few of you that actually read reviews.

All in all, I have to say that I liked The Mark. There was a good buildup before the action started, and the action sequences were paced far enough apart that it wasn't a constant pulse-pounder. There were some slower spots as well.

I also liked the fact that the motivations for the characters were not just hinted at, but explained in detail, with a glimpse at the sordid past when necessary.

The last thing that I liked was that there weren't any hanging threads left in this book. Everything was neatly wrapped up by the end, with no speculation needed.

I can't really say that there were too many things that went wrong in this book. One of the subplots was entirely obvious to me as soon as it started, but everything can't be perfect. All in all, I recommend this book for quick, easy reading.

Grade: 8/10