The Pathology of Lies

Its amazing how Jonathan Keats writes about women so well. The chick who sleeps with her dad, kills and mutilates her editor and likes the publicity...its written in the firt person so you atually get an insight on whats going on through this psycho chicks mind...very cool book. definitely worth the money and check out line for.

Whatever Gloria Greene wants, Gloria insures she gets it. No one can remember anybody who rises faster in the piranha world of journalism than Gloria. She starts as an intern who models her approach to promotion off the headline news by sleeping with PJ Bullock, the editor of Portfolio magazine. This quickly makes her a food editor. Gloria extracts a promise from PJ that when he leaves for his new job, she will replace him as editor of Portfolio. The only hitch in the plan is that PJ fails to attain the new assignment. However, PJ disappears and Gloria becomes the temporary editor. When body parts of PJ begin to surface in UPS parcels, everyone turns to Gloria as the most likely culprit. Instead of denial, she flourishes in the limelight of the media. The FBI continues to investigate Gloria who thinks she can turn her own story into a Pulitzer and become editor of a more classy magazine than the rag she inherited from PJ. THE PATHOLOGY OF LIES is a strange satire that focuses on an ambitious person who apparently will do anything to attain her goals. The story line is humorous in an off-kilter way. Gloria will receive no reader empathy and the motives of her friends make little sense nor do they add much to the tale. Jonathon Keats scribes a biting tale on the excesses and wars of modern day journalism that readers who relish a ghastly satirical romp will fully enjoy.Harriet Klausner

I read maybe one work of fiction a year, but after reading this one I may have to start reading a lot more. The novel was unique, fresh and made me feel things I'm not sure I should be feeling. Gloria is a man of the times, and that ought to give us all pause. Definitely recommend.

A deeply insightful novel filled with secrets that will make industry insiders smirk.

One step beyond the damned and empty world of post adolescent Los Angeles and "LA noir", Keats manages to avoid moralistic satire while delivering the literary goods in the genre murder/ mystery mode. The greatest accomplishment of the novel is its poise in the face of pathological "true crimes". The Age of Serial Killers which Keats is, here, referring to, emerges transposed to the realm of wit and reverie. A new, and ventursome, attempt to define the world in which we live, fin de siecle.-richard kim (uc-berkeley)