Review – Betrayed

Working as an inspector for Children At Risk, a foundation that provides operating funds to children’s projects throughout the world, Vicki Andrews travels to Guatemala City on what she thinks is another routine assignment. This assignment takes her to the slums of the city where she will stay at Casa de Esperanza to evaluate their program and determine if they are worthy to receive funding from Children At Risk. Before long Vicki is surprised to learn that she has a personal connection with the place. A connection that helps, Vicki, who was adopted as a young child, to discover her real identity.

But Vicki is not the only foreigner hard at work in the civil war torn nation. Her sister Holly, an environmentalist with the Wildlife Rescue Center, meets with Vicki on her first day in the city and begs her to help investigate the theft of exotic animals from the Rescue Center. Vicki, while downplaying the thefts, refuses to help, and the next time she sees her sister it is too late to change her mind. Vicki finds Holly taking her last breaths in a large black garbage bag in the city’s garbage dump. Warning, this scene is vivid and will stay with long after you put down the book. It’s not gratuitous gore, but a disturbing and graphic scene that helps the reader realize that the country no more values many of their people than they do their garbage.

The investigation into Holly’s death is short lived, soon labeled a simple street crime by the local authorities and is prematurely closed, leaving Vicki determined to investigate and discover the real person responsible for Holly’s murder. This is where the thrilling ride begins as Vicki sets off on a trail that leads to powerful people who want their identity kept hidden at all costs. Even if it costs Vicki her very life. If this is not enough of a plot to satisfy the reader, Windle ties the current day events to the death of Vicki’s parents when she was but a child.

Betrayed is a well-written, vivid, timely thriller with a rich spiritual message expertly woven into the story. The thoroughly researched details of the struggles in Guatemala draw you into the story from page one of the book, enlightening the reader on the country’s current strife and the selfless individuals working to better the situation. Windle’s intimate knowledge of the region brings the culture, the scenery, and the suffering to life for the reader.