CFBA Tour: Betrayed

Betrayed by J.M. Windle

Fires smolder endlessly below the dangerous surface of Guatemala City’s municipal dump.

Deadlier fires seethe beneath the tenuous calm of a nation recovering from brutal civil war. Anthropologist Vicki Andrews is researching Guatemala’s “garbage people” when she stumbles across a human body. Curiosity turns to horror as she uncovers no stranger, but an American environmentalist—Vicki’s only sister, Holly.

With authorities dismissing the death as another street crime, Vicki begins tracing Holly’s last steps, a pilgrimage leading from slum squalor to the breathtaking and endangered cloud forests of the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere. But every unraveled thread raises more questions. What betrayal connects Holly’s murder, the recent massacre of a Mayan village, and the long-ago deaths of Vicki’s own parents?

Nor is Vicki the only one demanding answers. Before her search reaches its startling end, the conflagration has spilled across international borders to threaten an American administration and the current war on terror. With no one turning out to be who they’d seemed, who can Vicki trust and who should she fear?

A politically relevant tale of international intrigue and God’s redemptive beauty and hope.

Cara here: I've been reading this book and enjoying it. The one comment I would have on it is that it has been very easy for me to put down and come back to. I'm not sure why. The exotic setting is rich and lush. Very well described. The social issues expounded on pull at your heart-strings, but for some reason I'm still struggling to really connect with the main character. The action is a touch slow, too. There are lots of plots and subplots -- maybe too many. It's hard to figure out which one's going to dominate. But if you like international mysteries, this is a good book. It just doesn't reach the level of true suspense -- at least halfway through the book. I may revise that after I finish the book LOL.