Book Review: Betrayed

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Betrayed     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Brendan Dubois
Class/Genre:   Mystery
St. Martin's, Jun 2003, $24.95, 304 pp.

In 1972, the brass declared Air Force pilot Roy Harper missing in action when his B-52 plane went down in Nam. His parents and his younger brother Jason prayed that he would be freed during the 1973 Operation Homecoming, but Roy was not one of the fortunate soldiers returned to the Americans. Over the years, Roy's family lived around the hope that one day he would call.

Thirty years later, Roy's family believes he is dead and his remains will never be returned. Jason is married with a small son and manages Maine's Berwick Banner newspaper. One night, a straggly looking person visits Jason, claiming to be Roy, and proving his point with a personal reference to a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. That same evening, two mercenaries invade the Harper home with a mission to capture Roy and kill the witnesses. They survive, but the Harpers are targets of mercenaries whose employers need them dead before they reveal the secret behind what happened to the MIAs.

Left wing conspiracy buffs will appreciate BETRAYED, a tale that pulls no punches from the start and never slows down until the final left hook is thrown though the right wing will insist Doonsbury and clearly not Fox News wrote this novel. The story line focuses on how far the "in power" will go to keep dirty laundry buried even killing innocent people to assure interment of secrets. The apple pie Harper family comes across as feasible victims of a fiendish plot to hide the truth as Brendan DuBois makes it clear what he thinks of the DC crowd when it comes to betraying the people.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner