When Duke University anthropologist Vicki Andrews learns that her sister has been murdered in Guatemala, she's determined to find the truth. Government authorities dismiss the death as just another mugging or kidnap-for-ransom---but she refuses to accept their verdict and launches her own investigation. Will what she discovers cost Vicki her own life? 350 pages, softcover from Tyndale.

This action-packed international thriller brings readers to Guatemala, where anthropologist Vicki Andrews discovers that her sister has been murdered. Guatemalan authorities dismiss her death as another of the country's frequent muggings or a kidnap-for-ransom, but Vicki refuses to accept their verdict. Vicki launches her own investigation and uncovers corruption buried so deep that crossing international lines may cost Vicki her life.

J.M. Windle’s Betrayed is a complex thriller in which terrifying situations of international proportions demand courage that can only come from God. Vicki Andrews comes to Guatemala expecting just another business trip and maybe a visit with her sister, but she gets tangled in a dangerous web of murder, secrets, lies, and smuggling. When it seems like there is no one else around her she can trust, Vicki must learn to trust God.

After beginning with a flashback, Betrayed follows Vicki’s experiences from her plane ride to Guatemala onward. Occasionally, Windle steps away from Vicki and gives the reader vague, somewhat confusing glimpses into the behind-the-scenes operations of other characters. These segments foreshadow future discoveries and allow the reader to know a little more than Vicki does about what’s going on. Some of the more explanatory dialogue and paragraphs may be a little difficult to read, because they include technical and political information that some readers might not be very familiar with. The intense events and intriguing plot keep the story moving at a brisk pace, with occasional breathers of reflection. Vicki and the other characters are connected by their pasts in more ways than they know. It is the intertwining of their relations in the past that lead to the chaotic events of the present.

Vicki is only in Guatemala for a short time before her sister Holly’s surprising murder leads Vicki on what seems to be a wild goose chase. The more Vicki investigates the suspicious dealings surrounding her sister’s demise, the more she realizes that her sister might have uncovered some dangerous secrets about some of Guatemala’s powerful leaders and their American liaisons. When Vicki spends a few weeks at the Wildlife Rescue Center where Holly spent her last months, she begins to better understand the people and environment that played important roles in her sister’s life and death. Exposed lies and new discoveries keep the truth concealed and the plot thickening until Vicki is finally able to sort it all out, but not without dangerous consequences.

Vicky has a passion for the lost and hurting children of third world countries. However, she has a cynical outlook on the world and doesn’t think God really cares about people, because of all of the bad things she has seen. She is a workaholic who tries to do everything herself. She doesn’t remember the first several years of her life when her birth parents were alive, but discovers more about that part of her past throughout the novel.

Vicki’s sister, Holly, was a tree-hugger finishing her veterinarian residency at a wildlife center in Guatemala. Her curiosity and determination to protect the wildlife she so loved ultimately lead to her death when she overturned a nest of suspicious evidence. Skeptical and practical Vicki learns why Holly cared so much about God and His creation after her sister’s death.

Evelyn, the caring, elderly leader of Casa de Esperanza, Vicki’s Guatemalan assignment, shows Vicki God’s love and gives her important advice. Bill, a wealthy, kind, but secretive American living in Guatemala, and Cesar, a Mayan veterinary student who worked with Holly, befriend and help Vicki. Throughout the novel, Vicki’s attention is often divided between Michael, a confident, courteous, and powerful attaché from the American embassy, and Joe, a more-than-meets-the-eye surfer/wanderer/handyman who works for Bill. Vicki’s new acquaintances are not all they seem to be, and she has a hard time figuring out who she can really trust.

Betrayed is an intense, interesting story that exposes some of the harsh realities in the world beyond the borders of the United States. The background information is thick and may be difficult to grasp at some points, but is easy to pick up once the story gets moving. Fans of mysteries and international thrillers will greatly enjoy this book. -- Laura Coulter, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com

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Author: Jeanette Windle
Located in: Lititz, PA
Submitted: February 02, 2008

    Tell us a little about yourself.  As the child of missionary parents, award-winning author and journalist Jeanette Windle grew up in the rural villages, jungles, and mountains of Colombia, now guerrilla hot zones. Her detailed research and writing is so realistic that it has prompted government agencies to question her to determine if she has received classified information. Currently based in Lancaster, PA, Jeanette Currently living in Lancaster, PA, Jeanette spent 16 years as a missionary in Bolivia and travels as a missions journalist and mentor to Christian writers. She has lived in six countries and traveled in more than twenty. She has more than a dozen books in print, including political/suspense best-seller CrossFire and the Parker Twins juvenile mystery series.

    What was your motivation behind this project?  Motivation for this story came through my own international involvement and research as I’ve seen repeatedly the consequences of powerful individuals making decisions for motives of fear or greed rather than right and wrong. We like to blame a universal ‘they’—the government, the system, Western civilization, or on the flip side, the Communists or Islamic jihadists, etc. But in reality it comes down again and again to very specific individuals making very specific decisions for right or wrong. And sometimes those decisions can impact an entire nation or change the course of human history. The United States is, unfortunately, reaping the harvest of some of those decisions. While a fictional story set in one Central American country, Betrayed is a realistic microcosm of patterns repeated around the globe. But Betrayed is far from just a tale of human chaos; rather, of faith and beauty and hope, along with a powerful challenge to individual responsibility.

    What do you hope folks will gain from this project?  My ultimate goal in every book I write, however much a "thriller," is to share with the reader my own heartfelt conviction that, for all the turmoil and conflict and pain in our world, this universe does make sense and has both a purpose and a loving Creator.

    Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know:   I would like to leave the challenge highlighted in Betrayed. What is our call, how can we know what to do, when our world falls apart? The answer is as simple as it is profound. At every step and with each crossroads that opens up in front of us, simply ‘do what is right, and do not give way to fear’(1 Peter 3:6). That is all we are called to do, not to manipulate, try to figure out the future, or weasel our way out by any means possible. If we follow that simple challenge, then the Almighty God who wrote every moment of our lives before we were born and holds us in the palm of His loving hand will take care of the outcome, whatever He chooses that to be.

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