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The Hidden Assassinsby: Robert Wilson |
The Betrayedby David HospDavid Hosp, of 'Dark Harbor' fame, has written another novel, The Betrayed – this one placed in the nation's capitol and its environs, dealing with illegal research funded by the usual government parasites. Mr. Hosp, himself a lawyer, records another page-turning tale involving the wealthy, the respected, and the political. The Betrayed is typical of how the police are often thwarted by highly placed politicians who feel they're above the law, and research whose proponents feel that sacrificing a few individuals for the greater good of many is commendable, regardless of its illegality.Amanda Creay is a schoolgirl who discovers her mother after school – former reporter Elizabeth Creay, divorced from her husband, dead from torture and stab wounds. Detective Sergeant Train and Detective Jack Cassian are called in to work on the case and discover a clue which leads to the arrest of a drug dealer. But there's not enough evidence to convict him of the torture and murder of Amanda's mother. Elizabeth Creay was Sydney Chapin's sister, and Sidney has come back from the west coast to Washington D.C. to take a job as research assistant for a law professor in Georgetown. Her rich mother, Lydia Chapin, lives in a mansion there – a huge, opulent house which demonstrates her wealth. Sidney and her sister Elizabeth had both gotten as far away from their mother as possible; Lydia was a strong woman, used to control and without much love or any of the other aspects of maternity. Sydney doesn't trust the police to get to the bottom of her sister's murder, so she starts out on her own to go to all the people Elizabeth had spoken to. She doesn't realize she's being followed everywhere she goes. Train and Cassian's investigation takes them to a research facility – formerly known as the Virginia Institute for the Mentally Defective, where Sydney had already been to question the doctors her sister had contacted before her death. A number of different people and situations pile up – for instance, the trio (the detectives and Sydney) discover that the Institute was once used for the purpose of eugenics, and Leighton Creay (Elizabeth's former husband) was connected to it, as were Lydia and a very important senator who expects to occupy the White House. David Hosp remains at his best in The Betrayed, switching to several different tracks during the novel, and taking the reader first in one direction then another. You really don't know who is behind it all until the final pages, and then of course, it's a complete surprise. Politics and 'doing the best for the most' isn't a new theme in murder-mysteries, but David Hosp manages to put a whole new slant on both, nonetheless! Alan Paul Curtis |
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