Act of Betrayal

Rating:
Summary: This book was great.
Review: Act of betrayal was a wonderful book. I was interested in from the word go. It took fiction to a new level. This book kept me in supense for a long time. When it was time to stop listening to it. I couldn't wait to get back to it. I love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, suspenses is the name of the game.
Review: Always eager to read Edna Buchanans books as they hold your attention and you are kept in suspense throughout the novel.

I always await your new novels.

Rating:
Summary: A few problems
Review: Buchanan's Britt Montero is a tough independent woman--which is always nice to see but her relationship with her fictional partners is weird. In ACT OF BETRAYAL, the reader is never privy to why Montero and McDonald's relationship is on and off. Furthermore, the author never allows the reader to glimpse, in any depth, what goes on in Montero's brain after the unexpected meeting of the two men in her life. I noticed the same lack of depth in MARGIN OF ERROR--as far as whoever Montero's present heart throb happened to be. The romances are sort of eruptive and then dormant. In addition to a lack of depth in part of Montero's character, a lack of depth was evident in other parts of the book. For instance, I found the reason behind Reyes' perversion to be very weak and unsatisfying. I also found that the plot would ebb and flow with too much detail and then not enough. The plot would nearly stumble and then rush to finish.

Rating:
Summary: Seamless melding of plot lines, very suspenseful
Review: Edna Buchanan writes about Miami as only she can. A Pulitzer prize winning former crime reporter fo the Miami Herald, she is totally familiar with her subject. This excellent crime novel mixes Cuban exile politics, missing boys and a fierce hurricane. The resulting stew is very tasty. It is all very believable since Miami is such a strange place anyway. Her heroine, Britt Montero puts herself in great jeopardy, but at the end prevails over the bad (VERY bad) guy and at the same time, learns a lot about herself. Highly recommended for mystery fans

Rating:
Summary: intricate plotting, great action, too much soap opera
Review: For the record, I am reviewing this book as a book on tape. The dastardly plots amongst the Cuban exile community keeps this book racing along. Unfortunately, the soap opera of Britt's erratic love life slowed the story down. Nevertheless, it is a good book and I gladly recommend it.

As for the book on tape aspect - it was very well read, including pretty good accents for the aging Cuban conspirators. Good job.

Rating:
Summary: Hurricane season in Cuban Miami
Review: Like the author once did, Britt Montero thrives as a driven, resourceful crime reporter for steamy Miami's major daily. But the car-bombing of a Cuban journalist gives her job an uncomfortably personal dimension and perhaps it's that which compels her to look into an old missing-boy case for a distraught parent. Montero's digging uncovers a disturbing pattern of similar-looking missing boys, all thought to be runaways and given short shrift by the police.

But Montero is taken off the story in order to conduct an interview with a difficult leader of the Cuban-American community. Half-Cuban herself and long feeling an empathy with her dead freedom-fighter father, Montero accepts the assignment unwillingly but finds Juan Carlos Reyes intriguing.

Unbeknownst to her, Reyes knew her parents. He claims to have a diary of her father's somewhere in storage and promises to find it for her. Montero's mother suddenly refuses to speak to her and another old Cuban, a blustery fighter still trying to mount an invasion, tells a different story about the diary, tying it into the journalist's bombing murder.

The two story lines unfold in parallel as a killer hurricane (which Montero ignores) summons strength for an attack on Miami. Buchanan brings it all together in a splintering, action-packed conclusion featuring mayhem, murder and gruesome revelation. A fast-paced story, determined, likable heroine and rich Miami setting.

Rating:
Summary: Grabs your attention and doesn't let go
Review: Loved this book as much as all of Buchanan's work. A fabulous read, full of suspense. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous as always.
Review: Loved this book as much as all of Buchanan's work. A fabulous read, full of suspense. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Grabs your attention and doesn't let go
Review: This book has it all -- murder, kidnapping, political prisoners, mother/daughter conflicts and even an Act of God. Once the action starts, it doesn't stop. I have a few small quibbles with the book (for instance, the crime that starts the book is never fully explained), but it doesn't really detract from your enjoyment. Best of all, I liked Britt. Her frustration about her story of a lifetime getting pushed to the back burner really rang true with me.

Rating:
Summary: More than just a banana typhoon
Review: This is another book review by Wolfie and Kansas, the boonie dogs from Toto, Guam. Going into the final few chapters, Edna Buchanan's "Act of Betrayal" is a better-than-average mystery novel. However, we were still skeptical at that point. From reviews we had read, we knew that the climax of the book included a hurricane. ("Hurricane" is the name that people living near the Atlantic Salt Lake have given to their typhoons.)

We have been through two typhoons here on Guam, and our noncanine animal companions of primate derivation have been through eight or nine. Therefore, we did not expect a fictional account of a hurricane to create much suspense for us. We assumed the climax of "Act of Betrayal" would be the literary equivalent of a banana typhoon, a low-level typhoon that knocks over banana trees but not much else. Our assumptions were wrong. Buchanan is a good enough writer to make her description of a hurricane exciting even for typhoon veterans like us