Betsy Peterson may be eighty years-old, but she is sharp
as
a tack and certainly is nobody's fool. Betsy's son and
daughter-in-law are trying to persuade Betsy to move into
an
assisted living facility. Someone is "gas lighting"
Betsy
trying to prove she is getting senile and forgetful.
Athena
Reynolds, Betsy's granddaughter, is worried about her, and
asks her mother-in-law, Ali Reynolds Simpson, for help.
Ali makes use of her new husband's security firm to
install
high-technical safeguards in Betsy's house in Minnesota.
Seventeen-year-old Enid Tower has been the "new" wife of
Brother Gordon Tower for two years, and she is nearing
term
with her first pregnancy. Enid has lived in The
Encampment
of The Family all of her life, and does not want her baby
girl to be a part of this cult. Enid has made plans to
escape knowing if she is caught there will be severe
penalties and punishments. Enid wants to make it to
Flagstaff to find help from a woman named Irene; she
finally
gets a ride with an Indian couple that will take her about
twenty miles from there. This young woman has no money,
has never been on the "outside", and is brave enough, and
desperate enough to run away. After her ride lets her
out
at their turn-off, Enid is crossing the highway when she
is
hit by a car driven by a young man turning into the
service
station. He wasn't going fast, but the impact was enough
to throw her a few feet. He immediately calls for help,
and
accepts all blame for the accident. Enid is transported
to
a hospital in Flagstaff; all of this is being observed by
a
member of The Family.
One of Ali's dearest friends, Sister Anselm, is spending
the
night at Ali's home due to the horrid weather, and she is
due at an early morning meeting nearby. Sister is the
project manager for the remodeling construction of St.
Bernadette's, a diocese-operated retreat in Payson,
Arizona.
The good Sister is also a patient advocate for people that
have no one to stand for them while they are hospitalized,
and she gets a call in the wee hours that her services are
needed as a protector when Enid and her newborn are
brought
into the hospital in Flagstaff.
Wow. J. A. Jance kept me spellbound from the beginning of
COLD BETRAYAL to the final page. Ms. Jance is an awesome
story teller, very adept at character development, and her
scripts are always tight, spot-on, as well as her
narrative
and dialogue. Ms. Jance deftly ties all of these
intriguing
story lines together in COLD BETRAYAL and rewards her
readers a wonderful, suspense-filled tale.
Ali Reynolds’s longtime friend and Taser-carrying nun, Sister Anselm, rushes to the bedside of a young pregnant woman hospitalized for severe injuries after she was hit by a car on a deserted Arizona highway. The girl had been running away from The Family, a polygamous cult with no patience for those who try to leave its ranks. Something about her strikes a chord in Sister Anselm, reminding her of a case she worked years before when another young girl wasn’t so lucky.
Meanwhile, married life agrees with Ali. But any hopes that she and her husband, B. Simpson, will finally slow down and relax now that they’ve tied the knot are dashed when Ali’s new daughter-in-law approaches her, desperate for help. The girl’s grandmother, Betsy, is in danger: she’s been receiving anonymous threats, and someone even broke into her home and turned on the gas burners in the middle of the night. But the local police think the elderly woman’s just not as sharp as she used to be.
While Ali struggles to find a way to protect Betsy before it’s too late, Sister Anselm needs her help as well, and the two race the clock to uncover the secrets that The Family has hidden for so long—before someone comes back to bury them forever.
From the New York Times bestselling author hailed for her “inimitable, take-no-prisoners style” (Kirkus Reviews), Cold Betrayal forces Ali to confront the face of evil, and the women who are being hunted.