My daughter insisted I get this book because it was her three favorite authors all in one. Far be it for me to not indulge her love of reading!
Thankfully for her sake, the three novellas in "The Cost of Betrayal" are signature pieces. If you've read enough of Ms. Henderson, Ms. Pettrey and Ms. Eason's works you'd likely be able to guess who wrote which one. I can't say I'm a huge fan of Dee Henderson's work. The overuse of people's first names in the character's conversation results in stilted writing. It might seem a pithy point but I found it grating. In truth, I almost stopped reading the first novella, "Betrayed" because of it.
The second novella, "Deadly Isle", by Dani Pettrey was engrossing. In it's own way, it was a blessing in disguise that it was not a full book because this has been one crazily busy season of life for me and I didn't want to put it down but felt the pull of other responsibilities. (or maybe I just wanted an excuse to not tackle the to-do list) Either way, I had a hard time putting the book down once I started.
The last novella, "Code of Ethics", by Lynette Eason so deeply resembles her other books that it made me chuckle. The main character always seem to have the entire family of first responders. Or at least the entire circle of acquaintances. And I never really buy it when the victim is allowed to be actively involved with the case. But if you can forget about that, "Code of Ethics" was a fun read that will have you wishing it was longer.
Because I almost didn't make it through the first novella, I can't give this two enthusiastic thumbs up. However, the other two were great so I will give it two thumbs up. Just not enthusiastic ones.
"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc."
