The Cost of Betrayal excerpt

Hi, reader friends! Today, we welcome our author friends Dee Henderson, Dani Pettrey, and Lynette Eason to celebrate The Cost of Betrayal, their newly released novella collection with a JustRead blitz and excerpt!

about the book

Title: The Cost of Betrayal excerpt
Authors: Dee Henderson, Dani Pettrey, Lynette Eason
Publisher: Bethany House
Release Date: September 4, 2018
Genre: Novella Collection / Romantic Suspense

Faith will be tested. Trust shattered.
Three bestselling romantic suspense authors reunite for novellas of deadly betrayal.

Dee Henderson – “Betrayed”
After serving six years of a twenty-year sentence for a murder she didn’t commit, Janelle Roberts is finally freed. But the truth is still waiting to be discovered, and a murderer is still at large. Janelle needs to be somewhere safe with someone she can trust. She may not survive another act of treachery.

Dani Pettrey – “Deadly Isle”
Tennyson Kent is trapped on the isolated island of her childhood by a storm surge, and she is shocked when the typically idyllic community turns into the hunting grounds of a murderer. Cut off from any help from the mainland, will she and first love Callen Frost be able to identify and stop a killer before they become the next victims?

Lynette Eason – “Code of Ethics”
When Detective Isaac Martinez lands in the ER with a gunshot wound, he pulls through thanks to trauma surgeon Ruthie St. John. But as the witness to a crime and possible corruption, Martinez is at risk from someone intent on silencing him–and those around him–forever. When he barely survives another attack while recovering, both he and Ruthie must flee, trying to outrun deadly killers while locating the evidence they need to end the danger.

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The Cost of Betrayal excerpt

Dee Henderson – “Betrayed”

Good people committed murder. Paul had long since accepted that. He’d put a significant number of them in prison. But a good person didn’t often plan the murder in advance, requiring rapid decisions on what to do afterward, leading to mistakes, panic. Janelle had not planned what happened that night. That was what had clicked. Paul leaned back to ponder that thought.

Guilty people gave themselves away—sweating, minds racing, desperate to get rid of the evidence, establish an alibi, spin a story out to friends to cover the time period. Good people who committed murder were unable to walk away and show no signs of it. As an investigator, you didn’t make a decision based on behavior. You worked from the evidence. But the evidence backed up behavior. He had two people in this case file, and they were handling events very differently.

He accepted the bowl of ice cream from his wife, waited till she was seated. “Ann, your best evidence that Tanya—or someone else—did this murder is Janelle’s behavior. The patrol officer found Janelle at home wearing sweats, eating chocolate ice cream out of the carton, and methodically taking apart a scrapbook full of pictures of her with Andrew. The search of her home yielded some things of Andrew’s: jacket, CDs, and books haphazardly thrown together in a box in the hall. Janelle had been purging her apartment of her boyfriend when the patrol officer knocked on her door.”

He saw the surprise cross her face.

“I hadn’t thought about that specifically.”

“Character tells. It always does. Janelle isn’t guilty of this. The patrol officer knocks on her door, and she’s clueless that her boyfriend has been hurt, let alone is dead. If it was the detective who knocked on her door and saw for himself what she was doing, her shock and the tears, he would have kept pushing until he could find another answer.

“But by the time Janelle has been driven in the back of a squad car to the beach, has seen all the flashing lights and cops and medical examiner vehicles, she’s quiet and wound tight and confused, desperately trying to sort out what happened to the man she loves after she left him. The detective sees someone saying she didn’t do it, but missed seeing the physical innocence, that clueless expression that would have told him she was telling the truth. He knows they had a fight, there’s blood on her shoes, the knife she can’t produce is consistent with what stabbed Andrew—he had to go with what was there in front of him. The detective bought the frame.”

“You believe me?”

“Yes.”

Relief flowed across her face.

about the authors

Dee Henderson is the author of numerous novels, including Taken, Undetected, Unspoken, Full Disclosure, and the acclaimed O’Malley and Uncommon Heroes series. Her books have won or been nominated for several prestigious industry awards, such as the RITA Award, the Christy Award, and the ECPA Gold Medallion. Dee is a lifelong resident of Illinois.

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Dani Pettrey is a wife, mom, grandma, and the author of the Chesapeake Valor series, and the Alaskan Courage romantic suspense series, which includes her bestselling novels Submerged, Shattered, Stranded, Silenced, and Sabotaged.

Her books have been honored with the Daphne du Maurier award, two HOLT Medallions, a Christy Award nomination, two National Readers’ Choice Awards, the Gail Wilson Award of Excellence, and Christian Retailing’s Best Award, among others.

She feels blessed to write inspirational romantic suspense because it incorporates so many things she loves—the thrill of adventure, nail-biting suspense, the deepening of her characters’ faith, and plenty of romance. She and her husband reside in Maryland, where they enjoy time with their two daughters, a son-in-law, and a super adorable grandson.

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Lynette Eason is the bestselling author of Oath of Honor and Called to Protect, as well as the Women of Justice, Deadly Reunions, Hidden Identity, and the Elite Guardians series.

She is the winner of three ACFW Carol Awards, the Selah Award, and the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award, among others. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and has a master’s degree in education from Converse College.

Eason lives in South Carolina with her husband and two children.

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tour giveaway

(1) Winner will win The Perfect Hideout JustRead Book Box!!! It includes a copy of The Cost of Betrayal and many more goodies!

For more info on the box or want one yourself, check out the JustRead Etsy Shop.

I am so excited about this box, y’all! My order has already been placed and I’m planning to share the fun with all y’all by unboxing The Perfect Hideout JustRead Book Box on Facebook live!

Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win.

Giveaway will begin at midnight September 4, 2018 and last through 11:59 PM EST on September 12, 2018. Winners will be notified within a week of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. Due to shipping cost, only US mailing addresses valid. For our giveaway rules and policy, click HERE.

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I’m looking forward to reading this book! Dani & Lynette are two of my favorite authors of romantic suspense and from what I hear Dee is practically suspense writer royalty!
Are you familiar with these ladies, reader friends? Share your thoughts on The Cost of Betrayal excerpt too!

tour schedule