Product Description

In the breathtaking follow-up to his smash debut "Dark Harbor," Hosp is back with the story of two detectives and the independent young woman who will risk everything to find her sisters killer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #101007 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 464 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In Hosp's lackluster second novel (after 2005's Dark Harbor), Darius Train and Jack Cassian, a mismatched pair of D.C. detectives, investigate the throat-slashing murder of Washington Post reporter Elizabeth Creay. The fortuitous crime-scene find of a cigarette lighter with a clear fingerprint leads the detectives to local drug dealer Jerome Washington. It's a tidy but far too convenient arrest. The commissioner of police is upset when Train and Cassian move on to a number of other suspects, some of them highly placed among the city's powerful ruling class. The heart of the murder may lie in the history of the American eugenics movement, "the science of controlling the gene pool—improving it, in theory—through selective breeding." The uncovering of long-buried secret experiments at the Virginia Juvenile Institute for the Mentally Defective, a state facility where thousands of people were once sterilized, results in more murders. The denouement is so murky that baffled readers will find themselves scratching their heads in dismay.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
When her sister is found brutally murdered, Sydney Chapin is drawn back into the vortex of her wealthy family. She's worried sick about her shy niece, Amanda, who found her mother's body, and even feels some sympathy for her steely mother, who is showing signs of vulnerability. Most of all, she wants to find out who murdered her sister and intends to fully cooperate with the two Washington, D.C., detectives assigned to the case--Darius Train, a towering former football star who grew up in one of the city's roughest sections, and his seeming polar opposite: boyish, suburban Jack Cassian. As the three work in tandem, the case leads them to a mental hospital known for its horrific eugenics experiments and then to a powerful cabinet member, all the while trying to fend off interference from wealthy, well-connected politicos. Hosp builds a fair amount of tension into his well-paced story line, but his tendency to have his characters verbally sum up key plot points and emotions seriously hinders the novel's flow. Compelling, extremely likable characters are the draw here. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
AUTHORBIO: DAVID HOSP lives in Cohasset, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

A waste of time
Having read Hosp's first book Dark Harbor and moderately enjoyed it, I figured that The Betrayed would be a decent summer's read. What a mistake!

The characters are laughable and are supposed to represent the so-called high and mighty in Washington. It makes me wonder if Hosp did any sort of research of our nation's capital other than Dupont Circle.

The dialogue was stilted. People just don't talk the way that Hosp writes. A teacher once told me that if you want to find out how people talk---listen to them and take notes.

I guess that Hosp should just write this book off as the sophomore jinx at work. The book buyer should just write this book off. Save your money.

A good book!
Estranged from her wealthy family, Sydney Chapin vowed never to return home. When her sister is brutally murdered, Sydney comes back for the sake of her niece. Struggling to understand what happened to her sister, Sydney begins to uncover startling secrets that might have led to her sister's murder. With a killer on her trail, Sydney turns to Detective Jack Cassian for help.

Detectives Jack Cassian and Darius Train are under pressure from their superiors to solve this murder involving one of the city's wealthiest families. When they bring in a young junkie implicated in the crime, they are encouraged to charge him and not look further.

To complicate the case, Cassian and Sydney are both dealing with ghosts from the past as well as their attraction to one another.

Some of the character's findings are disturbing, yet thought provoking. The author has posed some questions regarding the morality of eugenics and the desire of man to take on the role of God.

Although the story lacks some depth, the premise is intriguing and well worth the time spent reading. The characters are interesting, especially the repartee between the two detectives. Their verbal sparring often made me smile.

Armchair Interviews says: The story is fast-paced and will keep your attention

"I talked to her about what we found when we were sent here..."


When a reporter is savagely murdered in her Washington, DC, townhouse, the rooms torn apart, it is assumed that the crime is drug-related, another crack addict stealing what he needs for his habit. Only a drug-addled mind could be responsible for the amount of damage done to Elizabeth Creay's body, multiple stabbings, burns on hands and feet, a truly horrific crime scene. When the assigned detectives, Sergeant Darius Train and Jack Cassian, arrive to interview the family, they find themselves seated in the mansion of a Washington powerbroker, the Chapin's, such wealth and privilege belonging to the highest echelon of the Washington social scene. Creay's mother, the imposing Lydia Chapin, wants the case resolved quickly and efficiently, the family name kept clear of scandal. Elizabeth's daughter, Amanda, who discovered her mother's body, is sedated, still in shock, staying with her grandmother and aunt, Sydney Chapin, a law student who has returned home because of the crisis.

With ready evidence at the scene, Train and Cassian make a quick arrest, a local dealer who supplies a suspicious tale about a stranger he met on the day of the murder; when the evidence against the dealer falls apart, the detectives are forced to dig deeper into Elizabeth's recent activities and the Chapin family history. At the same time, Sydney has made it her personal mission to learn what her sister was researching, in case that information is vital to the motive for murder. Between the police investigation and Sydney's amateur sleuthing, a terrible past is revealed, secrets that someone has determined must be kept quiet at any cost, including the life of anyone who dares to interfere. What appears just another random crime is far more sinister, a massive attempt to hide a nightmare that has the potential to topple the mighty and expose the powerful, unmasking the dark side of human nature that sets itself above society.

After the initial bloodbath, the novel stalls a bit, but picks up when the more contentious issues kick in, a complicated assortment of personal vendettas, the inhumane treatment of others, the usual DC cauldron of suspicion, paranoia and the obfuscations of wealth and power. With a cast of characters that includes the drug-infested DC neighborhoods, the best efforts of two seasoned detectives, a sister determined to understand what she has found and the arrogant powerbrokers who hold themselves above the law, The Betrayed tackles a provocative theme, questioning exactly what decisions are made behind closed doors and who determines what is best for the future of society. It falls to the innocent and the dedicated to unravel the heinous crime that opens the novel, only one layer of an unimaginable betrayal. Luan Gaines/2006.