The Betrayed [Hardcover]

David Hosp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2006

When Sydney Chaplin left D.C. nine years ago for college, she vowed never to return. But when her sister is found brutally murdered, she finds herself drawn once again into the shadowy web of her wealthy, powerful family. Joined by Washington detectives Jack Cassian and Darius Train, and driven by her need to know the truth about her sisters death, Sydney will risk everythingher life and her familys futureto find the answers. From the gritty streets and crack dens of the Districts inner city, to the posh country clubs and gilded offices of the nations political elite, Sydney, Cassian, and Train must slip deep into a labyrinth of money, power, and deceit to uncover a decades-old conspiracy that could rock the nation.

Editorial Reviews

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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (July 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446576956
• ISBN-13: 978-0446576956
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,452,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In addition to being a novelist, David Hosp is a lawyer and a partner in the Trial Department at Goodwin Procter LLP, one of Boston's oldest and largest law firms. He was born in New York and grew up primarily in Manhattan and Rye, New York. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and of The George Washington University Law School. During college, he also studied at the London School of Economics.

After graduating from Law School, Mr. Hosp returned to New York, where he practiced law at a large Wall Street law firm before moving to Boston and beginning his practice with Goodwin Procter. He spends a significant portion of his legal career working pro bono with organizations like The Boston Public Library and The New England Innocence Project. His third book, "Innocence," was inspired by his representation of a man wrongly convicted of the attempted murder of a Boston police officer in 1997, who was exonerated through DNA evidence in 2004.

Hosp's first novel, "Dark Harbor," was a Barry Award nominee for Best First Novel and a Book Sense Pick of the Month. Hosp's third novel, "Innocence," was named one of 2009's best summer reads by The Daily Telegraph.

Hosp lives south of Boston with his wife and two children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Fidelity. A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed." Ambrose Bierce, February 23, 2010

By 

michael a. draper (Guilford, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Betrayed (Mass Market Paperback)

In Washington, D.C., Sydney Chapin learns that her elder sister, a journalist, has been murdered. There are marks of torture indicating that the killer was after information.

Sydney had borrowed her sister's laptop computer. Now, Sydney is able to research her sister's most recent imput. She learns that her sister was doing a story about a mental institution for children and the abuses that occurred there prior to the 1960's.

In a well plotted story with appealing characters, the reader's interest is maintained as the story develops and questions must be answered.

What was Sydney's sister doing that caused her death?
Could the police fight through the political implications to find a killer among the wealthy and influential in Washington, D.C.?
What were the risks that Sydney would be taking in attempting to find her sister's killer, before the killer finds her?

Detective Sergeant Darius Train and Detective Jack Cassain are assigned to the case. Sydney and Cassain eventually work together and find themselves attracted to each other in the hunt for the killer in this entertaining story.

The readers should enjoy this novel and feel sympathetic toward Sydney and Cassain. As we follow the story of these two characters, it seems as though they become old friends and the reader will want to know how their story comes to a conclusion.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A waste of time, August 17, 2006

By 

Charles M. Corden "Book lover extraordinaire" (Waterbury, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Betrayed (Hardcover)

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.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book!, July 6, 2006

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Betrayed (Hardcover)

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