Deceit: A Novel [Paperback]

Brandilyn Collins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 29, 2010

Sometimes the truth hides where no one expects to find it. Joanne Weeks knows Baxter Jackson killed Linda---his second wife and Joanne's best friend---six years ago. But Baxter, a church elder and beloved member of the town, walks the streets a free man. The police tell Joanne to leave well enough alone, but she is determined to bring him down. Using her skills as a professional skip tracer, she sets out to locate the only person who may be able to put Baxter behind bars. Melissa Harkoff was a traumatized sixteen-year-old foster child in the Jackson household when Linda disappeared. At the time Melissa claimed to know nothing of Linda's whereabouts---but was she lying? In relentless style, Deceit careens between Joanne's pursuit of the truth--- which puts her own life in danger---and the events of six years' past, when Melissa came to live with the Jacksons. What really happened in that household? Beneath the veneer of perfection lies a story of shakeable faith, choices, and the lure of deceit.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of Collins and her trademarked "Seatbelt Suspense" will find her usual blend of good storytelling and notable mystery in this standalone tale of murder and suspicion wrapped in a cloak of deceit. Joanne Weeks is a skip tracer-someone who looks for deadbeats, a profession worth reading the book to learn more about-and knows that Baxter Jackson killed his wife, who was Joanne's best friend. The investigation stalls until Jackson's second wife turns up dead and frightening events begin to unfold in Joanne's life. Who is the man who jumps in front of her car on a rainy night? Why is he urging her to find Melissa Harkoff, a foster child long gone from the scene? Did someone break into Joanne's home? What does the Jacksons' foster daughter know about Linda Jackson's murder? Collins provides an enticing read while posing tough questions about truth and lies, power and control, faith and forgiveness. This will cause readers to look for the deceit in their own lives, and give them a fine summer read.
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From Booklist

Six years ago Joanne Weeks’ best friend mysteriously disappeared, later to be declared dead. Her husband, a bigwig in the California town of Vonita, remarried, and now his second wife has died in an unlikely accident. Joanne, a skip tracer by trade, is convinced that Baxter Jackson murdered both his wives, maybe to collect on the insurance, maybe for other reasons. One thing she’s sure of: if she intends to prove the man is a murderer, she’ll need to find someone who saw something important, six years ago. The author is known for fiction that blends mystery with Christian themes (and for not hitting the reader over the head with the latter: it’s there, but it’s subtle). Here her primary focus is the mystery, and its solidly constructed. Joanne is a strong and immediately likable protagonist, and the book’s ending leaves plenty of room for a sequel, which wouldn’t be a bad idea at all. --David Pitt

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (June 29, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310276446
• ISBN-13: 978-0310276449
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brandilyn Collins is an award-winning and best-selling novelist, writing her trademarked Seatbelt Suspense®--fast-paced, character-driven suspense with myriad twists and an interwoven thread of faith. She also has written the distinctive book on fiction-writing techniques, Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors (John Wiley & Sons).

You can read excerpts from all her books at her Web site: www.brandilyncollins.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME book!!!, June 22, 2010

By 

C. Janes "southernsassygirl" (TN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deceit: A Novel (Kindle Edition)

Oh.....my.....gosh. This book was so unbelievably good that it could be said that I had no life outside of reading for the past 2 days! Of course, Brandilyn never disappoints with anything she writes, but this book was just all kinds of awesome!

I should've thought things through just a little bit more when I started on this one. Silly me decided it would be a great idea to start reading the book at night right before going to bed. And it wasn't long before the Hooded Man that's mentioned in the book's description decides to show up....at night, in a thunderstorm, on a winding road, and with a whole load of creepiness. I kid you not--in no time flat, my heart was just pounding in my chest! It got even more intense when Joanne finally makes it home after her run-in with the Hooded Man, and she thinks there might be someone in her house. Oh, and then the electricity goes out...and she thinks she's all alone. Yep, that's when I decided this book would be better read during the daytime. :o)

I'm not someone that reads a lot of suspense, mainly because I usually spoil the ending for myself by try too hard to figure out the "who-done-it." Well, if all books were crafted as great as this one was, maybe I should pick 'em up a little more often! Brandilyn's trademark Seatbelt Suspense is masterfully done is this novel, and it is not to be missed. Deceit was one of the BEST books I've read so far in 2010! 5 HUGE stars!

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Few, if any writers combine inspirational messages with suspense as well as Brandilyn Collins, June 25, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Deceit: A Novel (Paperback)

Six years ago in Vonita, California, Linda Jackson dies. Her fiftyish best friend skip tracer Joanne Weeks believes the husband affluent church elder Baxter Jackson killed his wife. She makes efforts to prove her assertion, but fails as everyone who knows Jackson consider him a great man.

When his second wife Cherise dies in what the corner ruled was an unfortunate accident, Joanne's belief that Jackson is a spousal killer reasserts itself. This time she plans to find proof by seeking someone who might have information on what happened to Linda six years ago. However, Joanne feels someone is stalking her. Feeling her life is in danger already, she is further stunned when a stranger leaps in front of her car on a wet road pleading with her to seek out the teenage foster child Melissa Harkoff who lived with the Jacksons when Linda vanished.

Few, if any writers combine inspirational messages with suspense as well as Brandilyn Collins consistently does (see Exposure). She proves this once again with Deceit. Her current tale is a superb thriller in which the heroine must peel away the deceitful masks everyone wraps themselves inside of to uncover the truth of what happened to Linda. Readers will consider what is acceptable in terms of societal deceit in terms of the family, the law and religion and what is not. However, Ms. Collins also takes her theme much deeper asking the audience to consider how will the Lord judge a person's deceits when he or she stands at the gates. The message is intertwined inside a powerful suspense thriller as the heroine peels away levels of deceit of others and the mythos she mentally spun as a psychological defense mechanism to get to the truth; if that is even truly attainable.

Harriet Klausner

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Evil lurks everywhere, even in the heart of good Christians, August 16, 2010

By 

Bill Garrison (Oklahoma City, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Deceit: A Novel (Paperback)

Brandilyn Collins' DECEIT is a captivating thriller about the lure and power of success and the evil lurking behind even the brightest facades. Joanne Weeks has made the front page of the local paper for claiming Baxter Jackson killed his wife. The coroner ruled it an accident, but Joanne says this because in her heart she knows Baxter killed his first wife, and her friend, Linda. When a stranger contacts Joanne and tells her how to prove Baxter killed Linda, she jumps at the chance. All she has to do is find Melissa Harkoff, the sixteen year old foster child who was living with the Jacksons when Linda was murdered.

Collins creates two story lines. The first is in the present, tracking Joanne's quest to locate the missing Melissa. The stranger warns Joanne she is in danger, and sure enough, someone breaks into her house, and she is shot at. The second story line begins six years earlier, when Melissa moved in with Baxter and Linda. Melissa loves living with rich couple and going to church with them, but soon she learns that the easy life isn't real, and what lies beneath isn't all perfect and happy.

Fans of Collins will enjoy this novel. I found it to contain some darker elements as compared to some of her earlier books. While the ending is pretty easy to guess, I found this book to be a lot of fun and the spiritual message was one that I needed to hear. The only downside for me was that some of the "seatbelt suspense" really isn't that suspenseful (like the search for the intruder in her house early in the book) and those scenes have a tendency to drag on.