The Betrayal

June 1, 1998
Louisa Shidler, the mercurial heroine of Willett's absorbing if extravagant second thriller (after The Deal), has been betrayed by her philandering husband, but she accepts that. What she can't accept is finding out she's being used as a cover for her boss and mentor, Royall Stillwell, top gun at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and Republican candidate for vice president. So when Louisa discovers that Stillwell has deposited $50 million in a Swiss bank account in her name, she confronts him with his betrayal. Next thing she knows, she's being ordered to plead guilty to trumped-up federal charges of bribery and money laundering, or her abducted 12-year-old daughter Isabel will be raped and murdered. Louisa complies for a while, then bolts on a cross-country search for Isabel. Meanwhile, Louisa's arrest has mobilized her other mentor, Mac, crusty managing editor of the Washington Herald. Will Mac get the story before Louisa is nabbed by the shadowy Republican goon squad (or, perhaps worse, the FBI)? In Louisa and Mac, Willett creates attractive, full-bodied characters, noble and smart but deeply flawed. (The snobbish Louisa on meeting her lawyer: "A man with stones set into his wedding ring is going to be her advocate?"). Suspense builds in real time as Willett lovingly lingers over the legal niceties of Louisa's predicament, and the juicy dialogue reads like privileged information ("Louisa, do you know what democracy is? It's a client base, honey"). But the chapters written in Isabel's voice are intrusive, and the last third of the book spins out of control as Louisa, now a peroxide-blonde seductress, improbably takes up arms against her former GOP colleagues. 75,000 first printing; Random House audio.

March 15, 1998
Boston attorney Willett joined the growing fraternity of lawyer/novelists with "The Deal" (1996), in which a mega-dollar error in a real-estate deal caused the death of one lawyer and left another charged with murder. In "The Betrayal," international and inside-the-beltway intrigue is the focus, with Louisa Shidler, a thirtysomething divorced lawyer, struggling to determine how $50 million got into "her" Swiss bank account. Shidler became top U.S. trade negotiator when her mentor, Senator Royal Stilwell, was nominated to run for vice president. Within days after discovering the Swiss bank statement, she is put on electronic-bracelet house arrest; then goons kidnap her 12-year-old daughter, Isabel, and vow to kill her unless Louisa pleads guilty and denies the kidnapping. A reporter before she joined Stilwell's staff, Louisa calls on her old boss, managing editor of the "Washington Herald," who takes off to explore the European end of the conspiracy as soon as news of Louisa's arrest is released. Meanwhile, Louisa and Isabel escape, hitchhiking to evade the small army of assassins chasing them. Not all readers will buy the mechanics of Willett's high-level conspiracy, but most will appreciate prim but gutsy Louisa and daughter Isabel, who tells the story of her own kidnapping. ((Reviewed March 15, 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)