Betrayed-Amy Clipston

Betrayed
Amy Clipston
Five Star, Sep 2009, $25.95
ISBN: 9781594147937

In Mooresville, North Carolina, Lacey Fowler is distraught when her beloved father Greg and his wonderful second wife Veronica die in a car crash on their way home from Daytona. The family attorney informs Lacey that her father named her and driver Reese Mitchell as co-owners of his Southern Racing. Lacey is outraged as she is ready to leave college to run the company alone and making matters worse she loves Reese who is too busy womanizing to notice she is an adult.

However, as she digs into the company’s records, she finds the bottom line does not add up as if someone has extorted money. She knows few people would have access of this sort with the prime person being Reese’s dad Carl who is like a dad to her. As she investigates her father’s death after seeing photos of the scene, the evidence of embezzlement increasingly point to Carl. With Reese helping her, they begin to unravel the truth even as he falls in love with a woman he always thought of as his younger sister.

Although the plot has been used before, Amy Clipston superbly executes the story line of an amateur sleuth investigating embezzlement and murders that implicate the father of the heroine’s beloved. The story line is fast-paced keeping up with the racing car theme as Lacey and Reese fall in love but distrust lingers due to the evidence pointing at Carl. With a couple of nice spins, fans will want to ride with Ms. Clipston as she takes readers around the track.

Harriet Klausner