The Betrayal by Y.A. Erskine

Book Synopsis: I read Y.A. Erskine’s The Brotherhood a couple of months ago and loved it. The Betrayal picks up where The Brotherhood leaves off. Fans of Y.A. Erskine will be as pleased as I was to get closure on a couple of the incidents in the first novel. Although The Brotherhood didn’t suffer from a lack of strong resolution, it was nonetheless good to have moments of: oh, that what happened to him! or oooo, he got his just deserts! What is terrific about Y.A. Erskine’s two novels is that each chapter gives the perspective of a different character. Erskine slowly builds on the central story as each new character adds something more. It is a wonderful unfolding that keeps you reading. Each new chapter allows the reader to be a voyeur into someone else’s perspective. The amazing thing about The betrayal is that Y.A. Erskine wrote the story from personal experience; she too was a victim of a drug-facilitated sexual assault by a police colleague. Her own experience adds volumes to the realism of the victim’s experience in the novel. Not only that, Y.A. Erskine gives the reader an incredible glimpse at the broad range of responses from colleagues and politicians and journalists when dealing with this subject. It is interesting to note that in the end, Lucy Howard is supported by only a couple of people. The rest take the perpetrator’s side. Quite possibly a sad but real occurrence in these situations.