The Garden of Betrayal by Lee Vance, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Seven years after their 12-year-old son Kyle vanishes, a new clue surfaces that Mark and Claire Wallace, together with their now teenage daughter Kate, follow in the hope of explaining what happened on that fateful night in The Garden of Betrayal, the second non-series thriller by Lee Vance.

Kyle, dead or alive, has never been found. His disappearance nearly destroyed his family, who are wracked with guilt and have grown distant towards each other. Thanks to a close friend, Mark restarted his career as an independent energy analyst for a hedge fund managed by the father of a close friend, but has now been offered a lucrative position with a Russian firm. While considering it, three events occur nearly concurrently: he receives seismic information about an oil field in Saudi Arabia that may affect world markets from a source, who is found dead a day later; an oil pipeline in Russia is destroyed, presumably by terrorists; and the detective who investigated Kyle's disappearance seven years ago suddenly has a lead on a car that may have been used to abduct the boy, one belonging to a Russian diplomat. With his daughter's not inconsiderable computer skills, Mark begins to piece together what he believes to be a complex plot against his family — and to determine who may be after them and why.

As a suspense novel, The Garden of Betrayal is quite successful, the book itself an intense page-turner. But what elevates the story beyond the increasingly routine financial or political thriller on the bookshelves today are the characters, in particular each member of the Wallace family, who contribute in their own way to the tension that develops as the plot moves forward. The details of the oil industry, which could have weighed down the story, are handled well as are the ins and outs of the hedge fund business on Wall Street; that they're also topical makes it all the more realistic. The seemingly unrelated aspects to Kyle's disappearance are cleverly linked in a surprising, satisfactory manner. Overall, The Garden of Betrayal is a winning thriller, one that will definitely please fans of the genre.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Garden of Betrayal.

Acknowledgment: Random House provided a copy of The Garden of Betrayal for this review.