Breach of Honor

Cantore’s hard-hitting yet outlandish inspirational thriller (after Visible Threat) centers on the unraveling of secrets held in a small town’s police department. In Table Rock, Ore., patrol officer Leah Radcliffe is ready to give up on her physically abusive husband and fellow officer Brad. Then she witnesses him taking a payoff from a shady businessman and confronts him. When Brad attacks and tries to kill her, she shoots him in self-defense and is subsequently charged with murder. Leading up to the trial, Leah descends into emotional turmoil trying to understand what drove Brad to want to silence her and why her colleagues have turned against her. After Leah is convicted, Clint Tanner, a fellow officer and her only friend, embarks on his own investigation and quickly realizes corruption runs through the police department and local judicial system. Clint believes Brad’s powerful father is behind it all, but the more he uncovers, the clearer it becomes that a ring of businessmen control corrupt politicians across the state. With every setback Leah faces, she leans more heavily on the faith she rediscovers while in prison and in Clint’s efforts to free her. As the mystery unravels and implausible twists pile up, readers might be hard-pressed to believe how deep the corruption goes. Those who can roll with the far-fetched plot will have fun. (July)