Jeanette Windle, writing as J.M. Windle, has been compared to Tom Clancy. Her books offer the same sort of international intrigue, undergirded with biblical principles.
Jeanette Windle of Lititz, with some of her back list.
Her prose doesn't preach. Rather, she portrays characters who draw strength from faith as they seek some measure of heavenly peace and justice in a deeply flawed world. And while a scene or two might be set inside a church, there are blood and guts enough to satisfy fans of the action-packed thriller genre.
In her new novel, "Betrayed," Windle's heroine is guided by the example of Sarah in the Old Testament and a reference to her from 1 Peter 3:6: "Do what is right and do not give way to fear."
The story concerns two sisters who meet in Guatemala, independently working for environmental and humanitarian concerns. When Holly is murdered, Vicki is determined to bring the killers to justice. She stumbles onto the diplomatic, military and narcotics secrets that led to her sister's killing and finds her own life threatened. With everything being covert and corrupt, it's hard to know who to trust.
Windle, who lives in Lititz, spent most of her childhood and adult life in the mission fields of Colombia and Bolivia and saw similar events unfolding around her. She still travels extensively in the region and researched the situation in Guatemala.
In an interview with Laurel Wreath of Christian Women Online (
www.christianwomenonline.net), she mentions consulting in-country experts on elements of her plot. "Details like .... an aerial gun battle between Huey and Black Hawk helicopters [which takes places in the book] ring true because they come from 'boots on the ground.' "
As further proof of verisimilitude, the U.S. government questioned her about using "classified" information in her previous thrillers, which include "DMZ," "Crossfire" and "Firestorm."
"What is considered 'classified' in the U.S. is often common knowledge on the ground in another country, and those who live and serve 'out there' know reality only too often better than that summarized in the info briefs of our intelligence community," Windle explained.
Though she started out as a journalist, Windle turned to fiction "in part because I was sitting in the middle of stories too big — and sometimes too sensitive — to tell in any non-fiction format . ... The peoples and places and issues ... are only all too true," she told CWO.
She warned that "Latin American countries where lawlessness, corruption and instability continue to spread, where anyone with enough money can live outside the law with total impunity, are only a short airplane flight away. That includes documented Islamic fundamentalist groups who are ... likely to slip across our unprotected borders posing as Hispanic."
"Understanding a single and fictionalized situation in Guatemala, portrayed in the pages of 'Betrayed' gives understanding to what is happening around our world right now on many fronts and the only too real consequences of decisions made by powerful individuals for motives of fear or greed rather than right and wrong," she told CWO.
"Too often as Christians living in the comfortable West, we get the idea that our first responsibility is to secure safety and peace for ourselves and our loved ones. But if that is our ultimate aim, we will find ourselves too easily making compromises based on fear or personal self-interest to secure that aim. We are living right now in our political landscape with the consequences of such compromises, of which 'Betrayed' tells only one small piece."
Windle will sign "Betrayed" 1-3 p.m. Saturday, March 22, at Lancaster Berean Bookstore, 1625 Lititz Pike. The 365-page paperback from Tyndale House Publishers is priced at $13.99 and is also available in Spanish.
Jo-Ann Greene is editor of the Books section. Her e-mail address is jgreene@lnpnews.com.
