Inspired by the last murder in Prince Edward Island for which capital punishment was exacted—and the theory that a third man was involved in the crime—The Betrayer conjures the fictional life of this “third man” in an intimate psychological profile of a man who, quite literally, gets away with murder. With a deft hand, Hennessey takes us down the darker streets of mid-20th-century Charlottetown, capturing the city’s gritty west end with the brushstrokes of someone who has lived it. He also takes us down into the darkest recesses of the human spirit, into the mind and soul of a murderer.
The Betrayer is Michael Hennessey’s first novel. Well-regarded for his short stories, including the collections An Arch for the King and My Broken Hero, Hennessey has also written several award winning stage and radio plays that have been produced on PEI and elsewhere in Canada. He is a past recipient of the Prince Edward Island Council of the Arts prestigious Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Literary Arts on PEI.