ABOUT Joylene Nowell Butler

joylene nowell butler
Joylene was born in Manitoba, grew up in Maple Ridge and raised five boys in Pr. George, BC. She and her husband built a cottage on Cluculz Lake in 1992. The jury is out whether they'll retire there or not. Canada is a beautiful place and they could end up anywhere. Which is good becau More...

Description

Valerie McCormick is a wife and mother from small town Canada. While visiting Seattle, she becomes the only witness to the brutal seaside murder of two FBI agents. When she flees to the nearest police station to report the crime, she becomes caught up in a web of international intrigue and danger. Suddenly, she and her family are in the sights of ruthless criminals bent on preventing her from testifying against the murderer. Even with FBI protection, Valerie is not safe. Whisked away from her family and all that is familiar to her, Valerie fights back against the well intentioned FBI to ultimately take control over her life with every ounce of fury a mother can possess
Dead Witness – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

‘A long, narrow building, beyond the small shed, blocked her view.  Valerie inched past a rusty engine leaning against the hut and peeked around the corner.  Two men in black tee shirts and black pants stood at the stern of the sleek cabin cruiser docked at the wharf.  Three more men stood on the pier:  One young, one old, one dangerously attractive.  Facing her, she could see he was perfect, in fact.  Except, why was he wearing a long, tan raincoat?  Maybe she wasn’t the only unprepared foreigner.  No way would she interrupt their business.  Two of them walked way.  Mr. Perfect, the handsome Latino in the tan raincoat, smiled after them.  His sensuous, slightly accented voice broke the silence.  “Gentlemen, please. It has been my experience that even in times of indecision, a solution exists.”  His arms spread wide as if to embrace them.  The two men stopped and turned back.  Still smiling, the Latino reached inside his raincoat and pulled out a gun.  Valerie gawked at him.  She heard a pop.  The older man fell backward onto the wharf.  Pop.  The younger man’s head exploded.  The man in the tan raincoat leaned down and fired a third bullet in the older man’s head.  The body twitched, then lay still.’

Valerie McCormick is the mother of 3 beautiful daughters and wife to Ed.  Ed owns a timber business in their home town of Prince George, Canada.  In the process of trying to secure the business he runs across a possible client who has his eyes set on a boat docked in Seattle, Washington, so when Valerie wins a trip to Seattle, what better time to take pictures of the boat with hopes of scoring brownie points with the client.  But when Valerie witnesses the murder of 2 men she decides she must do her duty and report it to the police.  To her relief, the police ended up arresting Miguel DeOlmos on a traffic violation and now had him in jail.  To her disappointment, after the American FBI talked her into testifying against DeOlmos, he ends up escaping during his trial.  And to make matters worse Miguel DeOlmos is the leader of one of the largest drug cartels in the both North and South America.  DeOlmos will stop at nothing to keep from being tried in the US due to its death penalty  and it’s not beyond him to kill the only witness the FBI have against him. 

Author Joylene Nowell Butler took me on a ride from Canada, Seattle, Nevada, California and then to Baja as FBI agent Mike Canaday chases DeOlmos while still doing everything in his power to keep Valerie alive.  Valerie comes up with her own ideas of how to capture DeOlmos and ends up in the clutches of his psycho brother Vincente.  Dead Witness is a superbly written murder mystery that has everything from greed to murder to deceit and of course love.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself reading Dead Witness.