To make the novel work she’s had to include a chapter near the end that’s essentially a monologue from Zoe, conveniently mulling over everything she knows about the bank’s illegal activities. Her pacing is first-rate, but her plotting isn’t nearly as sure-handed. Alger follows the two women in alternating chapters as they independently chase the truth, unaware of each other. At the same time, halfway around the world, an American journalist begins working on a bombshell story about Swiss United. Then Matthew dies in an Alpine plane crash, and Annabel, suddenly a widow, has the niggling sensation that something is not right - not with the police investigation, which seems slipshod, nor with Swiss United, the bank where Matthew worked, which seems obsessed with retrieving his laptop.Īfter meeting with her husband’s assistant, Zoe, Annabel begins to understand how shady the bank is. The trappings of her expat life are fancy - designer clothes, an extravagant apartment, jaunts to Spain and Italy - but Annabel finds Swiss life stultifying, and she’s annoyed when her husband, Matthew, seems reluctant to leave Geneva after their agreed-upon two-year stint. That Jones fails to make a convincing case for Emily to stay put is a major failing, but it’s one you may forgive when you get to the novel’s whiplash-inducing final pages. Maybe I’ve watched too many shows on Lifetime, but to me both Pammie and Adam scream “murderous psychopath.” Yes, Emily’s situation is complicated by marriage and a baby, but I can’t figure out why she doesn’t just get the hell away from them both, especially when Adam begins to behave badly (having an affair, staying out until the wee hours drinking, that kind of thing) and his mother out-and-out kidnaps their child. “Sometimes I think it’s just silly pettiness,” Emily tells her roommate, Pippa, “but then something gnaws away at me, chipping and chipping until I’m convinced she’s a bitter, jealous psychopath.” Adam is uncharacteristically snippy with her when it comes to his mother: “You’re bigger than this, surely? … Even if Mum has her little foibles … are you not better to rise above it?” Other than the fact that his first wife died under mysterious circumstances, Adam seems to be the perfect partner - but his mother, Pammie, is a bullying nightmare, criticizing Emily’s weight, sabotaging her friendships, even causing a huge commotion at the party where they become engaged. I hadn’t even known I’d wanted one until Adam showed up,” Emily says.
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