Isabella's Reading Corner: The Switch

The Switch

Author: Joseph Finder

Publication Date: June 13th 2017

Publisher: Dutton

Michael Tanner, CEO of a specialty coffee company, mistakenly picks up the wrong laptop going through airport security in a rush to catch his plane. In his haste he leaves with the MacBook of US senator Susan Robbins. Unfortunately for Tanner, the ambitious senator has downloaded classified government documents. Robbins and her chief of staff, Will Abbott, will do anything possible to get it back and prevent anyone from finding out.

After reading only a few pages of The Switch I was already hooked and interacting with the book shouting 'No! No!' in the vain hope that Tanner would hear me and realise his error. I suppose if he had there wouldn't be a book!

Finder writes with such detail, yet somehow manages to keep up such a quick pace, I was left a bit breathless. There is never a slow moment. He gets inside the minds of his characters, depicting nuances in all their reactions and experiences with a subtlety I only noticed in retrospect.

From the way Tanner runs his business and communicates with others you know he's a good guy. But now Tanner's life is on the line. The excitement accelerates as he navigates through multiple twists and turns. Will he find a way to survive?

The book is chock full of action and once it gets going, it never stops. As with all the novels I've read by Finder, The Switch was well written and gripping. He's a masterful storyteller who manages to build tension in all the right places. I raced through this clever, suspenseful thriller!

From the publisher:
A simple mix up throws one innocent man into the crosshairs of sinister government secrets and ruthless political ambitions in New York Times bestselling author Joseph Finder’s timely, electrifying new thriller.

Michael Tanner is on his way home from a business trip when he accidentally picks up the wrong MacBook in an airport security line. He doesn’t notice the mix-up until he arrives home in Boston, but by then it’s too late. Tanner’s curiosity gets the better of him when he discovers that the owner is a US senator and that the laptop contains top secret files.    

When Senator Susan Robbins realizes she’s come back with the wrong laptop, she calls her young chief of staff, Will Abbott, in a panic. Both know that the senator broke the law by uploading classified documents onto her personal computer. If those documents wind up in the wrong hands, it could be Snowden 2.0—and her career in politics will be over. She needs to recover the MacBook before it’s too late.

When Will fails to gain Tanner’s cooperation, he is forced to take measures to retrieve the laptop before a bigger security breach is revealed.  He turns to an unscrupulous “fixer” for help.  In the meantime, the security agency whose files the senator has appropriated has its own methods, darker still—and suddenly Tanner finds himself a hunted man, on the run, terrified for the safety of his family, in desperate need of a plan, and able to trust no one.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on The Switch here.