The Banker's Wife
Fiction
G. P. Putnam's Sons
July 3, 2018
Hardcover
352
Free copy from publisher
On an early morning in November, a couple boards a private plane bound for Geneva, flying into a storm. Soon after, it simply drops off the radar, and its wreckage is later uncovered in the Alps. Among the disappeared is Matthew Lerner, a banking insider at Swiss United, a powerful offshore bank. His young widow, Annabel, is left grappling with the secrets he left behind, including an encrypted laptop and a shady client list. As she begins a desperate search for answers, she determines that Matthew's death was no accident, and that she is now in the crosshairs of his powerful enemies.
Meanwhile, ambitious society journalist Marina Tourneau has finally landed at the top. Now that she's engaged to Grant Ellis, she will stop writing about powerful families and finally be a part of one. Her entry into the upper echelons of New York's social scene is more appealing than any article could ever be, but, after the death of her mentor, she agrees to dig into one more story. While looking into Swiss United, Marina uncovers information that implicates some of the most powerful men in the financial world, including some who are too close to home. The story could also be the answer to Annabel's heartbreaking search—if Marina chooses to publish it.
My review:
Woah! This one keeps you on your toes as you navigate the world of offshore banking, complete with dummy corporations hiding rich folks' assets, important people conspiring with known terrorists (any of this sounding vaguely too timely?) and some pretty scary tactics to keep all the goings on private. What we end up with is a wife, assistant and reporter who are all being followed when someone starts feeding information to the press about who is doing business with Swiss United bank. Annabel's husband is presumed dead in a plane crash, but when she realizes that his laptop is wanted by someone, she wonders if his crash was not a freak accident after all? Zoe, the assistant to the dead man, is being followed and definitely knows more than she is letting on. And Marina wants to finish one more story for her mentor, who has been working on outing the goings on at Swiss United, but has now turned up dead! Get ready for a whirlwind of action in this fast paced story! I loved that even though I know nothing about the world of offshore banking, the author kept me from being totally confused (which is no easy feat as I confuse easily when it comes to anything more complicated than balancing my checkbook!). Great writing and pacing, this one was a fast read for me. I couldn't put it down until I knew who was leaking the information, and who were the good guys and bad guys?
The Banker's Wife is a page turner that will leave you with both an icky feeling about how common this offshore banking stuff is, and heart palpitations that the main characters escape with their lives intact!
