Tangled Web UK Review February 2007
Switchback by
Matthew Klein
hbk out November 06
Published by Orion
at £18.99
A really 'un-put-downable' novel with an intriguing story-line. At one
point I thought that it was going to drift into science-fiction, but all is
made clear at the end. A problem peculiar to reviewers of crime books, is
that their comments are severely restricted by the need to avoid revealing
the punch-line and this applies very much to Matthew Klein's
'Switchback'.
The central figure is Californian Timothy van Bender, a fairly laid-back
millionaire who has made his money by obscure manipulations on the
money market, which seems to be some kind of betting on whether
foreign currencies will go up or down. He has only a nerdy whizz-kid
assistant and a glamorous secretary on his staff and when the book
begins he is in the process of losing over twenty million dollars because
the yen is rising instead of falling. In the middle of this his wife calls him
to say that she is jumping off a cliff as she has a fatal disease, of which he
knew nothing. As matters get progressively more pear-shaped and he is
assailed by creditors and the threat of ruin and possibly prison, a
mysterious Chinese doctor assures him that he can restore his wife to
him, for a mere few hundred thousand bucks. This indeed appears to
happen and all Tim's efforts to prove that it is a scam fail.
You just have to keep on reading to see how it all pans out.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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