ARC Review: The Banker's Wife by Cristina Alger

The Banker's Wife
Author: Cristina Alger
Publication: G.P. Putnam's Sons (July 3, 2018)

Description: 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 a few who are too close to home. The story could also be the answer to Annabel's heartbreaking search--if Marina chooses to publish it.

The Banker's Wife is both a high-stakes thriller and an inside look at the personal lives in the intriguing world of finance, introducing Cristina Alger as a powerful new voice in the genre.

My Thoughts: This story begins with a plane crash over the Alps taking the live of personal banker Matthew Werner and one of his clients. Werner leaves behind his grieving wife Annabel who can't come to terms with her loss. She does her own investigating which leaves her with more questions than she started with and makes her the target of those who don't want Matthew's secrets to come to light.

While Annabel is in Geneva, Marina is in Paris with her fiance Grant Ellis. She is getting ready to give up her career as an investigative journalist in order to marry into the powerful Ellis family. Her future father-in-law is soon to announce his candidacy for President of the United States. But a phone call from her mentor has her making a detour to pick up a USB drive that will blow the lid off the corruption in the personal banking industry. Before she can get the USB to him, she receives another phone call telling her that her mentor was killed in a home invasion. She cuts her vacation short to go back home for his funeral.

Marina begins her own investigation to continue her mentor's work and finds direct ties to money laundering, illegal offshore accounts, and ties to terrorism that implicates the family she was ready to marry into. Each step of her investigation puts her and her colleagues into more and more danger.

Meanwhile Annabel is facing dangers of her own as she gets her husband's work laptop from his young assistant Zoe who then disappears. She doesn't know who she can trust at the bank Matthew worked for when all his boss and best work friend are acting suspiciously.

This was a fast-paced thriller that kept ratcheting up the danger and tension throughout the book. Fans of thrillers and international intrigue won't want to miss it.

Favorite Quote:

She would destroy the USB and its contents, and pretend that Paris had been nothing more than a lovely vacation, cut short by the death of an old friend and colleague.

But could it ever be that simple? Marina doubted it. Someone would always be looking for her, hot on the trail of information that went missing somewhere between Paris and New York. Even if they weren't, she'd wonder if they were. She'd always be looking over her shoulder, taking note of dark cars that idled too long in from of her apartment building, or strangers who came just a little too close on the street.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from Edelweiss. You can buy your copy here.