ATLANTIC CROSSING

A brother and sister start careers in the financial industry and must contend with possible corruption in Swire’s debut thriller.

Charlotte Cheetham is a young 20-something woman living in London in 1990 who works in advertising and aspires to be a poet. She’s close with her brother, Piers, but has spent her life feeling overshadowed by him, especially as he seems to be their mother’s favorite. After Piers is offered a job at Shorwell Capital, a New York City investment firm, Charlotte decides to take a job at the London branch of the same company. Piers finds his footing in his new position, delighting in the excess of the financial sector but confused about the fast-and-loose way that the company seems to handle business. Charlotte, meanwhile, becomes romantically involved with her boss, Patrick, whose seemingly charming demeanor may simply be the technique of a clever salesman. When Charlotte inadvertently sends the wrong report to a client and Piers signs a contract without reading it first, it sets in motion a series of events that bring the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission right to their doors. Swire does an excellent job of sustaining readers’ interest in both sides of this trans-Atlantic tale. She particularly excels at small character details that make the players feel genuine, as when Charlotte daydreams about going to an event with Patrick—and about bragging to her co-workers about it. Swire’s prose is detailed and evocative, as when Charlotte is looking at apartments for her brother and the real estate agent “sang the praises of each successive charmless location, pointing to their streaked windows with the enthusiasm of a medieval monk confronting the stained-glass windows of the Chartres.” However, she occasionally spends a bit too much time fleshing out relatively minor events, which causes some pacing issues early on.

A slow-to-start but ultimately compelling story with charming prose.