SWITCHBACK

In Gray’s thriller, a diabolical plot ensnares four people entangled in relationships in which secret agendas turn deadly.

Personal trainer Vaughn Innes, a likeable young loner with a reputation for being a Lothario, sits in a Boston bar contemplating his future. About to turn 30, he has just come out of one more failed romantic relationship. Vaughn has dreams: He hopes to open his own gym. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices an old flame, Lauren Harris, an attorney he dated four years earlier. Lauren spots him and sidles over, eager to renew their friendship. Three weeks later, she is Vaughn’s client at the trendy Fitness Hub. Lauren taunts Vaughn with a remark he made years ago when he claimed that he could seduce any woman (“‘I’m not judging. It’s like your superpower, right?’ She beamed back at him, enjoying his discomfort”). When Grace Ballard, a beautiful prospective client, enters the gym, Lauren bets Vaughn that he cannot bed her within three months. He is intrigued but hesitant. When Grace’s husband, heart surgeon Royce Titler, chases him down outside the gym and entices him to become the couple’s trainer, Vaughn agrees to take Lauren up on her bet. Vaughn’s ignorance of Lauren’s, Royce’s and Grace’s individual hidden motives propels this dark, slyly humorous, and twisty novel—and may cost him his life. Gray is a skillful storyteller—a surprise waits around every corner. The narrative effectively unwinds in chapters that alternate points of view to focus on events as experienced by each of these four characters (Royce’s tale is written as obsessive first-person entries in his secret journal). Readers may notice that occasional details about Royce’s and Grace’s backgrounds conflict; it is not until much later that these irregularities are revealed to be early clues about the extent of the characters’ deviousness. And just when readers think the puzzle is completed, the author delivers one final shocker.

A crazy quilt of lies, schemes, and violence that makes for an addictive read.