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Identical twins changing places has been the basis of many books. In most, they are children playing tricks on the adults in their lives who can't tell them apart. Teachers are often the brunt of such jokes, as are baby-sitters. In a few books, such as DECEPTIONS by Judith Michael, adult identical twins exchange identities, which usually causes havoc with their personal lives. In THE SWITCH, Sandra Brown's new suspense title, a thriller with romantic undertones, Gillian and Melina Lloyd are identical adult twins. They share a bond much closer than the average pair of sisters. Other than their parents, who are no longer alive, no one can tell them apart. They do have different careers and interests, but when the two are together, heads always turn in amazement as people note their similarity.
The twins differ in one way. Gillian feels her biological clock ticking and, even though she is not married, she wants to have a child. She has a steady boyfriend, Jem, who has had a vasectomy. With his encouragement, she considers artificial insemination with anonymously donated sperm. After some vacillation, she undergoes the procedure and meets her sister for lunch afterwards. Melina has had some reservations about Gillian getting pregnant but she wants her sister to be happy, so she wishes her luck and offers moral support.
Melina is self-employed as a media escort, accompanying celebrities to various functions. That evening she is scheduled to escort Colonel Christopher "Chief" Hart, a soon to be retired NASA astronaut and national hero, to an awards banquet. Trying to take Gillian's mind off the artificial insemination and the time she has to wait before knowing the outcome, Melina suggests they switch places. Gillian refuses, saying it is a trick for children, not adults, so Melina escorts Chief after all. The two are mutually attracted to each other, and Melina, who is more impulsive than her twin, spends most of the night with him. She returns home in the early hours of the morning and quickly falls asleep.
The police ringing her doorbell abruptly awakens Melina in the morning. Sometime after she returned home, her twin was brutally murdered in her own bed; and racial slurs implicating Chief, a Native American, are written in blood on her walls. At this point, Brown employs one of several plot twists involving the twins. When the police bring in Chief for questioning, he tells them about a man who approached them at a fast food restaurant calling his escort Gillian instead of Melina. Although Melina didn't recognize the man, she also didn't correct him. Melina later explains to Chief that the man merely mistook her for her sister, and it was easier not to have to explain to strangers that they were identical twins.
Chief is able to give the police information, which leads to identifying the man who becomes the primary suspect. When the police go to his home to pick him up for questioning, however, they find him dead, a victim of an apparent suicide. Plenty of evidence in his small, spare apartment links him to Gillian's murder, so the police consider the case closed.
Melina still has her doubts, feeling that the case was closed too easily. As she continues to investigate her twin's death, there are threats on her life as well as on Chief's. After being approached by FBI agents, they try to connect Gillian's death to a larger conspiracy masterminded by a charismatic television preacher who has a cult-like following. Along the way, Melina and Chief also must determine if their attraction is real, or just Chief trying to fill the void left by Gillian's death.
Sandra Brown has successfully employed many plot "switches" to bring together this story of mistaken identities, cult followers, and psychotic megalomania. She binds it all together with two very strong protagonists who have an often denied and confusing but shared attraction to each other.
--- Reviewed by Debbie Ann Weiner
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