- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Canada; 1st edition (Aug 3 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0143173359
- ISBN-13: 978-0143173359
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 463 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #283,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
How far will one man go to save the people he loves most?
Sam White is an out-of-work actor, making a living as a security guard in a shopping mall. He returns home one night to find his house blown up and two body bags being removed from it. He assumes the bodies are those of his wife and daughter, until he receives a call from a man saying they are alive, but will only be spared if Sam follows instructions and completes the increasingly violent tasks set out for him.
When he meets Zack Parker, also a victim of the kidnapper, they realize their pasts are connected, and the two of them must race against time to discover the identity of their sadistic tormentor—staying one step ahead of the police—to save their families.
Set in Portland, Oregon, featuring the spooky and labyrinthine tunnels underneath the city, this is a fantastically commercial, brilliantly paced read from a debut author.
About the Author
Grant McKenzie is a Scottish-born writer living in British Columbia. He began his writing career at the Calgary Sun covering the “Dead Body Beat.” His short stories have appeared in Out of the Gutter and Spinetingler magazines. His debut novel, Switch, was published in Germany and the U.K. in 2009.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intense, Fast-Paced Thriller,
By
This review is from: Switch (Paperback)
Failed actor and full-time security guard, Sam White, is coasting through life, trying to provide for his family, when a phone call changes everything. His wife and daughter have been kidnapped and will be returned only if Sam does what the caller asks, and what he asks is criminal, to say the least. Sam is unaware that the same thing has happened to a doctor named Zack Parker until Parker approaches him with his own disturbing story. They decide to figure out who's dismantling their lives before it's too late to save their families.Switch is a fast-paced thriller about loss of control, failed dreams, and how far someone will cross legal and moral lines for loved ones. It's a scary premise that I wasn't sure I wanted to read at first, but the short chapters and incredible tension kept me turning pages, and the twists and turns were good. The bad guy's motive wasn't particularly original, but the ethical dilemmas White and Parker faced were riveting.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rocketing thriller starts with a bang,
By
This review is from: Switch (Paperback)
Is it best for a story to start with a bang? If it's a bleak contemplation of sexual isolation in a suburban wasteland, probably not, but if it's a rocketing thriller, absolutely.Switch does start with a bang - and a crash, and a sizzle - and having started, it doesn't stop moving until the last word. Sam White comes home from his dead-end job to the sudden loss of his house and family. His life a scorched ruin, he receives a call to say that he can have his wife and daughter back alive if he'll oblige the kidnapper by committing a series of increasingly brutal crimes. Grant McKenzie has created a world that's recognizable as reality, a world full of real people and real things. It's not a Thursday night network drama filled with big-breasted coroners and vaguely supernatural criminologists, but a story about a normal guy with a normal life to whom terrifying things happen. The combination of packed lunches and unseen villains is irresistible. The protagonist's vulnerabilities are everybody's vulnerabilities; his insecurities are ours. Switch is intense and delicious, a summer carnival ride of a thriller. Scream if you want to go faster. Giulia Mauro (Westender and Monday Magazine)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fast and Gripping,
This review is from: Switch (Paperback)
Just finished Switch by Grant McKenzie. Fast paced. Kept me on the edge with its twists. Totally cool how he incorporated notorious history of his setting. I'm watching for his new one, No Cry For Help, on the shelves
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