Switch
Lisa Towles
Indies United Publishing House, LLC (2025)
ISBN: 978-1644568293
Reviewed by Demetria Head for Reader Views (07/2025)
Switch, the third book in the E & A Investigations Thriller Series by Lisa Towles, is a technological thriller that blends action, technology, danger, and family trauma. In my opinion, this is a sophisticated and suspenseful thriller that also shares a lot of self-reflective moments. The main character is Marissa “Mari” Ellwyn, a former intelligence operative struggling with her past and present.
The book’s emotional tone is already set in the prologue, when Mari meets up with her estranged father, Richard Ellwyn, in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. She struggles with forgiving him after he abandoned her and her mother twenty years ago. I love how the setting and description of the Caribbean drastically contrast with the internal turmoil that Mari is feeling. Towles also creates tension and a back-and-forth power play between father and daughter. For example, Mari deliberately arrives early and lets Richard believe he’s a few minutes late; he wears a too-crisp blue suit, then she drops the bomb, “You’re a spy,” she says, to which he replies, “Yes. I am. What of it?” You can feel the tension in that entire exchange.
By the time readers get into the opening chapters, there’s already some sort of action going on. Doctors are working on Mari after she’s been pinned by a hit-and-run vehicle in Ventura. This scene takes readers through a raw and fragmented experience with Mari. We’re taken inside her body and disoriented mind, while she’s being intubated, surrounded by voices and antiseptic smells. It’s an extremely visceral scene that’s intensified by emotions when Mari recalls her mom’s abduction yet senses her presence, including the smell of her perfume. Towles used the perfect moment to soften the adrenaline just a bit by adding memory and meaning to this scene.
The best part of this story is when the conspiracies begin to unfold while Mari is back home, healing and working from bed. There’s nothing like receiving cryptic clues about a bullet casing that’s tied to a murder from long ago. Mari begins to question her father’s CIA past and this mysterious Jacques Martel. There’s a lot going on in the meat of the book with Mari watching Traeger on surveillance because he and his cronies are believed to be responsible for a slew of bank robberies.
Then there’s the awkward pathologist, Linus “Lin” Hagen, who works for Mari’s former childhood friend and medical examiner Camille Bota. He needs her help in a strange John Doe case. Then Mari finds out that Camille is missing and possibly in danger. So much unravels while Mari is trying to balance the big Traeger case, find a longtime friend, deal with family trauma and secrets, and heal all at once. She’s a very relatable character who reminds me of every woman who finds themselves powering through life as it comes at them in every direction.
Towles also develops a strong foundation early on with the tense and creepy scenes at the Ellwyn Estate, Mari’s tense exchange with Ivan from the FBI, and the near break-in of her home. It’s almost like she’s being watched, manipulated, and is one step behind in a much larger game. But that’s what makes this thriller so intense.
While I absolutely love technology and corporate espionage fused into a narrative, it may still overwhelm some readers who are not familiar with things such as quantum computing or high-level security leaks. Just adding a bit more clarity or even a summary to Mari’s internal dialogue would help readers to further understand the terminology and how this ties in to the high emotional stakes of the story.
Overall, Switch is well-written, and I enjoyed how Lisa Towles was able to balance Mari’s soul-searching with her intelligence-gathering abilities. It showcases a good balance of spy fiction, tech thriller, and family drama. Readers who enjoy books filled with raw emotion like Tana French, or tech thrills like Daniel Suarez’s books, or even the tension of a Jason Matthews novel, will definitely enjoy Switch.