What would you do if the person you thought you knew best turned out to be someone else entirely? Mix together some Robert Ludlum, a little David Baldacci and a dash of Ken Follett and you’d have the recipe for a great spy thriller. Christopher Reich does just that in Rules of Deception.

Jonathan Ransom, a surgeon with Doctors Without Borders, and his wife Emma are climbing in the Swiss Alps when a freak accident causes Emma to fall to her death. When Jonathan returns to their hotel, he discovers that an envelope addressed to Emma has been delivered. Inside are two baggage claim tickets. Despite his grief, his curiousity gets the best of him and he goes to claim the mysterious packages. Before he even gets back to the car, two thugs attack and nearly kill him in an attempt to grab the packages and suddenly Jonathan is on the run, pursued by an assassin and shadowy government agencies, searching for the real Emma, for what the packages mean, for a way out of the growing web of lies.

Set against the glittering, snowy landscape of Switzerland, this is a great beach book or lazy afternoon read; you won’t be able to put it down!