In his first financial thriller, Charles Epping mixes fact with fiction when computer programmer Alex Payton accidentally uncovers a Treuhand, or trust account, while working for a Swiss bank. Treuhand accounts were created in the years prior to World War II to help Jews protect their assets from Nazi seizure. To create the accounts, Jewish families transferred their assets to trusted non-Jewish fiduciaries, who then opened secret trust accounts in their own names. The trustees would manage the assets until the families could reclaim them after the war. In Trust, Epping creates a fast paced novel of what could have happened to an unclaimed Treuhand account more than fifty years after its creation.
As she searches for the true beneficiaries of this secret account, Alex Payton is thrust into a world of money laundering, deception, and danger. Alex’s research is presumably based on Epping’s real life experiences as an international financial consultant. Unfortunately, Epping’s attempt to write from a woman’s perspective often fails to ring true. The dialogue is clichéd, and many of the plot twists seem unrealistic at best. Nonetheless, fans of this genre may find this quick page turner to be an enjoyable read.
