The Holiday Swap
A perfect holiday. A perfect nightmare.
We were broke, desperate for a break. So when my husband Robin's wealthy boss offered a house swap for a week, it felt like a dream come true. The Lookout: a stunning glass house clinging to the cliffs, overlooking the sea. Pure paradise.
Then Robin's old friend Pete arrived, drunk and uninvited. The next morning, he was gone. A horrifying pool of blood in the kitchen was all that remained, and Robin remembers nothing.
As I try to piece together what happened, a chilling realization sets in: this was no innocent vacation. We were targeted. Someone wanted us at The Lookout, and they'll do anything to keep the truth buried. Everyone had an agenda. Everyone was keeping secrets. Everyone was lying.
- Jen - Robin’s wife
- Robin - Jen’s husband, Financial director at 21
- Scott Masters - Owner of tech company 21, Robin’s boss
- Pete - Scott and Robin’s friend
- Elias - Former intern at 21
- Sam Bennett - Detective Sergeant
- Jen and Robin arrive at Scott’s house to spend a week there while he stays at their house.
- Jen is pregnant but she’s scared to tell Robin.
- Pete comes to Scott’s house to spend time with Robin and Jen.
- Jen wakes up the next morning and finds blood in the kitchen.
- Robin doesn’t remember what happened and they cannot find Pete.
- Jen finds Pete’s keys and his bandana with blood on it near the front door.
- Pete turns up that evening stating that it was all a prank.
- Pete insinuates that Jen’s baby is not Robin’s so Robin punches Pete causing him to fall and hit his head on the kitchen counter and die.
- They call 911 and Jen convinces Robin to say that Pete stumbled, not that Robin punched him.
- Scott shows up at the house.
- Jen finds an old phone Robin has hidden containing a voice note of Robin and Elias discussing how Elias wrote the code for the app Scott later brought to market as SocialScript.
- A storm knocks out the power.
- Scott descends a ladder and goes to the beach to watch the storm.
- Jen asks Robin about the voice note and he explains that he recently found out that Scott stole the source code from Elias for SocialScript.
- Robin wanted to house swap with Scott to try and find proof that Scott stole the code from Elias.
- A few months earlier, Elias abruptly quit his job at 21 to travel around Australia.
- Jen and Robin search Scott’s office and find a printed email showing that Elias sent Scott the source code as an example of his work when he was applying for a job at 21.
- Scott tells Robin and Jen he knows what really happened to Pete because he’s been watching them on his security cameras.
- Scott shows them the video of Robin punching Pete and says he will delete it if Robin hands over the recording of Elias talking about SocialScript.
- Robin says he wants to sleep on it.
- Jen wakes in the middle of the night to find Robin and the phone gone.
- Jen sees Robin and Scott fighting on the beach.
- Scott takes the phone from Robin and hurls it into the sea.
- Scott leaves and Robin and Jen go into the house.
- While Jen and Robin are wiping the security footage of Pete’s death, they find a deleted file showing Elias confronting Scott about stealing his code, and Scott poisoning and smothering Elias to death.
- Jen calls DS Bennett and tells her what they found.
- Elias’s body is found buried in the concrete on Scott’s patio.
- Nine months later: Jen gives birth to a baby boy.
- The coroner rules Pete’s death accidental.
- Scott starts serving a life sentence for killing Elias.
- Robin gets a job as financial director for a charity supporting victims of crime.
A house exchange sets the stage for The Holiday Swap, but the location itself feels completely underutilized. The cliffside house overlooking the beach could have added so much atmosphere, yet it barely factors into the story at all. Told entirely from Jen's perspective in the present tense, the narrative moves at a medium pace. Short chapters usually keep a thriller moving briskly, but this plot quickly falls into a trap of deep predictability. I struggled to stay invested when the central conflicts relied on exhausted tropes rather than genuine suspense.
A major source of frustration comes from the marriage dynamic between Jen and Robin. For a couple that is supposedly very happy together, the narrative leans heavily on a husband and wife failing to maintain even a basic level of communication. It is a tired thriller device that drags the momentum down and makes the characters tedious to follow. I enjoy this author's writing style and have liked her other books, but this one missed the mark.
If you like domestic thrillers, house swap settings, and marital secrets, then you might enjoy this book.
- Pete - Dead - Cracked his head open after being punched by Robin
- Elias - Dead - Poisoned and smothered by Scott
- Scott - Alive - Serving a life sentence for Elias’ murder
- Jen - Alive - Happy being a mother
- Robin - Alive - Working for a charity supporting victims of crime
- Pregnancy
- Murder
ISBN: 9798188160456
Publication Date: July 20, 2026
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
