The Switch

The Switch is a novel of suspense by the American writer Sandra Brown, published in 2000. It is a stand-alone thriller rather than part of any series.

Melina and Gillian Lloyd are identical twins who have not considered changing places with each other since they were children. Gillian at first refuses when Melina proposes that she take her place escorting a NASA astronaut, Colonel Chief Hart, and by the next morning Melina is being told that her sister has been murdered and that Hart, who is innocent, is the main suspect. The two of them begin working together to find out who killed Gillian, and the person responsible is a megalomaniac whose horrific schemes depend on having Gillian's identical twin available as a replacement. The book moves between their investigation and the killer's own intentions, and it turns on the fact that two sisters who look exactly alike can be taken for one another.

Brown's thrillers are usually built around a small cast and a single secret, and this one takes an obvious physical resemblance and turns it into the engine of the plot, moving between the sisters and the killer's account of what he means to do.