Thursday Thriller: The Trade Off by Sandie Jones

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

The Trade Off by Sandie Jones

Mogsy’s Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Minotaur Books | Macmillan Audio (August 15, 2023)

Length: 304 pages | 9 hrs and 56 mins

Author Information: Website

Well, not everything Sandie Jones writes is a winner, but there is something to her style that keeps me coming back. Her latest psychological thriller called The Trade Off lays bare the ugly, cutthroat world of tabloid reporting, and what you’ll read will enthrall you but quite possibly also confuse you (not to mention make you feel a little dirty as well).

The story revolves around the careers of two women, Jess and Stella, who both work for The Globe. Stella is a seasoned reporter now serving as deputy editor, but she’s not done rising and won’t settle for anything less than the top job. That means she’ll stop at nothing to get the latest scoop, and certainly isn’t beneath pulling a few unscrupulous strings to get the jump on publishing the latest and biggest scandals. On the other hand, Jess is a newcomer who left her previous position at a small local paper in order to pursue her dream of making it as a big-time journalist. Despite her inexperience, she is hired The Globe editor Max Forsythe who believes Jess’ strong morals and work ethic will eventually help steer the paper away from the celeb gossip sphere and into more respectable and topical news reporting.

Stella, however, is not on board with this new direction or the latest hiring decision made by Max. She will continue to do what has always worked for her, dirty tricks and all, which is also in line with the sentiments of the paper’s owner, who only wants to sell more copies. But when Stella’s latest machinations to entrap an up-and-coming young actress in a fake drug bust leads to disaster, it is Jess who feels broken and guilt-ridden for the part she played in it. Things only get worse when another TV star ends up dead. With her eyes newly opened to the reprehensible nature of her profession, Jess decides to turn her efforts towards uncovering the corruption running deep at the heart of The Globe.

Despite its scintillating premise, The Trade Off was a decent novel by Sandie Jones but it was certainly not the greatest or her best. The book’s only clear strength is its pacing; Jones is a master at keeping readers’ attention by relentlessly revealing new layers of mistrust and deception. Between Stella and Jess’ chapters, there were plenty of intriguing developments that kept the tensions high, making it difficult to stop reading.

However, the novel lost me when it came to almost everything else. In terms of characterization, Stella was wholly unlikeable, and Jess was bland and lacking in depth. The ruthlessness and ambition of the former felt contrived while the latter’s motivations came across as shallow and overly simplistic. When the two ultimately teamed up near the end to take down the corrupted elements at the paper, it was hard to overcome the distaste to actually bring myself to root for them or even care. I found it particularly irksome that I was supposed to forget all the shitty things Stella had done just because the villain they decided to take down is an even shittier person. It doesn’t work like that.

There’s also a lot driving this story, and inspiration from the current discourse like issues surrounding privacy, exploitation, misinformation as well as movements such as #MeToo can clearly be discerned. But whatever point, if any, the author was trying to make was unfortunately lost in the confusion of ideas and a narrative that doesn’t seem completely sure of what it wants to be. That might be the real trade off here—a book that unambiguously starts off as a thriller, but by the second half, that becomes debatable as the plot veers off into something that more resembles drama and workplace suspense. In the end, this shift resulted in the final message being diluted and robbed of its impact.

In short, The Trade Off was not my favorite book Sandie Jones due to the fact its story didn’t seem as well told or put together. However, I do praise the narrators for the audiobook edition for delivering great performances, though not even the superb narration of Nathalie Buscombe or Sofia Engstrand could help me overcome the novel’s shortcomings.