Paradime

Edgar-finalist Glynn (Limitless) updates The Prince and the Pauper in this breezy thriller set in the financial world. Danny Lynch, an Iraq and Afghanistan vet with mental-health problems, receives a letter that eventually leads to a job at an upscale Manhattan restaurant, where he spies his look-alike, Teddy Trager, a venture capitalist who runs Paradime Capital. Danny becomes obsessed with his doppelganger and quits his job, much to his girlfriend’s dismay. After Danny succeeds in impersonating Teddy at business meetings and in sexual dalliances with Teddy’s girlfriend, he boldly forges business documents. Then he meets Teddy face to face. When Teddy is killed, Danny is recruited to pose as Teddy to maintain Paradime’s business deals. But of course, Danny is just a puppet. By the time Danny realizes what he has lost and who is manipulating his new life and identity, readers will be several steps ahead of him. Only in the last two chapters does Glynn put an interesting spin on this familiar conceit. Agent: Antony Harwood, Antony Harwood Ltd. (Aug.)