The Margin of Death

The Margin of Death is a financial crime thriller featuring Detective Sarah Reeves. She has a missing-person case that later becomes a murder investigation and then a much larger investigation into genealogy, wealth and ancient secrets. I received a free copy of this book from Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review. The book was published on May 5, 2026.

The story began quickly and I was instantly hooked. Sarah is working on a financial crime investigation into insider trading at Apex Capital. She had received an email complaint from portfolio analyst Marcus Chen. Chen almost immediately disappeared so Sarah made an appointment to see his boss James Harrington. The complaint was related to the Cross Industries merger announcement. Chen claimed to have evidence of options trades placed weeks before the public announcement, using client accounts without authorization.

Cross Industries was owned by U. S. Senator William Cross who was the chair of the Senate Banking Committee and was running for president. Sarah discovered that Cross was using his daughter's shell companies to launder illegal foreign contributions from Russian oligarchs, Saudi nationals and Chinese businessmen. He laundered forty-seven million dollars over two years.

Harrington allowed an IT technician to open up Chen's computer for Sarah to review. The tech informed Sarah that Chen had him set up a deadman's switch on his computer so that if he didn't log in every 48 hours an automated email would be sent out. With Chen's disappearance 2 days ago, the switch was triggered. What Sarah found in a "deleted emails" folder was the beginning of her investigation into the firm. Chen was close to the firm's Head of Compliance Leo Jenkins. They attended college together and were long time friends. However, Leo was found dead that same day. His murder was set up to look like a suicide as was Chen's. I found this start to the plot riveting and I couldn’t put the book down. I read it in one sitting.

As Sarah began organizing the facts of the crime, she found additional factors that changed the essence of the investigation. The financial crime investigation process continued but Sarah was led to a spreadsheet with 37 lines. Each line referenced a name and the date killed. Her father was #4 on the list and she was #37. Her murder was pending. The investigation further led her to genealogical insights into the Parke family dating back to 893 AD and the family of Æthelflæd. I loved this part of the plot as genealogy is a hobby of mine. The Æthelflæd connection became a major part of the plot. 

What is the margin? It is explained toward the ending. I was not expecting the explanation. It was a surprise that I had to think about for awhile to fully understand it. 

There is so much more to the plot that I cannot expand on due to space restrictions. For each of the story descriptions above, there is much more detail than I mentioned. Suffice to say that I  was stuck to my seat while reading this riveting story. I loved the intersection of politics, money and old family secrets. 

5 out of 5 stars.