The Power Broker, by Stephen Frey

April 20, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, Financial Thriller, Stephen Frey, Thriller 

This is the third book in Stephen Frey’s series featuring Christian Gillette. Unfortunately, it is not quite as good as the previous two.

Christian, the CEO of Everest Capital,The Power Broker, byb Stephen Frey a hugely successful Manhattan-based investment firm, faces a host of adversaries, chief among them the Order, a secret society made up of nine white American businessmen and government leaders whose predecessors have been manipulating financial and historical events since the society’s inception in 1839. Led by Jackson Prescott Hewitt, chairman of U.S. Oil, the Order fears that America is falling under the control of minorities whose agendas include statehood for Puerto Rico and Mexico and the election of the nation’s first African-American president.

As usual in Frey’s books there is murder, global conspiracy, treason, blackmail, high finance and sexual infidelity. However, but I miss a little bit in this book is the financial thriller aspect. This is instead a large scale conspiracy book, a genre which Frey does not master nearly as well.

For sure, there is a lot of action, but the lack of a plausible financial thread to it all means that in this book the thread lines are somewhat loosely coupled and solutions seem to more or less come drifting along when needed. In my opinion The Power Broker is one of the weaker Stephen Frey novels, and I will only recommend it to people wanting to read the whole series about Christian Gillette.

Links to the books by Stephen Frey: amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

 

Tags: , , ,

Shadow Account, by Stephen Frey

October 22, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: bestseller, book review, New York Times bestseller, Stephen Frey, Thriller 

Stephen Frey, who is a specialist in mergers and acquisitions Shadow Account, by Stephen Frey and works in corporate finance, has written a series of financial thrillers. This book, Shadow Account, is not the best of his books, but I still found it to be an interesting and very entertaining read.

We meet up with the main character, Connor Ashby is in his apartment in Manhattan, with his wealthy engaged to someone else girlfriend Liz Shaw. Then an email addressed to a person named Victor arrives. The email indicates that revenues are profit is being manipulated in a very big but unnamed firm. Connor realizes the email he received was an error, but before he can decide what to do Liz sends him out to buy cigarettes. When he returns Liz has been killed, the apartment has been completely trashed and a goon is trying to kill him. Responding quickly, he manages to get out of the apartment and run off. However, when he returns with the police, his apartment is clean, nothing is broken, and there is no corpse. It is as if nothing has happened.

As he follows a twisting trail of misdeeds and misinformation that stretches nationwide, Conner slowly uncovers a shocking plot as undeniably real as the gunshot wound in his arm. Now, surviving will mean struggling to expose the truth as relentlessly as his shadowy enemies seek to conceal it— and fighting for his life as ruthlessly as those determined to end it.

Shadow Account has a good plot, and it quickly hooks you. And in the course of the story, Frey explains the complex financial issues in a fashion that makes them understandable. Having read this book, you will better understand some of the recent meltdown scandals like Enron.

Stephen Frey’s novels of big money and murder in the world of finance have earned this New York Times bestselling author a richly deserved reputation as a master of suspense who always delivers a high yield. Now he raises the stakes, and the risk factor, in this new thriller that pits a young Wall Street player against corporate conspiracy and White House intrigue—in a dangerous game of double crosses, dirty tricks, and deadly consequences.

Shadow Account. It does jump and twist a little here and there, and may be a little too convoluted at times, but it is a very entertaining and enjoyable read in a genre with relatively few very good writers.

Links to the books by Stephen Frey: amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

Tags: , , , ,