From Publishers Weekly
Ridpath's first novel is a junk bond of a financial thriller, flashy but insubstantial. Trouble comes to narrator Paul Murray, rising bond trader at a small London firm, when one of his colleagues drowns in the Thames. The cops think accident or suicide, but Paul thinks murder, having seen the dead woman's brutal ex-lover molest her just before her death. So Paul starts sleuthing, pursuing leads in London, Manhattan and Arizona and tying the killing into a grand fraud involving a top New York trading firm. At the center of the fraud lurks an icy villain whose manipulations get Paul fired and placed under suspicion of insider trading-and murder. The villain isn't the brutal ex-lover, though, whose main purpose here is to perform gratuitous acts of violence that stick out from the main story like pickles on pudding; instead, the villain is, despite Ridpath's efforts to confound, exactly whom most readers will suspect halfway into the tale-which also suffers from leaden dialogue and myriad coincidences. Ridpath paces matters briskly, conveys the cutthroat ambience of the markets and, along the way, provides a solid seminar in venture capitalism. But anyone interested more in good fiction than high finance will find this offering a bad bargain. 100,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; audio rights to HarperAudio; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
A tale of corporate intrigue, Ridpath's first novel is acceptable if not exceptional. Paul Murray is a young ex-Olympian working as a novice securities trader for a London firm. Suddenly, he finds himself investigating a colleague's death, a multi-million dollar investment fraud, and threats to his life and livelihood. The novel moves well, effectively communicating the addictive thrill of high finance, and the ending is compelling. But some of the writing is naive and trite. Briticisms, such as the overused whilst, will grate on American readers, and some of the book's dialog is stilted. However, an aggressive marketing campaign is promised, and public libraries may face demand for this title.
--Rebecca S. Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
ฯก์ฏฆ๋