β Scribed by Grippando, James
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Bestseller Grippando's overwrought financial thriller gives its hero, Michael Cantella, almost as rude an awakening as Kafka's Gregor Samsa. Scandals involving subprime lending, short selling, and Ponzi schemes provide a timely backdrop. On the eve of his 35th birthday, Cantella goes from being a star performer at a premier Wall Street investment firm to a financially wiped-out victim of identity theft. His Job-like troubles are just beginning as the fallout not only rocks his second marriage and his firm but sets him up for a life on the run. Grippando (Intent to Kill) keeps the reader guessing why Cantella specifically is targeted and how the vicious and relentless personal attacks relate to the unexplained disappearance (and presumed death) of his first wife on their wedding day seven years earlier. Despite a few plot holes, the dramatic tension remains high with a sadistic hired killer, high-stakes wheeler-dealers, and plenty of cinematic escapes. (Mar.)
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Grippandoβs new stand-alone has a setup that feels a bit familiar: an investment banker impulsively marries his girlfriend, who promptly disappears; several years later, heβs shocked to discover that all of his accounts have suddenly been wiped out, the funds transferred to an offshore bank via an account set up in his dead wifeβs name. Luckily Grippando is a skilled writer (his stand-alones are generally more interesting than his Jack Swyteck series), and he works enough variations on the familiar theme to keep us guessing. The novelβs protagonist, Michael Cantella, is a solidly defined character in the business-thriller mold, and the supporting cast ranges from coldly manipulative to warmlyβbut perhaps deceptivelyβfriendly. The plot is mostly straightforward but with enough small twists and unexpected shifts to keep readers from feeling like theyβve read all this before. Recommend this one to fans of Joseph Finderβs Paranoia (2004), Company Man (2005), or Power Play (2007)βall novels in which the hero is suddenly cut adrift from his friends, his colleagues, and his sense of his own life. --David Pitt
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EDITORIAL REVIEW: In this timely stand-alone thriller ripped from the headlines, \*New York Times\* bestselling author James Grippando, whom the \*Wall Street Journal\* calls "a writer to watch," explores a world in which the destruction of financial institutions and the people who run them can
EDITORIAL REVIEW: In this timely stand-alone thriller ripped from the headlines, \*New York Times\* bestselling author James Grippando, whom the \*Wall Street Journal\* calls "a writer to watch," explores a world in which the destruction of financial institutions and the people who run them can
EDITORIAL REVIEW: In this timely stand-alone thriller ripped from the headlines, \*New York Times\* bestselling author James Grippando, whom the \*Wall Street Journal\* calls "a writer to watch," explores a world in which the destruction of financial institutions and the people who run them can
### From Publishers Weekly Bestseller Grippando's overwrought financial thriller gives its hero, Michael Cantella, almost as rude an awakening as Kafka's Gregor Samsa. Scandals involving subprime lending, short selling, and Ponzi schemes provide a timely backdrop. On the eve of his 35th birthday, C
EDITORIAL REVIEW: In this timely stand-alone thriller ripped from the headlines, \*New York Times\* bestselling author James Grippando, whom the \*Wall Street Journal\* calls "a writer to watch," explores a world in which the destruction of financial institutions and the people who run them can
EDITORIAL REVIEW: In this timely stand-alone thriller ripped from the headlines, \*New York Times\* bestselling author James Grippando, whom the \*Wall Street Journal\* calls "a writer to watch," explores a world in which the destruction of financial institutions and the people who run them can