exchange

Good as a first reader - or for a person who wants to "blag the interview" - but you will need to buy another book sooner or later.

Tom

The two men telling the story are Max Iversson and John Gallan. Max Iversson is a former soldier, first with the army and then as a mercenary who now works as a personal bodyguard. He finds himself wanted by the police when a protection job goes horribly wrong. He realises he had been set up and wasn't supposed to have survived and now is desperate to find out who set him up and why, while still avoiding apprehension by the law. John Gallan is that law, working as a Detective Sergeant in CID; he is trying to investigate an unrelated murder when Iversson's name and business begin popping up throughout the investigation.

Mixed into the story and the lives of the two protagonists is an organised rime family, the Holtz family, and as with most stories involving organised crime, drugs, prostitutes and violence make their appearance. Iversson is pretty sure that it was the Holtz family that was involved in the set up, so he's trying to find out why, as well as working out a way to get some sort of revenge. Gallan is pretty sure the Holtz family was somehow involved in the murder that he is working on and so he begins to tangle with them. The Holtz family is known to be ruthless towards anyone who crosses them no matter who they are, setting up a tremendous showdown as it becomes obvious that they're all going to meet somehow. The results are not going to be pretty.

I like my thrillers to come with a fast-paced storyline carrying plenty of action sequences, which usually equates to full on violence. This book certainly fills that bill. The bad guys are ruthless, so are some of the good guys providing a no-holds-barred battle to the death. It's a terrific follow-up to Kernick's first book, The Business of Dying, with a character or two making a return appearance here.

The book follows the 1920s and 30s stock market from the corner in Stutz stock (on which only people who were long originally gained) to the demise of the aristocratic Richard Whitney.

It could be fiction except that you see the similarities all around.

The description of 1929 is the best I have read. I wish I was there to see Whitney make the most famous bid in all stock exchange history (10 thousand US Steel at 205). I too would have fallen under his spell. And I too would have been shocked and scandalised by his eventual downfall.

Read this and make your judgement. Are you too taken in by the image of today's high flier? Or are you above that? Some people are. I am not sure I am

Two women in tan raincoats, two look-alike diskettes, and
suddenly Fran Barnette's holiday weekend in Tahoe was filled
with cloaks, daggers, and danger! With her new computer
graphics company off and running. Fran thought she could
afford a little rest. And when Special Agent Rick Langtry
knocked on the door, she was sure: he was not her type. How
had this arrogant Olympic-class athlete convinced her to help
him catch a spy? Why had she believed him when he guaranteed
her safety? Pursued by killers, on the run from Reno to San
Fransisco, what made her think she'd fallen madly, perfectly
in love?