The Successor

I've completed my latest audio book, The Successor by Stephen Frey.  Last year I listened to the first in this series starring Christian Gillette, a business mogul who becomes the leader of Everest Financial Capital, one of the largest private equity firms in existence.  That first book was filled with the tension surrounding his rise to power, but also many thriller aspects such as attempts on his life by rival power seekers.  It was a true "business thriller". 

This book is the fourth book in the series and possibly the last.  Mr Gillette has now been a powerful man of finance for many years now and in his mid 50's.  He has successfully raised absurd amounts of money for his clients and shared the vast wealth with his partners.  He has now been tapped by the US President to go to Cuba and, due to rumors of Fidel Castro's death, secure the future of American interests as Cuba joins the global marketplace.  I found the plot to be disjointed, however, and I believe Mr Frey missed the mark this time.

The business aspects of this one were mostly non-existent, with the protagonist having turned over most of the responsibilities of running the firm to Ms Allison Wallace.  Its very obvious from early on that Allison would become the "successor" as well as his love interest but it seemed Mr Gillette was the last one to figure it out.  The thriller aspects of the novel were left to the very end, added, it almost seems, as an afterthought.  The major meat of the novel instead focuses on Mr Gillete's mid-life crisis and his falling for a young 22-year old, who we readers figure out at the beginning is an actress, introduced in the very first scene.  When the author discloses that "ah-ha" moment of who this 22-year old really is, I couldn't believe he expected me to not have figured that out long before. 

I think the author had a trap to climb out of: he had a protagonist who, in the first three books had risen to such powerful heights that he had no more room for growth.  I think he tried to refocus his goals and take him in a different direction but instead he ended up thrusting him into an improbable scenario and then didn't follow through with a believable plot. I am hopeful Mr Frey will put this series to rest and begin anew.

I won't be doing any more audio books for a while.  I have reached the end of my Air Force career and will be retiring after 20 years of service.  In fact, at this point I have only 8 more days of actual work and thus, not enough time to get an entire audio book completed during my commutes.  While I have an ideal future planned that involves staying at home and working on my hobbies (reading, writing, watching movies, and playing computer games) my budget requires me to secure an actual income-producing job.  If I manage to land one in this economy and still have a reasonable length of drive to and from work I will re-enter the audio book realm.  Until that happens, I will miss them.

Wish me luck.

Top Producer

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by Amazon.com to become a "Vine Voice". That means I get to select a book or two from their special catalogue to review, most often before it is actually published. I was excited to give it a try and so I selected Top Producer by Norb Vonnegut as my first option. I just finished it during my lunch period and am very anxious to let you know just how good this one is.

Top Producer is a "financial thriller" novel that absolutely keeps you turning the pages. We are introduced to Grove O'Rourke, a top producing stockbroker in a major Wall Street firm. Mr Vonnegut's writing style is very apparent right from the beginning, demonstrating elegant word choice and interesting dialogue that belies the fact that this is his very first novel. The action kicks off very quickly as a close friend of Grove's is murdered. The actual murder takes place in a public venue and we readers, along with a large crowd experience one of the most interesting murders to ever take place in fiction. I won't spoil that for you but rest assured it is an awesome scene.

The novel is largely a mystery novel as Grove tries to solve the murder and sort out all of the motivations of the various players. But his own life is in danger as well and thus the suspense keeps ratcheting up as he gets closer to solving the mystery. This book is well plotted, allowing us just enough clues to figure things out at the same time as the protagonist. When you get that "ah-ha!" moment, you realize the clues were there all along. And the ending is very satisfying. Some readers may struggle with the financial terminology that is sprinkled throughout but I think the author does a great job of explaining what we need to know without being condescending. The big name in financial thrillers is Stephen Frey and I feel this book stands up very well if compared side by side. Mr Vonnegut has great credentials to write this kind of story and I believe his background is essential to understanding the day-to-day pace and motivations of people in the high finance business. He writes with flare, captivates his audience, and ties together the plot most effectively. I was impressed and firmly believe he has a great future in writing fiction.

So watch the bookstore shelves in September 2009 for this one.

I haven't read the Stephen King short story from Skeleton Crew yet so will comment on that after the next book. Speaking of that, I think I'll return to the young adult series, "The Warriors" with book number 5.

The Chairman

On the way into work this morning I completed the audio book, The Chairman by Stephen Frey. This was my first book by this author so far and I sufficiently enjoyed it so I will probably read more. At the same time, it was not so special that I feel the need to go out and aquire more of his work right now. I believe I had heard that Stephen Frey is to high finance thriller novels as John Grisham is to legal thrillers and that's pretty much what it was. But where most Grisham stories really captivate me and draw me in, this novel didn't quite live up to that standard.

The main character, Christian Gillette, is pretty well fleshed out, and I liked it that he is not without character flaws. The author does a good job in developing a story that includes a relatively complicated plot, filled with intrigue but his minor characters are mostly one dimensional. I did like the character of Quentin Stiles, the bodyguard, mostly because his background and motivation is fleshed out well. I hadn't realized it when I began listening to this audio book that it is the first of a projected series. That's good because the fate of several characters is not depicted, including Quentin Stiles. I also found it a bit difficult to suspend my disbelief when time and again, the corporate leadership resorted to murder as a way to garner power.

So overall, it was a good book, if not great and I'll definitely consider Stephen Frey for audio book options when I go to the library; but I don't think I'll add him to my home library.