A Calculated Risk [Hardcover]

Katherine Neville (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 1992

The author of The Eight returns with the gripping tale of financial shenanigans wielded by a senior woman officer of the Bank of the World who sets out to test the security system and ends up stealing millions. 100,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Verity (True) Banks was 22, she was the highest-ranking woman executive at the world's largest bank. Now, 10 years later, she is contemplating a caper that will reveal the bank's security to be inadequate, and that will surely earn her a position at the Federal Reserve. Before she can carry out her plan to break into the bank's electronic security system, her erstwhile mentor, Dr. Zoltan Tor, reappears with a challenge: Which of them can steal $1 billion, and invest it to earn $30 million in only three months? (Of course, the money will be returned, and no one will be injured.) In the process, Tor and True, with help from a crew of brilliant eccentrics, stumble on a plan by members of the Vagabond Club CEOs of major corporations-,to take over the Bank of the World, possibly sending the U.S. economy into a tailspin. Alternately sounding like a romance novel ( . . . he was tanned and golden, his coppery hair tumbling to the collar of his white silk shirt) and a text on banking (All federally chartered banks must be members of the Fed, and are required to maintain insurance deposits there. . . ), True's story proceeds haltingly, disrupted by frequent recaps and descriptions of her emotional states (my mood progressed from real fury-to intense determination-to righteous indignation-to helpless frustration-to miserable desperation-at last to hopeless exhaustion). Although Neville (The Eight) obviously knows a great deal about the world of finance, she fails to deliver the goods as a novelist.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Neville's popular first novel, The Eight ( LJ 3/1/89), featured dual story lines, one historical and one contemporary. Neville uses the same contrivance in these interspersed stories about schemes to amass great wealth: a clever tale about the early Rothschild banking dynasty and a much longer present-day story about bank executive Verity Banks's efforts to steal funds from her own institution in order to make a point about flawed computer security. The stakes are raised sky high, however, when Verity's charismatic mentor from years past shows up and challenges her to a bet that involves stealing and investing a billion dollars. Romance and riches ensue for these fetching characters in a farfetched plot. Good escapist fare.
- Will Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 403 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (September 29, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345351363
• ISBN-13: 978-0345351364
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,272,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in 1945, Katherine Neville has had an extraordinary life, living in almost every state in North America. Aside from her work as an international bestselling author, she has worked as an international computer executive, a painter, photographer, and a waitress. Katherine lives in Virginia, Washington and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Visit the author's website at: www.katherineneville.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happens All the Time., October 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Calculated Risk (Mass Market Paperback)

It seems astounding that Neville says she wrote this book in the 1980s, it was updated and published in the early 1990s, yet everything described in it is happening again all over the world today. I loved A Calculated Risk so much that I've read it three times (probably for fantasy escapism, since I work in international currency exchange) and I sincerely hope there will be a sequel. My favorite Neville novel!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting primer for the financially inclined, August 22, 2004

By 

William Sugarman "nprfan1" (Great Neck, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Calculated Risk (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a good introduction for anyone who doesn't know too much about the world of high finance. Neville explains her plot in clear, unambiguous prose.

Would, however, that she could flesh out her characters the way she does her banking terminology. They are all cardboard cutouts, to one degree or another - some of them have a little more personality than others, but it seems that Neville has been working in those cold heartless banks just a little too long.

The three-star rating is for her explanations of financial terms and transactions; her previous book ("The Eight") was far better.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This is more of a historical novel than you might suspect!, June 17, 2005

By 

Mary H. Lesser "doc lesser" (Valdese, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Calculated Risk (Mass Market Paperback)

The first book I read by the author was The Eight, which I thought was terrific. The biggest problem I had with this one is how dated it's gotten...some of the background needed for the plot to work just hasn't held up over time. If you can suspend your judgment on that it's not a bad read. But if you've read The Eight, you're likely to be disappointed.