Customer Reviews

Drummer in the Dark (Marcus Glenwood Series #2)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

T. Davis Bunn keeps getting better. Wow! I thought he'd found his niche with "The Great Divide" (his legal thriller), but this book of political and financial intrigue raises the standard even higher. I'm not a big stocks and funds enthusiast, but Bunn manages to create a suspenseful and well-researched plot that hooked me early on. He works in a credible idea of dealing with Third World debt that I particularly found interesting. Beyond his obvious knowledge of the subject, Bunn creates believable characters and writes with a narrative flair that I personally love. His story is complex and maybe too intertwined for some to delve into, but I couldn't get enough.

As the title of this review suggests, I did lose sleep finishing this book. But the title is stolen from Bunn's own writing. "Jackie's eyelids felt coated with shards from the hourglass of lost sleep." It's writing such as this, passionate and imaginative, that make the political and financial arena come alive. Jackie and Wynn, the two protaganists, are complex characters whom I came to care for. Although the spiritual lessons are muted and few, Bunn works in heartfelt and very real spiritual thoughts without seeming preachy.

With a recent batch of superlative novels by Christian authors("When Heaven Weeps" by Ted Dekker and "The List" by Robert Whitlow, to name a few), I must include "Drummer in the Dark" as one of my favorites.

Successful businessman Wynn Bryant is approached by his brother-in-law, the governor of Florida, to take over the position of congressman Hutchings, who has recently suffered a stroke. Wynn refuses, but quickly learns he has no choice, and the reason becomes clear...Legislation has recently put together the Jubilee Amendment which is to relieve Third World countries of their debt, and the governor was this squashed, no matter what the cost.

Jackie Havilland is working for a small detective agency when she is approached with a mysterious and unusual request...Esther Hutchings wants Jackie to find out who is behind the smear campaign of her husband, and make sure the Jubilee Amendment is passed.

As Jackie and Wynn become deeper involved in their assignments they realize there is a far reaching conspiracy, one that involves a secret project called Tsunami. Tsunami is the biggest currency scam in history, one that congressman Hutchings was investigating before his stroke. Before long Jackie and Wynn are faced with a deadly race against time with powerful forces. Forces that will kill anyone that gets in the way of their plan to reshape world economy.

`Drummer In The Dark' is a great follow-up to the best-selling `The Great Divide.' T. Davis Bunn has switched gears, and instead of giving us another legal thriller, he has given a fast-paced political thriller laced with intrigue. The plot, while complex, is well written, and easy to follow, with plot twists at every turn, and enough shocks to keep you turning the pages.

T. Davis Bunn is quickly jumping into the forefront of thriller writers, and proving he is a skilled storyteller with a knack for churning out bestsellers.

Nick Gonnella

This book gets off to a slow start, taking a bit too long to let us in on what's going on, but once it gets going, it's not bad.

Wynn Bryant is a man of means who obviously travels in better circles than I do, since at a mere suggestion from his sister, he becomes an interim Congressman. He wanders around DC without a clue until he gets dragged on a journey to Rome and Cairo, and gets pulled into some hefty intrigue.

Jackie Burke is a windsurfer with a crappy job who suddenly gets hired by the wife of the ill Congressman whose place Wynn takes. Jackie realizes something big is afoot when the investigation she has been hired to undertake gets her apartment broken into and trashed. She meets Wynn and feels an instant attraction and kinship when they go to Rome, though most of their relationship throughout the rest of the book happens over the telephone.

Behind all the aforementioned intrigue is financier Pavel Hayek, a billionaire maverick who moved his foreign exchange trading business to Florida from Wall Street. As the author took so much time carefully constructing the plot, it seems unfair to give it away here. Suffice it to say, Hayek is a very bad man with some very big, very bad plans, and it's up to Wynn and Jackie to figure out what they are and stop him.

Once things got moving, it was a fairly compelling read. It was hard to get a fix on Wynn's character, aside from the fact that he had a painful past and a lot of money to blow. The other characters, save one or two, didn't go very deep, either. Jackie was likeable, though. Things wrapped up a little too neatly with a pretty bow on top, and the author relied too heavily on leaving everyone out of the loop-the protagonists and the reader-but getting there managed to keep my interest. All in all, not a bad financial/political thriller.

The protagonist is Wynn Bryant, past owner of a high-tech business, who has no one in the world except his sister who is married to Senator Grant Wells.

Senator Graham Hutchings had been pushing for a bill dubbed the Jubiliee bill. It was aimed at curbing and controlling the big time hedge fund operators who played with economies like one plays with dominoes. Then Hutchings has a stroke leaving his seat empty. Elections are in the offing. Grant Wells is Hutchings' political opponent and is totally against the Jubilee bill. Seizing the opportunity, Grant pushes Wynn to run in the elections. At his sister's recommendation, Wynn reluctantly accepts and soon becomes a cog in the wheel of Washington DC.

But Wynn doesn't turn out to be the puppet that Grant expects him to be. Before opposing the Jubilee bill as per his brother in law's instructions, he starts digging into its details and backgrounds. This leads him from Washington to Cairo and back, with many revelations on the way. In his diggings, he comes across Jackie, a private detective who has been hired by the wife of Graham Hutchings to hedge fund scams. Both of them are lonely for company and a mutual attraction develops between the two. Together, they cross the path of Pavel Hayek, the biggest of the big hedge fund operators - a ruthless man who would let nothing stand in his way.

The novel is a page turner, zipping its way from start to finish at breathtaking pace. It is full of interesting characters and situations. I wish T. Davis Bunn had spent a little more time (even at the expense of slowing down the narrative) to educate readers like me (who are ignorant of commerce, economics, the workings of the wall street, etc.) a bit more about hedge funds. Not knowing the significance of the one of the key elements of the story reduces suspension of disbelief. Other than that, as said above, it is a great read. Recommended.[...]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as I do most of Bunn's books. He really makes you feel like he has been there, done that.

I was expecting another Marcus Glenwood book following "The Great Divide" but this was not # 2 as advertised. However, it was thoroughly enjoyable, even 'though I was 'out of my depth' a little with 'Hedge funds' etc., Again, I must add that as all of T.Davis Bunn's books are SUCH good reading, this was another one that I had difficulty putting down !!

a hard-hitting story that packs a punch, t davis bunn certainly delivers in this fast-paced political thriller

T. Davis Bunn can be counted on to do his research on any of his books which enables the reader to learn about an issue, while at the same time, being totally entertained. I was fascinated by the world of traders who trade millions in one day and how that affects the world's economy. It was so suspenseful, I could not put this book down. Best of all, it was tasteful. As a Christian, there was nothing about this book that offended me. In fact, just the opposite was true. I was inspired by anothers intention to make a difference.

I actually got lost in this book. I don't understand hedge funds and banking that well, so reading this book took a lot out of me. I was thinking so hard trying to understand what it all meant, how it all tied into the plot, that I missed out on the rest of the story. I finished this book feeling incomplete. I wasn't sure if I figured out who the real bad guy was, who the spies were, etc. I also got lost in trying to figure out how Jackie investigating Hayek and the banking stuff tied in with the congressman and his wife and this so called smear campaign. Overall, I rate this book with 3 stars. I liked the descriptions, but I couldn't fully grasp this story. If you understand hedge funds, politics, and banking then you could probably read it and enjoy it. But this book was not my favorite!

Mr Bunn's biography on the end flap says "raised in North Carolina, taught in Switzerland, worked in Africa and the Middle East, and served as direct in Germany, currently lives in England." I can only wonder if he has ever spent much, if any, time at all in Florida. Having lived in Orlando for the past twenty-one years, I find it extremely annoying to read a novel about my city that is so full of inaccuracies. His geography is all mixed up, his roads are confused, and even the weather is incorrectly represented. In the twenty-one years I've been here, it never once hit 100 degrees, and certainly no where near that in April, for heaven's sake! Maybe this wouldn't bother someone who doesn't live here, but there's an old, but correct, saying: "Write about what you know." Mr Bunn simply does not know Orlando. It ruined the story for me.