Free to Trade: A Novel of Suspense [Mass Market Paperback]

Michael Ridpath (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1995

Relishing his life as a bond trader for a multi-million-dollar London financial house, former Olympic runner Paul Murray is shocked when his lover, Debbie, is murdered and uncovers a series of shady double deals. Reprint. NYT.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ridpath's first novel is a junk bond of a financial thriller, flashy but insubstantial. Trouble comes to narrator Paul Murray, rising bond trader at a small London firm, when one of his colleagues drowns in the Thames. The cops think accident or suicide, but Paul thinks murder, having seen the dead woman's brutal ex-lover molest her just before her death. So Paul starts sleuthing, pursuing leads in London, Manhattan and Arizona and tying the killing into a grand fraud involving a top New York trading firm. At the center of the fraud lurks an icy villain whose manipulations get Paul fired and placed under suspicion of insider trading-and murder. The villain isn't the brutal ex-lover, though, whose main purpose here is to perform gratuitous acts of violence that stick out from the main story like pickles on pudding; instead, the villain is, despite Ridpath's efforts to confound, exactly whom most readers will suspect halfway into the tale-which also suffers from leaden dialogue and myriad coincidences. Ridpath paces matters briskly, conveys the cutthroat ambience of the markets and, along the way, provides a solid seminar in venture capitalism. But anyone interested more in good fiction than high finance will find this offering a bad bargain. 100,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; audio rights to HarperAudio; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A tale of corporate intrigue, Ridpath's first novel is acceptable if not exceptional. Paul Murray is a young ex-Olympian working as a novice securities trader for a London firm. Suddenly, he finds himself investigating a colleague's death, a multi-million dollar investment fraud, and threats to his life and livelihood. The novel moves well, effectively communicating the addictive thrill of high finance, and the ending is compelling. But some of the writing is naive and trite. Briticisms, such as the overused whilst, will grate on American readers, and some of the book's dialog is stilted. However, an aggressive marketing campaign is promised, and public libraries may face demand for this title.
--Rebecca S. Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (Mm) (December 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061093483
• ISBN-13: 978-0061093487
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,236,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars DULL DULL DULL, September 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Free to Trade: A Novel of Suspense (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read some overhyped novels in my time, but this one takes the biscuit. This man CANNOT WRITE, and in fact, from the evidence of this book cannot even punctuate.

Suspence? None. Particularly since the blurb on the back jacket of my copy says "his crusade for an explanation results in his being framed for murder, accused of insider trading and left to find twenty million by lunchtime." which 1, is in fact the entire plot, and 2, doesn't actually *happen* until page 330 (of 420)! (If you're interested, pages 1 to 330 are taken up by deadly explicatory bond meetings where people keep saying things like, "Okay. So, how exactly do you sell a junk bond?" and the characters say "okay, it's like this, blah blah blah- oh no! I've told you too much!")

Avoid. There are some brilliant stock market books out there, but this is not one of them. Oh, and note to the author: denoting one of your characters as Scottish by having them say 'Laddie' at the end of each sentence is not just completely inaccurate but shallow and demeaning, too. Okay, old chap?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needs some sharpening, August 25, 1999

By 

S. McHale (Costa Mesa, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Free to Trade: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

There is a germ of a good book in here. It needs to be whittled down by 50% and the characters need more personality. It has some excitement in the trading scenes, but you have to slog through worthless stuff to get to them. For example, we go through a long, dull chapter describing a visit to the narrator's mum, hear a description of his father, his father's death, etc. and it really is all for naught. I hope his other books are better. Maybe if he read some Hammet or Hemmingway he can pick up some pointers on how to make the prose more efficient.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sharp corporate thriller, elegantly written, July 28, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free to Trade: A Novel of Suspense (Mass Market Paperback)

Michael Ridpath has brought to life the dull financial markets into a lively whodunnit. Paul Murray is perhaps a little too clean cut as a London bond trader hunting down the killer of a colleague in his company.

Ridpath has an elegant and easy style that carry along a sparky story. He carries an intelligent insight into his characters that lends the plot a little depth.

The writing is appealing, with a prose that is understated. This is a novel I will remember with some affection