Man in the Middle [Hardcover]

Ken Morris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2003

You are invited to enter the world of high stakes and low morals insider trading, where winning no matter how it's done is measured by how much money you have at day's end. Join Peter Neil as he is sucked into a situation that soon spins out of control. Come experience what happens when a young man with a good heart is tempted with unimaginable wealth; when a love affair gets tangled with long-buried family secrets; when a persistent SEC agent matches wits with ruthless businesspeople who think nothing of murder of individuals and of entire countries' economies! "Man in the Middle" blurs the line between today's business headlines and fiction. Written by a man described as a 'former Master of Wall Street by the "London Times", this novel takes you deep inside the inner working of today's capital markets, and simultaneously makes it understandable and gripping.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Morris's first thriller is a brisk, if at times predictable, story of international financial mayhem. The unlikely heroes are Oliver Dawson, an obdurate low-level attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission's Enforcement Division, and Peter Neil, a young man thrust into an atmosphere of greed and temptation at a hedge fund. After Peter's mother dies in a car accident, her former lover and family friend, attorney Jason Ayers, offers the unemployed Peter a job with one of his clients, a hedge fund called Stenman Partners. The company is an epicenter of corruption-reaping money from the drug trade, among other things-but Peter gets swept up in the fast money and glamour. Morris paints a detailed picture of currency trading and the movements of billions of dollars around the world, spelling out the dire consequences for barely solvent developing nations. There are consequences as well for the poor working saps who threaten to reveal Stenman Partners' unscrupulous activities: they end up dead, frustrating Oliver's investigation of the company. For Peter, the good times come to an end when the mysterious circumstances of his mother's death turn out to be linked to Stenman. Before she died, she left Peter documents that incriminated the hedge fund, and now top malefactors at Stenman are framing him for murder. Peter teams up with Oliver and Ayers's daughter, Kate, in a dangerous scheme to unveil the company's doings. Though Peter's rise and fall and resurrection are boilerplate, the fast-moving action and high-stakes financial intrigue should keep thriller fans entertained.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In 1992, the author, a successful stock trader, left Wall Street for California, where he devoted much of his time to writing. His first novel suggests that his literary talent may be as finely honed as his business skills. This financial thriller (naturally) begins with a mass homicide--and unintended suicide--at a San Diego securities office, then skips forward several days. Peter Neil, whose mother passed away a week earlier, has quit his high-paying job "pushing overpriced mortgage loans on unsuspecting clients." Now, with no income and plenty of debts, he's offered a job by Jason Ayers, a financier whose relationship with Peter's mother was closer then it ought to have been. But Peter soon begins to suspect the job offer may not have been purely altruistic and that the massacre at the San Diego securities company may be a lot nearer to home than he'd imagined. This is a crisply written, well-developed, and suspenseful tale of greed and deception. Recommend it with confidence to fans of financial thrillers. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bancroft Press; 1 edition (March 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890862258
• ISBN-13: 978-1890862251
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,815,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Following Ken's successful career on Wall Street, he became an outspoken critic of aspects of the financial system, including the New York Stock Exchange. Ken is a frequent media contributor on political criticism and financial reform. He is the author of the award-winning novels Man in the Middle and The Deadly Trade and has recently completed his third novel. Ken lives in California with his wife and four sons, and has had the fortune of coaching over forty sports teams over the years for his boys.

www.kennethmorris.net

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The John Grisham of financial thrillers, February 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Man in the Middle (Hardcover)

I don't know a thing about hedge funds, stock shares, or the capital markets - but, I loved this book and couldn't put it down. Through the young character's eyes, I got an inside look at a massively corrupt company and traveled with him as he uncovered their vices and struggled to come out on top. I could NOT put this book down. This IS "The Firm" of financial thrillers.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wall Street from the Inside, March 31, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Man in the Middle (Hardcover)

After reading in the Wall Street Journal about the thiefs and thugs who infest Wall Street and are heads of major corporations, you'll find this book scary and all too believable. With fast action throughout and unpredictable plot twists, it's a natural for a thriller movie. It makes you want to cry out "Don't go there" to the hero. I stayed up late at night on this one.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Financial Novel, February 18, 2004

By 

R. Spell "raspell" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Man in the Middle (Hardcover)

As an investment banker I enjoy reading novels built around finance intrigue vs. lawyers, doctors or policemen. This is a very good book of a recent college grad who after the death of his mother is given an opportunity to be a hedge fund trader. In a year he goes from not wanting the job to being one of the top traders and all the internal office politics that develop.

But this is no ordinary job and he wasn't recruited based upon his intelligence. The novel starts with two deaths of people who do business with the hedge fund as well as the death of his mother. Morris weaves many different plot lines like the death of his mother, his family life and a relationship with the attorney of the hedge fund, his love life involving the daughter of the attorney, and his conflicted views of wealth.

Overlapping these story lines is a great "whodunit" as the new trader fights to learn a business and duck clues that may involve him in an elaborate scheme. I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in a good murder mystery built around a financial world background.