The Market Maker [Mass Market Paperback]

Michael Ridpath (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 378 pages
• Publisher: Signet (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451197526
• ISBN-13: 978-0451197528
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,007,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Has its moment, but basically dull, August 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Market Maker (Mass Market Paperback)

Reading this book I couldn't help getting the impression that the author was going through the motions with this tale, and struggling to do even that. The plot here is workaday, the characters rather unattractive, and the twists not very twisty. Also there's too much dull information about finance, which really doesn't help. Overall, disappointing.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Two Stars for the laughable collection of clichés. One stop shopping!, December 12, 2006

By 

Bachelier ""1004"" (Ile de France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Market Maker (Mass Market Paperback)

Let's use some analogies.

Michael Ridpath's "The Market Maker" is to "Global Bond Markets" as "The DaVinci Code" is to "The Catechism of the Catholic Church."

Here is a list of similarities between Ridpath's fictional world and the real world of sell-side or buy-side of fixed income trading.

1) Nothing.

Okay, they both use the word "bond" but after that, the differences drop off so precipitously five mathematicians have gone mad trying to map the decay function.

Next analogy: Michael Ridpath's "The Market Maker" is to "Thriller" as "The 120 Days of Sodom" is to "Nursery Rhyme."

This work reads like an old MadLib, or a Novel-O-Matic. Our [hero], a [poor] fellow has a stroke of [luck]. He enters [glamorous world] with a [powerful father figure] who is [rich]. He soon is [befriended] by [backslapping comic relief] and meets [beautiful girl] and finds himself [attracted to her]. Soon [mysterious] events occur that involve [money], necessitating [relocation to a glamorous location], where [sudden, unexpected violence] occurs. Our hero discovers that [beautiful girl] is [rich too], but hides it because she desires [powerful autonomy] from her own [father] figure.

Next analogy: Michael Ridpath's "The Market Maker" is to "Engaging" as "Dora The Explorer" is to "Complex, intricately crafted psycho-drama."

Future editions should place a detachable barf bag between pages 20 and 21. If you ever, in desperation, purchase this in an airport bookstore, be sure to search for same from the seat pocket in front of you before subjecting your eyeballs to this tripe stew of formulaic, cliché-ridden, pablum. As the late Truman Capote said "That's not writing. That's typing." But since Ridpath dictates his books, we'd have to say it's babbling. "Gaa gaa goo goo....bond, ......bond market go `poopy!' Big diaper poopy! Phew!"

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average book: not as good as Ridpath's others., March 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Market Maker (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed his other two books, but this one leaves something to be desired. I work in the industry and I found The Market Maker characterizes many elements of the junk bond scandal of the late 80's. Ridpath obviously knows something of Michael Milken. The parallels between Milken and the character Ricardo Ross are almost disgusting and certainly laughable. But because of the plot twists at the end of the novel, I give the three star grade (rather than one or two).