Customer Reviews

Money to Burn LP: A Novel of Suspense

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

"Money to Burn" by James Grippando follows investment banker Michael Cantella, who works in the prestigious Wall Street firm Saxon Silvers and is an ambitious man until his rich life starts turning into a nightmare.

The book starts off in November 2003, with Michael going on a Saxon Silvers sponsored Caribbean cruise, along with his girlfriend Ivy Layton and his fellow investment bankers. When they board the cruise in Miami, Ivy immediately feels like she doesn't fit in with the gossipy girlfriends of Michael's work colleagues and suggests they charter a private cruise. To her surprise, Michael agrees and the love-struck pair even marry while enjoying their cruise. Shortly afterwards, Michael wakes up and Ivy has disappeared.

Fast forward May 2007, and Michael is married to his high school friend Mallory and still working at Saxon Silvers. Much to Mallory's annoyance, he secretly remains in love with Ivy, despite her disappearance.

Shortly following his thirty-fifth birthday, Michael wakes up to find out his investment portfolio has been wiped out--with his entire balance transferred to an off-shore account that he never had. As if that isn't enough, reports start circulating that Sexton Silvers is in trouble following the leak of information concerning its twenty-two billion dollars write-down of sub-prime mortgages.

At the same time, Michael starts getting accused of insider dealings and even of financially engineering Saxon Silvers ruin. The rumors are headed by TV reporter Chuck Bell, who has a ball destroying both Michael's reputation as well as the firm's, while refusing to reveal the identity of his secret informer.

Meanwhile, Michael receives a strange package that blows up in his hands and discovers that he's being spied on. Someone is out to ruin his life and destroy Saxon Silvers.

Overall, "Money to Burn" was an engaging read. I read the entire book in one day. Originally, I was drawn to this book because of its relevance to the recent Wall Street melt down. But setting non-withstanding, the book is filled with some powerful action sequences and plot twists.

Again proving that he's not a one-trick pony with his Jack Swytek series, James Grippando brings us a taut and timely thriller set in the Wall Street financial markets just before the collapse leading to the current recession.

Michael Cantella is a Wall Street wunderkind, riding high on the crest of the financial wave that's buoyed the country to staggering heights of prosperity, remarried after the tragic death of his first wife and living the good life.

But Michael's world is about to crumble around his ears, as all his money mysteriously vanishes, his job's in jeopardy, his wife dumps him and - worst of all - people start turning up dead.

Follow Michael in this superbly entertaining novel as he tries to unravel the thread of clues as to who's behind the destruction of his life. In a book filled with vivid and memorable characters playing out a plot filled with twists and surprises, you won't be able to put it down.

I couldn't.

Five stars.

I'd never read a Grippando novel before, but am always in search of a good corporate/financial thriller, which are so hard to come by. This one delivers in spades.

Short Summary: Suddenly,a successful Wall Street stockbroker has his complete life derail. His personal accounts are mysteriously wiped out, the multi-billion dollar investment bank he works for is suddenly on the verge of collapse with him being set up as the one who is causing it's demise, he's the subject of an FBI investigation and someone is trying to kill him. Who is seeking revenge against him and why? What does his dead former wife have to do with it? Can he stop them? Who can he trust? And, can he save his own life and the lives of those he loves?

It's a fast-paced, financial thriller that takes you on a roller coaster of intrigue, twists and turns that's well-worth the ride. Well-plotted and well-written, it also provides an interesting look at the post-9/11 financial scandals of Wall Street investment banks, deftly touching on timely topics from the Internet boom/bust and subprime mortgage debacles to Ponzi schemes and the collapse of leading institutions. It nicely ties all that together with an insightful view of the Wall Street culture that's driven these scandals.

While on occassion, for me, it went just a little too much over-the-top in a couple of "gun-slinging truly evil villian scenes" (particularly towards the end), that certainly didn't stop me from wanting to keep turning the pages or enjoying the tale he'd weaved!

Bottom Line: If you enjoy financial or corporate thrillers like Power Play, Top Producer: A Novel, Naked Option or Paranoia - you're definitely going to enjoy this one!

The author has created a believeable living Hell for its chief character and he never really lets up from the start to the end. Tightly written, well paced, this is a book which weaves its way to an ending which is appropriate and unexpected and when you can do that and keep the reader engaged, you have written a winner. If you ask why this is not a five star review I will only say that is a rareified rating for me and a four star is a book you need to read!!

Grippando did his homework for this riveting financial thriller. It starts out strong and only builds from there. It takes a real talent to play so well in so many different arenas. You would think Gripando grew up at Merrill Lynch not in the courts. This one is a must read. You don't have to know a thing about the industry to enjoy larger than life characters and page turning suspense.

Breaking away from his normal genre, James Grippando takes on the financial thriller and does an outstanding job.
Michael Cantella is a successful invester with the Saxton Silvers investment firm. When he and his new wife, Ivy Layton, also a wallstreet success, are sailing in the Bahamas, she mysteriously disappears and is eventually ruled dead when investigators find some of her body parts in a tiger shark. Several years later Michael is remarried. When logging on to his portfolio, he finds that he has been totally wiped out financially. Is it identity theft or is something much more complex?
Grippando has written a very topical thriller. Having just read Michael Lewis's The Big Short, I found it to be very entertaining and well written. The suspense is here, as is the action and depth you expect from this author.

"When the motive is revenge, you never really know when--if ever--they are going to call it even"

I couldn't put this book down. "A Novel of Suspense" is an understatement. James Grippando has really outdone himself. A very different book. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes suspense novels or otherwise. Just a great book.

Overall, this book is an enjoyable read and the storyline moves along. As a financial thriller filled with action and plot twists, this book is a good one, perhaps even very good. Unfortunately, the main characters, especially the "genius" financial whiz and the book's hero acts like a complete moron at every conceivable opportunity. He acts against his best interest, better judgement, and common sense more often than not. There is no way that kind of judgement would have resulted in him being a successful wall street trader and deal maker. To make matters worse, the author allows this character to tell the reader in first person that he is going to act against his better judgement and common sense in what seems to the easy way to drive the book from action scene to action scene. I lost almost all sympathy for him and his plight by the end of the book and I was just ready for it to end, not because it wasn't a good story, but rather because the main characters were just too stupid to be believable, and thus care about very much anymore. I also don't care for the fact that the author lies (or at least purposefully misleads) the reader in the book to keep the plot twists alive.

I've read several of James Grippando's novels and enjoyed them all but think he really has outdone himself in this one. I'm not going into the Synopsis of the novel as several have done that and if you read the inside cover you get the idea. I don't have the gift with words so will let those who do give the longer reviews.

When you think it's all happened to Michael, it gets worse. And Why?-who is behind all of this. That is what makes the novel interesting and fast paced-no dull chapters that drag. There are some interesting twists and turns and even some of the good guys, aren't.

I will have to admit to not understanding all the high finance world. I had some difficulty following all of that part but there still was so much else going on that it keeps moving nicely so even if you're not into Wall Street and high finance the mystery and suspense part if it makes it an excellent storyline and novel.

Mr. Grippando ties it all up well in the end and overall it's just a great read!

Wall Street hotshot Michael Cantella is having a really bad 35th birthday, and it is only going to go downhill from there. In the first 50 pages of this novel, there are two mysteries: a woman and a fortune have both vanished, although not at the same time. I guessed one of the surprises early into the book but won't spoil it but telling you whether my guess was correct. There were lots of unexpected twists and turns in the book. Backstabbing financiers, shock-jock TV financial reporters, less-than-honorable people everywhere, the all-too-familiar collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market. The characters I liked best were Papa and Nana, the down-to-earth grandparents who raised Michael, ants instead of grasshoppers who never trusted those "Fonzie" schemes.

For a mystery, this is a relatively non-gruesome story except for a character named Burn who had a little too close a relationship with gasoline. I even learned more about the reasons for the financial world's meltdown. Overall, this is a mystery I thoroughly enjoyed.