Money to Burn: A Novel of Suspense [Hardcover]

James Grippando (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 2010

At thirty-one, Michael Cantella is a rising star at Wall Street's premier investment bank, Saxton Silvers. Everything is going according to plan until Ivy Layton, the love of his life, vanishes on their honeymoon in the Bahamas.

Fast-forward four years. It's the eve of his thirty-fifth birthday, and Michael is still on track: successful career, beautiful new wife, piles of money. Reveling in his good fortune, Michael logs in to his computer, enters his password, and pulls up his biggest investment account: Zero balance. He tries another, and another. All of them zero. Someone has wiped him out. His only clue is a new e-mail message: Just as planned. xo xo.

With these three words Michael's life as he knows it is liquidated, along with his investment portfolio. Saxton Silvers is suddenly on the brink of bankruptcy, and he's the leading suspect in its ruin. Michael is left alone, framed, and facing divorce, with undercover FBI agents afoot, spyware on his computer, and mysterious e-mails from a "JBU." Embroiled in corporate espionage, he's desperate to clear his name and realizes that several signs point to his first wife, Ivy, as a key player. But what if Ivy has come back from the dead, only to visit on Michael a fate worse than death?

With echoes of The Firm, James Grippando's newest thriller takes readers to the inner circle of Wall Street, illustrating the very real dangers of what Warren Buffett called "financial weapons of mass destruction."

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Grippando's overwrought financial thriller gives its hero, Michael Cantella, almost as rude an awakening as Kafka's Gregor Samsa. Scandals involving subprime lending, short selling, and Ponzi schemes provide a timely backdrop. On the eve of his 35th birthday, Cantella goes from being a star performer at a premier Wall Street investment firm to a financially wiped-out victim of identity theft. His Job-like troubles are just beginning as the fallout not only rocks his second marriage and his firm but sets him up for a life on the run. Grippando (Intent to Kill) keeps the reader guessing why Cantella specifically is targeted and how the vicious and relentless personal attacks relate to the unexplained disappearance (and presumed death) of his first wife on their wedding day seven years earlier. Despite a few plot holes, the dramatic tension remains high with a sadistic hired killer, high-stakes wheeler-dealers, and plenty of cinematic escapes. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Grippando’s new stand-alone has a setup that feels a bit familiar: an investment banker impulsively marries his girlfriend, who promptly disappears; several years later, he’s shocked to discover that all of his accounts have suddenly been wiped out, the funds transferred to an offshore bank via an account set up in his dead wife’s name. Luckily Grippando is a skilled writer (his stand-alones are generally more interesting than his Jack Swyteck series), and he works enough variations on the familiar theme to keep us guessing. The novel’s protagonist, Michael Cantella, is a solidly defined character in the business-thriller mold, and the supporting cast ranges from coldly manipulative to warmly—but perhaps deceptively—friendly. The plot is mostly straightforward but with enough small twists and unexpected shifts to keep readers from feeling like they’ve read all this before. Recommend this one to fans of Joseph Finder’s Paranoia (2004), Company Man (2005), or Power Play (2007)—all novels in which the hero is suddenly cut adrift from his friends, his colleagues, and his sense of his own life. --David Pitt --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (February 23, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061556300
• ISBN-13: 978-0061556302
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #539,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After twelve years as a trial lawyer with Miami's most prestigious law firm, James Grippando is now a national best-selling author of thirteen suspenseful thrillers in as many years, including Lying with Strangers, When Darkness Falls, Got the Look, Hear No Evil, Last to Die, Beyond Suspicion, A King's Ransom, Under Cover of Darkness, Found Money, The Abduction, The Informant and The Pardon. His first novel for young adults, Leapholes, was published in 2006, as well as his first short-story, Operation Northwoods, which appeared in the critically acclaimed Thriller anthology. His novels are enjoyed worldwide in twenty-four languages.

James's first job out of law school plunged him headlong into death penalty cases. That experience was an inspiration for his 1994 debut novel, The Pardon, a legal thriller that critics heralded as a "bona fide blockbuster." Beyond Suspicion (2002) was the long-awaited sequel to that first novel, and it launched an exciting new series that features Miami criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck and that critics have heralded as "John Grisham meets Robert Ludlum."

As a lawyer, James was an avid writer. His numerous scholarly articles appeared in some of nation's top law reviews, and they are frequently cited with approval by the courts. His trial practice ranged from complex corporate litigation to class actions on behalf of chicken farmers. As a frequent volunteer in Florida's guardian ad litem program, he helped provide legal representation to neglected children in family court proceedings. He was a faculty member with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at Nova Southeast University. He was named by Florida Trend Magazine as one of Florida's emerging leaders, and in 2006 he received the Distinguished Author Award from Scranton University. His alma mater is the University of Florida, where he graduated second in his undergraduate class and earned his law degree with honors. He now serves Of Counsel to David Boies' law firm, Boies Schiller & Flexner, LLP.

James lives and writes in Coral Gables, Florida, and he is married to Tiffany, who has been his unofficial editor since book one.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars entertaining, February 23, 2010

By 

Alla S. - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Money to Burn: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

"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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grippando Outdoes Himself, March 3, 2010

By 

Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Money to Burn: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars FOR ANYONE WHO ENJOYS A GOOD FINANCIAL OR CORPORATE THRILLER!, February 26, 2010

By 

J. Lee "imajeel" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Money to Burn: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

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!