Customer Reviews

Nest of Vipers

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you are into Grisham and Stephen Fre, you will definitely like this book. It is well paced, and the character is really feisty. Personally , I liked the book, and was very satisfied with the characterization displayed.

You'd think from the overwhelming number of suspense thrillers on the market with male lead characters that only guys could get out alive. What? Women can't live adventurous lives, foil the bad guys, and make good money along the way? Linda Davies has created an original character, a fun, fast-paced story, and a great vacation or "escape from thinking about your own life" story. I read this in London one very hot summer and enjoyed every moment of the book. I am sad that Ms. Davies hasn't written more. If you're looking for great literature, look elsewhere. But if you don't mind the "story over meticulous writing skills" of the leading suspense and legal thriller writers, you'll enjoy this book.

I read this book in a day, and I just couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed the female heroine. I used to be a stockbroker in Denver, and really enjoyed the female heroine, and the vicarious thrills of her life!!!

great story line, couldn't guess the ending. A pleasure to read!

In the opening pages of the novel, Linda Davies' character Sarah Jensen is pronounced "perfect" by the Director of the Bank of England. This means trouble. Smart and strong (physically & emotionally) women are Davies' speciality. See also Widerness of Mirrors with its Vietnam setting and Into the Fire, for a breath-taking trip to Manchu Pichu.

nb Get the Brit edition if you can, where the female hit-person is a lesbian. The American edition morphs her straight. Shades of Jerry Falwell?

I enjoyed getting an inside view of the international finance market

Linda Davies is an incredibly good author! Her stories are truly intriguing, well written, they keep you riveted, and her plots are fascinating. I have read all her books, after discovering "Nest of Vipers", and wish she would write more!

I was really enjoying Nest of Vipers until the last 50 pages. The ending was unoriginal and boring, ruining a plot that had real potential. Same situation with the main character. A good protagonist ruined by a lousy ending. The author shouldn't of rushed to complete the ending. The book would have been a lot better.

This book features Sarah Jensen, a young, gorgeous, exceedingly bright (When are we going to have a book about an ugly, old not-so-bright heroine?) currency trader who is asked by the British version of the Federal Reserve President to go undercover at a trading house and see if they are using inside information to make millions of pounds. Much trouble ensues.

The female lead is a little too well-connected (she always knows just the right person to help her when she needs something) and I was kind of bugged that the characters used dollars and pounds interchangeably in their financial wheelings and dealings. Maybe that's the reality of international currency exchange and the power of the United States. If so, "Go USA!"

Back to the book - It's better than reading nothing, but you might want to read an old National Geographic instead.

Sarah Jensen is young brilliant and mysterious, just the sort of person the authorities need to penetrate a byzantine conspiracy involving the global currency market. However, the conspiracy is just the tip of a deadlier plot, one that will take any step needed to protect itself from disclosure. Okay.....

This has to be one of the worst books ever written. The author injects much experience into her character - perhaps too much. (like her heroine, author Linda Davies is a striking and apparently successful currency trader). The book is written not only for those who understand the dynamics of currency trades, but really care beyond the obvious implication that the millions at stake are really important. For the rest of us, Sarah is just a cardboard character, surrounded by jealous colleagues who desire her for her looks and envy her knack for amassing a lot of money in a short amount of time. The facets of the conspiracy are poorly defined. The novel really never starts at all - just cuts between various shadowy characters who stand to make or lose fortunes, and will stoop to anything. Davies spends much time on telling us how unsavory some of these types are, but doesn't really care about what they do. What really stands out is how seriously Davies takes not only the premise but her storytelling skills. This is just another example of the sort of thriller we can thank Grisham for inventing - the guy who discovers that his lucrative but humdrum job actually veils something dark and interesting. Instead of lawyers, we have currency speculators. I suppose accountants are next (hey - CPA's sent Capone to Alcatraz!!). As long as readers are willing to believe that an author's experience on any subject is adequate substitue for storytelling - willing to accept minutiae in place of narrative - there will always be writers ready with books so enwrapped in meaningless technicalities that we won't realize how bereft of plot they really are. Absurdly pedestrian prose don't help. If I were in the business, I'd say this book was pegged to some defunct former east-bloc currency.

I'd suggest something lighter, like Po Bronson's "Bombardiers", a sort of M*A*S*H set in a San Francisco bond house where the most certifiably crazy brokers are also the richest.