Customer Reviews

Numbered Account

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

Nick Neumann has what, at first glance, appears to be the perfect life. The former U.S. Marine just graduated from Harvard Business School and has joined the fast-paced world of Wall Street. His girlfriend is beautiful, the scion of an incredibly wealthy family. But Nick does have one problem: the unsolved murder of his father weighs heavily on his mind.

His father, murdered almost twenty years ago, worked for the secretive Swiss bank USB. And so Nick decides to follow in his footsteps: to move to Switzerland, join USB, and determine whether the trail can be followed or whether's it's gone cold.

Within days of joining USB, Nick finds himself entangled in a nightmarish conflict. The "Pasha", USB's premier client, is moving ever larger sums of money through the bank in seemingly nonsensical fashion. The DEA, investigating large-scale money transfers through USB, begins squeezing Nick for information. And an attractive vice president at the bank seems to be paying very close attention to Nick's activities.

This is Reich's first book and is, simply put, masterful. While its length (750 pages) is daunting, Reich's firsthand knowledge of the Swiss banking industry is invaluable and enlightening. I can almost guarantee that you'll be swept into this ambitious and fulfilling story: revenge and terror mixed into a near-perfect concoction.

This novel was compelling enough to keep me reading through until the end, even though it ran to over 700 pages. That said, however, Numbered Account is not especially memorable in terms of plot, characters or suspense -- all things that make reading for entertainment a worthwhile pursuit.

Nick Neumann is a likeable enough character, but he somehow didn't inspire a lot of passion from me in terms of whether or not he survives his situation and goes on to live a productive life. *Spoiler coming up.* And the fact that he ends up with his former fiance, Anna, is neither surprising nor very interesting since we never really get to know her and she never actually appears in the book.

I'm just not that curious about Swiss banking procedures to rate this story any higher than a 3. This is the kind of paperback that, should you find it lying around the vacation condo on a rainy day, you would pick up and read, but don't go out of your way to purchase it.

Maybe Reich's other books are more engaging than this one, given that other reviewers have awarded more stars than I. Somehow, though, I doubt I'll ever find out because Numbered Account just didn't get my number, so to speak.

"Numbered Account" is a very good book: the plot is interesting and the more you go on with it, the faster you want to turn pages. Although the beginning may be a bit slow, Reich makes his best when he describes the Swiss bank system, and it is almost as if you could hear the steps of someone entering one of these huge Swiss banks that look like ancient temples with their own codes and laws. The characters have enough depth and it is absolutely intriguing to enter the world of the private banking in Switzerland. The country is well described, while the emotional conflict of the main character is nicely outlined. It is evident that the author has a great knowledge of Switzerland, its banking system, and he has great skill because he managed to mix a potential boring theme like banking with a pacing personal war of Nicholas Neumann, the main character. Definitely a book that is worth to be bought and read.

There is much to like about this book. I loved the beginning where the main character's incorporation into a secretive Swiss bank built wonderful anticipation and created an interesting atmosphere. I was certain I was in for a memorable reading experience. But as I finished the book, I found myself strangely disappointed. The last 200 pages were a bit of a chore. The main problem with this book is simple - it's too bloody long! At least 100 to 150 pages should have been cut/condensed/tightened. The ending was not worth the interminable build-up. Also, the characters were schizoprenic. One moment Nick and Sterling Thorne are hating each other, the next they are slapping each other on the back like old chums. Sylvia was dispatched with all too quickly, as if the author just wanted to get rid of her. It was confusing. Also, Mehlevi seemed to become more and more cartoonish as the book progressed. I found myself not caring at all about the bank takeovers - who cares if one greedy, immoral banker beats out another greedy, immoral banker? There weren't enough characters in this book to really care about. There were so many twists and character flip-flops it was almost as if, in an effort to be unpredictable, the author purposely made everything good bad, and everything bad good. Whatver the desired effect, I feel it partially backfired. And Nick lying to the DEA and Swiss authorities justso he could POSSIBLY get a crack at Mehlevi made him look unbelievably reckless. This book is worth reading, despite its length, but overall I was simultaneously satisfied and relieved to finish. Too many things went awry in the last 200-300 pages, and the book was just far too bloated. But worth plowing through - once!

At the beginning the story is riveting, however during the second half of the book, there are many twists not too credible at all, "the hero is like superman" figthing thugs, which makes the end somewhat disappointing

Reich gives us an eye-opening look into the world of those notorious numbered accounts that very wealthy people use to shelter their money. How many of those super rich acquired their assets in less-than-legal enterprises? In this exciting story, a major depositor turns out to have a strangle-hold on the top officers of a Swiss Bank, who have always known that this man, known only by his number to to the lower-ranking bank employees, is a major heroin dealer using the bank to launder his money. They just don't care, and the laws of Switzerland protect the secrecy of bank data.

I enjoyed the European setting of the story, with most of the action taking place in Zurich, a city with both luxurious headquarters of major financial institutions and squalid sections inhabited by pathetic junkies. The action also takes us to Beirut and gives us a look at the book's villain, who thinks nothing of killing people he finds inconvenient, or who present an obstacle to his sick plans. The book is possibly unfair to Islam, in painting this man as sometimes pious, but always deadly. His twisted plans include using his money to launch an attack on Israel (shades of bin Laden!).

The characters are mostly believable, although I found Nick a bit too macho for my taste. He understandably wants justice for the murder of his father, but his actions at times are vicious. The plot sometimes seemed overly involved, and the motivation for Nick to leave a comfortable and planned-out life in New York for Zurich seemed at times weak, as did certain elements of the ending. The story features many flashbacks, which the author handles quite well, and which do help us see why Nick reacts as he does. We're given a panoramic picture of this young man's life.

The plot moves along, with new intrigues and double-dealings piled on one another, but the strongest reason to read this book is if you are curious about Swiss banking, as I was. The picture presented here of Swiss values is not very flattering. I can't be sure that Swiss bankers are quite as morally bankrupt as presented here, but I did catch the flavor of a country where banking is the main business and the government naturally wants to protect an important industry that provides its people with good jobs. At one point in the novel, a character laments that the Swiss now have competition in "private banking" from places like the Caymon Islands. It seems the crooks have choices, and the Swiss will have to keep offering special services (like secret numbered accounts) to keep those deposits coming. We can only hope reality is not quite this bad.

Numbered Accounts is a long book that definitely requires an investment on the part of the reader. The book is similar to a Tom Clancy novel in that you get flooded with details on how the Swiss banking system works. If you don't mind that, then you will enjoy the detail. Still, the book seemed to be about 100 pages too long.

Nick Newman goes to work with United Swiss Bank to find out why his father was killed. Then you throw in a terrorist using the bank money to buy a nuclear weapon and a takeover attempt by a rival bank, and you have the plot in a nutshell. I honestly considered quitting reading this book around page 250, but then the action picked up.

Author Christopher Reich takes his time in revealing the motivation, fault and crimes of the characters. As he slowly reveals more, I became drawn into Nick's fate. Nick finds himself in an incredibly complex situation and has to fight his way out of it using both brains and force.

This book is a business thriller and so the love interest with Sylvia Schon wasn't that interesting. I skipped over most of those parts. A previous reviewer said he felt cheated by Riech's treatment of this relationship. I didn't because I had my suspicious about her from the beginning. Reich could have perhaps made more of Nick's relationship with Anna, although he does give glimpses of the depth of their relationship.

The plot twists are pretty straightforward and the action is exciting. Perhaps one weakness is that the villian Mevlevi is introduced quite late in the book and it takes awhile to care about the scenes he is in.

Overall this is good book with average characters, but a highly detailed plot. A must read for those interested in the financial thriller genre.

I a gree with the nameless reader from Chicago. Plot moved too slowly characters were predictable and completely unsympathetic. The whole thing was a ludlum-esque overkill. Skip it.

751 pages of good reading. Meet the main characters: Nick Neumann,former marine,Harvard,worked briefly for Morgan Stanley. Takes position at United Swiss Bank in Zurich. On a mission to avenge his father's murder. Wolfgang Kaiser,Chairman of USB. A man with many dark secrets. The mysterious drug dealer Pasha who launders huge amounts of money thru USB. This book keeps ones attention quite nicely thruout the rather long,but quite exiting well thoughtout plot.

I was very attracted to this book before reading it cos it spoke about banks' whirling-money world and, since I'm attending Finance courses (I'm just studying on the book mentioned in this one!) I thought it could be interesting. It is, indeed. It mixes really well banking thecniques, love stories, revenges and omicides, all in the serious and impeccable facade of Swiss banks. The novel is quite long, but your attention is quickly captured and you'll often say:"Ok, just only one more chapter" while you'll read at least 3 or 4 more instead! It is very well written, we can easily tell not only Reich deeply knows the financial system but he knows, as well, how to create a sophisticated cobweb of intrigues you'll desperately want to work out.