Silent Partner [Mass Market Paperback]

Stephen Frey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2004

Summoned under mysterious circumstances to meet Jake Lawrence, one of the world’s richest entrepreneurs, Angela Day may be on the threshold of a brighter future. The reclusive multibillionaire is planning a takeover of a hot, new company—and he wants Angela to apply her considerable skills in banking to make sure it all goes smoothly . . . and secretly. In exchange, Lawrence promises to use his formidable influence to permanently reunite Angela with her son, whom she lost in a custody battle to her adulterous, connected ex-husband. It’s the one reward for which Angela would risk everything. But with enormous wealth and power comes the ultimate price tag. For enemies everywhere have marked the man for death. And anyone close to him—namely, Angela Day—is fair game.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Financial chicanery is Stephen Frey's forte, and in his newest thriller (following The Insider and The Day Trader), he sets up one of the world's richest men and a young bank executive, who's trying to wrest custody of her son from her well-connected ex-husband, in a sting operation to expose blatant racism in the mortgage practices of a big Virginia financial institution. Angela Day, whose African American college roommate died in her arms after a racially motivated attack, is a gutsy and appealing woman whose life is turned upside down when she gets involved with Jake Lawrence, a billionaire with his own reasons for wanting to expose the corruption at the core of the bank that employs her. When he offers her the chance to get her son back, she plunges into a world of double-dealing where nothing and no one are what they seem and everyone's motives are suspect. Some of the coincidences strain credulity, and the characters are too one-dimensional to care about, but Frey makes the most of his convoluted plot and wraps up the details with an unexpected love story. --Jane Adams --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Veteran financial thriller writer Frey (Trust Fund; Day Trader; etc.) returns with another novel of greed and intrigue set in the back corridors of finance. Angela Day, an up-from-the-trailer-park young executive on the fast track at Sumter Bank in Richmond, Va., is summoned to a Tetons hideaway, lair of the reclusive and powerful moneyman Jake Lawrence. Lawrence wants Day to help him take over Sumter Bank and oust Day's boss, chairman Bob Dudley. There is no love lost between Day and the despicable racist Dudley, who schemes to keep blacks out of white neighborhoods by denying them loans; helping Lawrence would mean lots of money and a golden career for Day. But it also puts her life in danger, and she finds herself carelessly used as a pawn by both men. Toss in a muckraking black reporter friend of Day's, whose presence stirs her guilt over the horrific death of a black schoolmate at a college frat party, and a cowboyish bodyguard (complete with ten-gallon hat and pocket flask), and you have the makings of a television movie. Frey is best describing the internecine workings of financial institutions and those who manipulate them, but it's hard to spin an exciting yarn out of mortgage applications, especially when a stereotyped cast of hopeful black homeowners is pitted against nasty Southern good ol' boys. Frey's unremarkable prose ("How could humans be so awful? Why couldn't they just get along?") doesn't help.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345443276
• ISBN-13: 978-0345443274
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #861,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Frey is a managing director at a private equity firm. He is the bestselling author of fourteen previous novels, including The Fourth Order, The Insider, and The Takeover. He lives in Florida.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Weak Unrealistic Plot, May 2, 2005

By 

Michael L. Slavin "HardBopper" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Silent Partner (Mass Market Paperback)

Story starts off well enough as two inseparable girl friends attend a Carolina college fraternity party that goes bad. One of them, naturally the one who was reluctant to go the party ends up being attacked by drunken brothers and as she tries to save herself she falls out a window and dies. Believe me these nine pages are gripping. It's straight downhill from there. The author seems totally fixated thruout the rest of the book in totally unbelievable characters. There seem to be racists and bigots absolutely everywhere. This was really a painful read to get thru.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Snort!, April 1, 2005

By 

Ohng - See all my reviews

This review is from: Silent Partner (Mass Market Paperback)

They snort, they scream, they roll their eyes. Experienced readers will recognize that any of those things are a bad sign. Here we have all three, sort of like a bad day at the bull paddock. Eventually I simply lost interest but my impression is that top level bankers are prepared to kill, die, and otherwise go crazy for? You guessed it, mortgage descrimination by evil white guys!!! Oh, and they all seem to gulp bar wine. And the heroine is a brave, intrepid bank executive who is afraid to fly. And the hero? Well, it would be unfair to those of you who might like this book. Actually for aficiandos of bad writing who are willing to spend an hour skim reading it is not a bad deal.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars the pages drip with 2nd rate sex, December 26, 2005

By 

clifford "akitonmyers" (Portland, OR, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Silent Partner (Mass Market Paperback)

The prose here is increadibly choppy. It breaks and starts like a second graders first story. In many ways this is some of the worst writing that I have encountered in some time. One of the other reviewers here said that "the first nine pages were gripping and that its all down-hill from there." But I disagree. I think that from the outset, the plot is tortured in its absurdity. The death that Angela witnesses is contrived and sets up a very idiotic racism bent that seems to prevail throughout this book. I think that if you are going to touch on a subject like racism these days you are going to have to treat it with a little more respect than as a 3rd rate plot device.

Beyond the campy racisim, you have strong figures that are as 2 dimensional as can be. I mean, these figures here are straight out of every bad book you have ever read. It is like the author has combed old books and bad movies searching for the prototypical bad guy.

Avoid this book like the plauge. It is very very bad.