Customer Reviews

The Successor (Thorndike Core)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the fourth book in this series.Our hero is once again Christain

Gillette.He was elected Chairman of Everest by one vote.Since being the chairman he has had phenomenal sucess at making money for the firm.

In this newest book there is once again a plot to do Christain in.Victoria Graham,the chairperson of PennMu and members of the Washington D.C. power trust have hire Melissa Hart to get close to Christian Gillette and keep them informed of his plans.Victoria Graham and her cohorts have also hired Steven Sanchez a contract killer to deal

with Christian Gillette.

Christian Gillette is called upon by President Jesse Wood to act as a laison in Cuba.Wood is the first black American President.Cuba is about to undergo a coup.Wood wants Christian to talk to the leaders of the coup,

a group called Secret Six.Victoria Graham and her coconspirators want to use this event to nail President Wood and Christian for their part.They

want revenge on Christian for stopping the nano technology plot.

This would have been a good book if you would have left out the Cuba

plan.This dropped the book several levels.Our friend Quentin Stiles was also killed in this latest book.I hope that Frey goes back to writing good business books.

This is the fourth in a series and although other reviewers have said the predecessors are better, I do not think I will indulge. I did not think this book was very good.

The premise of this book is that a rich capitalist is, for some unfathomable reason, picked by the president to decide if a group of revolutionaries in Cuba are the right ones to accomplish a coup. Getting there is apparently the trick. As absolutely loveable as this icon of capitalism is, it is somewhat - and only somewhat - apparent that there are at least two groups who want to kill him. When and where and why are all left to the last pages. There are women all over the place fawning over him and yet possibly conspiring against him. Very little makes sense for the first 198 pages. The book is written with glances at all the characters a few pages at a time. These glances are as disorganized as the rest of the book. I am not sure why this is described as a "thriller". It was a hard journey to get to Cuba with many asides that did not add to the plot or the characters.

The characters are all cardboard cut-outs. How's this for an original character? The icon's best friend is his black security director who was saved from gangs by his grandmother who enlisted him in the Army. Of course, he was Special Ops and then retired to go into private security. That's about all the depth you get of him. No character had any particular depth, which you would expect from a fourth book in a series.

In the end, the parts do come together. The coup is accomplished in about 2 1/2 pages and Gillette, the star, is only in country for about 8 pages. It did not seem as if Mr. Frey knew how to get from point A, the assignment, to point B, the coup in Cuba. He tried to get all sorts of intrigue with love and spies, but it just didn't work. Just to complete the formulaic nature of this book. At the end, the star leaves, waling into the sunset. Literally.

I would suggest passing over this book. If you want corporate intrigue go with Finder's books and skip this one.

I liked the first few Frey novels of high finance and the people who deal with money - good and especially the bad, but now I have the feeling that I am re-reading the same book over and over. The writing is adequete, and the characters are interesting, but sorry to say it seems to be the same plot over and over. The author has come to a point where he needs to stretch a little more or risk losing his audience.

This book continues the downward spiral of the Christian Gillette series, unfortunately. It started out with so much promise in "The Chairman", but this book effectively demonstrates that this storyline is on life-support. I mean - honestly - Christian Gillette hired by the president as part of a plot to restore order to Cuba after an American action to overthrow their government? I didn't realize Vince Flynn was a ghost-writer for Stephen Frey!

The way the book was written, it's almost as if the author even knew that he extended this series too far, which is why I look forward to a much better follow-up.

I normally like reading Stephen Frey novels, and have enjoyed the Christian Gillette series over the past couple of years, so much so that I've overlooked some of the shortcomings in the writing style, and character development skill of the author.

However, this novel has to be one of the most poorly written I've read in a long time. Also, although politically I'm a moderate (sometimes I'm a Democrat and sometimes I'm a Republican), I find it amusing that the author in at least the last two Christian Gillette series, would depict all Democrats as the good guys and people who really care about their fellow man; while all Republicans are depicted as evil, heartless, racist against minorities, in league with big business, and whose main agenda is to maintain the status quo. This type of storytelling is of course geared towards one political leaning class of readers, however most level headed and fair minded people will know that the depictions described in the novel are much too simplistic.

The nagging feeling that there is an unmistakable political agenda in the storyline that the author presents to us is all too powerful. Reading this novel gave me the impression that the author was more concerned with trying his best to sell me a bill of goods: to think Democrat and to vote Democrat (which I may or may not)...but in doing so, he forgot to add basic key elements required in any story --- good character development.

Then again, the question remains, how can one develop multiple "complex" human characters in a novel, when one apparently clearly appears to see his readers as simplistic human beings?

And that's my "take".

Having thoroughly enjoyed all of Mr. Frey's excellent financial thrillers I was sadly disappointed with the SUCCESSOR. The characters are not credible and the plot implausible. (It's almost as if this book was written early on and not fit for printing, but, with the success of all the others just thrown in to make a few bucks.

Let us hope the author gets back on track; he has provided all of us many hours of excellent diversion.

The Successor continues the saga of Christian Gillette and his co-worker, Allison Wallace. Christian believes at this point in his career, he needs to do a patriotic act for his country. The leader of Cuba has died and when the President of the U.S. offers him a chance to go to Cuba to support a group of Cuban professional in a coup to take over the government, he agrees to the challenge. However, during the planning of this escapade, there are plots and counter-plots, one of which is to kill Christian Gillette. Meanwhile, on the corporate front, he plans to promote Allison to vice-chairman in the event that he doesn't survive this "secret" mission. The action moves from one plot to another and keeps you in suspense as to whom are the really "bad guys." I thought the ending was a little abrupt and disappointing, but it is a good read and definitely keeps you on your toes.

I have always liked Stephen Frey's books, but this one seem to be hum drum. The logic behind main character Christian's actions is subpar and naive for a tough, savvy wall street executive. Blah and disappointing ending.

Well, well, well, it's all over for Christian Gillette. I read all four books in this series and, at least, I hope it's over.

If I could turn back the clock and not have had to read the last 15 pages of the book, I would do so.

An absolutely miserable, formulatic ending that Frey obviously had no idea how to wrap up. It took 275 pages to set up and 10 pages to reach a climax that never really occurred. And the ending's ending was woeful, I wasn't expecting to get a Hallmark card and, wouldn't you know, there it was, plasterd all over the final 3 pages.

As well, one of the main, and outside of Gillette, the most important, characters is killed off with a few words and very little substance. It was miserably anticlimatic and, way worse, totally unnecessary and he nothing to do with advancing the plot or allowing the story to reach its final resolution. It was kind of tossed in as an aside, as a matter of fact.

That's how you treat characters the readers spend multiple books reading about and getting to know?

Terrible job by the author and it really left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth about the whole series.

Vintage Frey with megabuck investments, self-serving politicians and by-and-large clever story of international intrigue. But this cocktail doesn't mix well with Christian's ad-nauseam midlife crisis despairs. How this man ever passed top-secret security clearance is beyond me -- he's a classic setup for a honeytrap! No wonder he was dropped as presidential running mate ... not because of skin color (as he believes), but because of obvious emotional instability.

That the NYC coroner and the NYPD buy into the suicide note by his under-performing partner thrown out of a 37th-story window is hard to believe. Better turn that hedge fund over to Allison, your newly appointed vice-chair, before the whole company collapses in scandal! Christian's long-winded, repetitious and uninteresting midlife crisis may be a troubling hot personal issue to the author, but belongs in a pop-psych novel rather than a thriller. Just count the number of times "I just love older men" is repeated by various women half his age. Christian ought to heed his own advice to an alcoholic partner -- take a paid leave to enter rehab. I would no more invest 25 billion (yes, that's what we are told) into Everest Capital, than I would put 25 bucks on this book.

This physician's recommendation is that patient see a shrink soonest, start antidepressants, enter rehab, and say lots of prayers for his author; Christian certainly shouldn't be entrusted with our Nation's deepest secret meddling in post-Castro Cuba at this stage of emotional upheaval. That hot Havana honeypot could well turn into one nasty international honey-bucket.