Top Producer: A Novel [Hardcover]

Norb Vonnegut (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2009

In a world that moves as fast as finance does, top producers have to think three steps ahead and make snap decisions. Theirs is a blurred version of reality, one that conceals moves as much as it rewards the bold ones. All too easily, scams can be disguised as success; plotting can be mistaken for killer instincts. And as Grove O’Rourke finds out, “Nothing obscures vulnerability like success. Nothing that is, except for friendships.”

But this book isn’t about stocks and bonds—it’s about people. About Grove O’Rourke, top producer at the investment firm of Sachs, Kidder, and Carnegie, and about his best friend, Charlie Kelemen, whose spectacular murder is carried out in front of hundreds of horrified party-goers at the opening of the novel. It’s about Charlie’s widow, who comes to Grove for help after her husband’s death, even though she’s hiding a dark secret. And it’s about how money—vast sums of money—can cover up even the most glaring imper fections in relationships, and fool everyone.

Well, almost everyone.

With the ease of someone who has lived in the world of top producers, NorbVonnegut has crafted a sharp, dark thriller that will make you think—and then double-check your investments.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Vonnegut's debut meets the gold standard for financial thrillers as it puts the frenzied, cutthroat world of Wall Street's best stockbrokers (aka the top producers) on brilliant display. Ripples from the bizarre murder of Charlie Kelemen, wealthy hedge fund operator, quickly reach his best friend, Grove O'Rourke. A top producer at the boutique investment bank Sachs, Kidder and Carnegie, O'Rourke tries to help Kelemen's widow sort out some financial questions. This process leads him deeper and deeper into a labyrinth of deceit. As fallout from Charlie's death and dealings start to taint O'Rourke, the sharks, inside and outside his own firm, smell blood and begin to circle. O'Rourke won't go down without a fight, and not all the blood in the water will be his. Vonnegut, himself a veteran fund manager, handles the arcane terminology and slang of Wall Street with aplomb, never letting it get in the way of the story. 100,000 first printing. (Sept.)
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Review

Praise for Top Producer

“Norb Vonnegut, who has made a career out of wealth management, pulls off a compelling thriller that centers on the murder of hedge-fund schemer Charlie Kelemen: He’s tossed into a public aquarium and munched by sharks…This novel ponders the age-old ramifications of greed, but Vonnegut gives it a fresh, timely twist.” –USA Today

"Vonnegut’s debut meets the gold standard for financial thrillers as it puts the frenzied, cutthroat world of Wall Street’s best stockbrokers (aka the ‘top producers’) on brilliant display. Ripples from the bizarre murder of Charlie Kelemen, wealthy hedge fund operator, quickly reach his best friend, Grove O’Rourke. A top producer at the boutique investment bank Sachs, Kidder and Carnegie, O’Rourke tries to help Kelemen’s widow sort out some financial questions. This process leads him deeper and deeper into a labyrinth of deceit. As fallout from Charlie’s death and dealings start to taint O’Rourke, the sharks, inside and outside his own firm, smell blood and begin to circle. O’Rourke won’t go down without a fight, and not all the blood in the water will be his. Vonnegut, himself a veteran fund manager, handles the arcane terminology and slang of Wall Street with aplomb, never letting it get in the way of the story." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Though it's hard these days to feel sympathy for investment bankers and stockbrokers, Vonnegut makes his irreverent protagonist someone we can root for as he pursues crooks who use the redemptive language of hedge funds to hide financial malfeasance. A promising debut.”
–Library Journal

"Norb Vonnegut's Top Producer begins where Liar’s Poker and The Bonfire of the Vanities left off and puts an electrifying spin on the winner-take-all culture of Wall Street. Turn to the first page and plunge into the shark-infested waters of high finance and greed." 
--Brent Ghelfi, ITW Award-nominated author of Volk’s Game and The Venona Cable

“A timely read as Vonnegut opens the kimono exposing the intricate cause and effect of finance and murder. He shares his well-earned insights and literary acumen in a manner that entices the reader to reach out for the next chapter.  A must for all investors wishing to avoid the next Bernie Madoff!"
--Joe Grano, Former CEO UBS/PaineWebber

“Norb Vonnegut makes a sterling debut in Top Producer, a financial thriller extraordinaire that reads like a 2009 version of Tom Wolfe s brilliant Bonfire of the Vanities for a world that has lost its taste for Wall Street excesses….A former wealth manager himself, Vonnegut paints a vivid picture of life lived between million-dollar trades. But he also writes with an aplomb that makes Top Producer a literary reimagining of the film Wall Street where murder, as well as money, never sleeps.” --Providence Journal-Bulletin (Rhode Island)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312384610
• ISBN-13: 978-0312384616
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #812,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A funny thing happened on Wall Street...

My name is Norb Vonnegut. I write financial thrillers and blog about money for The Huffington Post, Switzer in Australia and Acrimoney. Before turning to my career as an author, I worked in private wealth management as a stockbroker with Morgan Stanley, Paine Webber and other investment banks. It was there, knee deep in the business of finance, where I learned one absolute and irrefutable truth.

The people of Wall Street are characters. They're a ready mix of quirks and edgy humor. They speak in tongues, and their escapades make them the perfect fodder for irreverent fiction. Their behavior, so ordinary on Wall Street, can border on the bizarre anywhere else. You'll see what I mean inside the pages of Top Producer, The Gods of Greenwich and my novels that follow.

So after two decades in the trenches, I traded money management to write thrillers about fictional stockbrokers, traders and hedgies. My villains are a blend of pure fiction and people I heard about or read about through the years. You'll find themes like friendship and betrayal in my novels, lots of backstabbing as I describe financial scandals and gravitate toward stories about underdogs who prevail against overwhelming odds.

You don't need a background in finance to understand what makes my characters tick or the mistakes they make. There are no stock tips in my novels. But you might gain a few insights from a Wall Street color commentator--that's me--as you board a roller coaster ride of fiction that could be fact.

I graduated from Phillips Exeter in 1976, Harvard College in 1980 and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1986. These days, my family and I split our time between New York and Narragansett, Rhode Island. I'm an avid cyclist and volunteer with the American Foundation for the Blind as a member of the Board of Trustees.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars stomach churning, May 31, 2009

By 

M. S. Butch (Katonah, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Top Producer: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

If you've ever thought about selling securities for a living, this book should make up your mind; that is, if you accept Mr. Vonnegut's vision of the business. I would have enjoyed "Top Producer" just for that nightmarish vision, but there's a lot more.

Here's the set-up: Grove O'Rourke is a top salesman at a big brokerage house. When his best friend dies in a strange incident, he agrees to help the widow, also a long-time friend, and the former roommate of Grove's dead wife, to wind up the decedent's business. Stuff happens.

I can't say a lot more without spoiling the fun, but the story races by, filled with back-stabbing colleagues, evil in-house lawyers, and ordinary thugs, none of whom want Grove to complete his mission. The author's expertise in the business is apparent in every vivid and miserable detail of Grove's daily life and, of course, in the unraveling mystery at the heart of things.

I read "Top Producer" cover to cover and enjoyed every minute. My one real criticism is that some of the characters don't make a lot of sense, and the resolution would be more satisfying if a little more thought had been put into them. (I apologize for the vagueness, but again, I don't want to give the story away!)

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserves to be a huge bestseller, June 20, 2009

By 

HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Top Producer: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Before you start reading TOP PRODUCER, clear your calendar. You're not going to want to put it down until you finish the last page. This book has everything going for it to become a huge bestseller and, eventually, a hit movie.

The novel is centered on Wall Street at the present moment in time. How much of this story was inspired by recent current events and how much, independently, was the product of a fertile and informed imagination is impossible to discern from the tale.

Yet how the plot came to be hatched is irrelevant in the reading. This is a brilliant work.

Author Norb Vonnegut displays an insider's knowledge of the trading world, making it come alive for an outsider. At times, the narrative almost approaches a primer on investing.

The mystery opens with one of the most imaginative (and repulsive)murders in the history of fiction. At a quick pace, it moves on to stock manipulation and Securities fraud, complete with partners-in-crime, double-crosses and triple-crosses. A couple of characters are implausible but not impossible ... and even the greatest writers sometimes rely on coincidence to advance their stories, as Vonnegut does here.

He has crafted an intricate and compelling plot that achieves the ultimate thriller status, keeping one absorbed way into the wee hours of the morning. And, best of all -- and rarely true in popular fiction -- Vonnegut displays immense command of language. Taken together, TOP PRODUCER is a winner in every sense.

Don't miss this one!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars interesting twist on whodunit murder mystery, highly recommended!!, July 19, 2009

By 

D. Richardson "thegirliestgirl" (Houston,TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Top Producer: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Top Producer presents an interesting twist on a whodunit murder mystery. Grove O'Rourke is a young investment broker and one of the top producers at a famous investment firm in New York. When his wealthy, free-spending best friend is killed at a lavish birthday party in an extremely bizarre way right in front of him and 500 other guests, he wants to know why. When his friend's widow pleads poverty and asks him for help in untangling their finances, the search for answers becomes urgent. The friend ran a one-man investment company and covered his tracks well. Grove starts digging, first for the widow's sake and later on behalf of other investor/friends who want to know where their money is. Adding to his anguish about his friends's murder, he also feels guilty because he suggested the location where the murder took place. He is also still suffering from the sudden death of his own beloved wife and child 18 months earlier.

I found the book very intriguing on a lot of levels, examining friendships, which are not always what we think they are, the mysteries of investment finance and how someone's reputation and livelihood can be destroyed almost instantly. I actually found the information on intricate finance/investment and brokers' strategy, which is the backdrop to the story, more interesting than the murder, which I solved long before the end (I knew who, but not why). Throughout the story, Mr. Vonnegut provided brief explanations on arcane stuff like hedge funds, selling short and margin calls, in layman's terms so even someone like me, who knows very little about investment finance, could understand. Although I had some minor quibbles with the book, they were not sufficient to detract from the overall story. This was a solid read; I look forward to his next book.