A Shark Out of Water: A John Putnam Thatcher Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

by Emma Lathen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
At first glance, a banker-as-private eye seems a less than scintillating choice for a mystery novel's hero, but it doesn't take long for Emma Lathen's protagonist, John Putnam Thatcher, to win the reader's heart and mind in Shark Out of Water. Putnam, a Wall Street banker, is in Gdańsk trolling for new investment opportunities when a whistle-blowing member of a European consortium turns up dead. In the course of solving the murder, Putnam also delivers a neat explanation of international finance, which is nearly as fascinating as the crime itself. Money, murder, and an exotic setting--Lathen delivers the goods with style and panache. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"The Agatha Christie of Wall Street." -- -- L.A. Daily News

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (November 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061044601
• ISBN-13: 978-0061044601
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #265,432 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner for Lathen, April 2, 1998

By	A. M. Sulkin (wayne, nj USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Shark Out of Water: A John Putnam Thatcher Mystery (Hardcover)

The latest John Putnam Thatcher book continues the trend of focusing less on Thatcher and his fellow bank associates, and more on third party participants in the murder and mayhem going on around Thatcher. The European locale adds flavor to the plot; the internal politics of a unified western Europe organization makes for interesting reading. Readers know what to expect from Ms. Lathen, and will not be dissapointed. Hopefully the series will continue despite the death of one of the two co-authors using the Emma Lathen pseudonym.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As terrific as always, November 26, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: A Shark Out of Water: A John Putnam Thatcher Mystery (Hardcover)

An environmental disaster has struck Germany^Rs Kiel Canal whena fogcauses numerous collisions and oil spills. Due to the accident and the high degree of shipping through the canal, the German government is thinking of taking out a loan to rebuild and widen the canal. The myriad of insurance claims that follow the aftermath and the potential German project are both being handled through the Baltic Area Development Association (BADA). Wall Street, ever interested in a good deal, dispatches John Putnam Thatcher to Gdansk, Poland to learn whether it pays to invest in the canal renovation deal.

However, the simple business transaction takes a nasty turn when a BADA official claims to have uncovered fraud within the organization. Immediately after the announcement, the official^Rs battered corpse is found and the murder of his lover shortly follows. The Polish police officer Oblonski turns to Thatcher to help him muddle through the world of international finance to uncover the identity of a fiscal murderer.

A SHARK OUT OF WATER is the twenty-third book in the Thatcher series and surprisingly with all of those novels, the current story is a refreshing tale. Thatcher is a great character and the story line is filled with self deprecating irony as Emma Lathen laughs at the slapstick efforts of governments and international corporations capitalization of the former Soviet Union. The who-done-it is well written, but it is the intricate glimpses into the wacky, weird, almost mystical, world of international finance that turns this into another great Thatcher novel. Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars Great to the last., March 31, 2009

By	Colin Glithero "nedalleyn" (Auburn,WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sadly, this was the last book in what is, for me, one of the wittiest, best-written, classiest, downright finest series of mysteries. Emma Lathen was the pseudonym of two writers who, amazingly, wrote alternate chapters. Lathen sets her stories in locations and situations in which John Putnam Thatcher, bank vice-president, can plausibly be at the center of the action. In this book he is in Europe for a Baltic economic association meeting. Boring? Confusing? Not in Lathen's hands. Tensions, well-etched characters, murders forecast and unexpected, an excellent solution, shrewd and often very funny observations on people and life, distinguish all Lathen's books, from the first ,Banking on Death, to Shark out of Water. Ideally you should read the series from the beginning, but any one of them is great. Buy, read, and enjoy.