“Norb Vonnegut’s TOP PRODUCER begins where LIAR’S POKER and THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES left off.”
Brent Ghelfi, ITW Award-nominated author of VOLK’S GAME and THE VENONA CABLE
TOP PRODUCER On Wall Street, deals change, friends become enemies, enemies become friends—and you just might get fed to the sharks. In a world that moves as fast as finance, top producers think three steps ahead and make snap decisions. Theirs is a blurred version of reality, one that conceals motives or rewards bold moves. All too easily, scams can be disguised as success; plotting can be mistaken for killer instincts. And it’s all fun and games…until someone gets hurt. For Grove O’Rourke, top producer at the investment firm of Sachs, Kidder, and Carnegie, his job is his life. His friends are his colleagues, and his best friend, Charlie Kelemen, is legend—larger than life both in the business world and in body mass, known and liked by everyone. At least it seems that way, until his spectacular murder is carried out in front of hundreds of horrified party-goers. When Charlie’s widow asks Grove for help after her husband’s death, Charlie’s legend begins to crumble, and even his widow is hiding a dark secret. Still reeling from the death of his friend, Grove stumbles upon a web of false statements and forged documents, a web of people whose lives drastically changed the instant they signed a dishonest deal. And what he discovers is how money—vast sums of money—can cover up even the most glaring imperfections in relationships, and fool everyone. Well, almost everyone. Norb Vonnegut spent more than twenty years in finance with iconic investment banks including Morgan Stanley and Kidder Peabody, big commercial lenders including Chase Manhattan and Citibank, and most recently with an asset management boutique—the kinds of places making headlines every week. In Top Producer, he brings us into the fast-talking, high-risk world he knew so well to chronicle one man's journey through betrayals of trust. To find out the truth Grove must risk it all, and as the stakes climb higher and higher, Grove finds out that money isn’t the only thing he could lose. Vonnegut’s unique insider’s perspective and his intuitive, darkly humorous writing are the key elements that make this a smart, sharp and gripping suspense thriller that digs deep behind the dirty dealings and scams of Wall Street’s elite. |  Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books Trim: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches PRE-ORDER |  Shout ‘n Share, Kaite Stover, Kansas City PL Librarians know times are tough. We’re seeing all kinds of new readers, some of them former financial industry employees. For all those patrons who spent their days wheeling and dealing on Wall Street, or in the banks’ counting house counting all the money, even those who thought Bernie Madoff got off light, comes a story set in the high-stakes world of finance written by one of its own. The novel opens with a grisly shark-infested murder at the Boston Aquarium which puts hero Grove O’Rourke’s life and career in jeopardy. As Grove scrambles to solve the murder by following the money, he uncovers scam after scam. A detailed ticker-tape quick thriller about where all the dollars go, what the money is hiding, and whose hand is in the till. Norb Reading from Top Producer |
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