Frontrunner (Paperback)

The characterizations of the two main persons are also good. You don't expect the hero in a thriller to be a single father who spends a lot of time worrying about his children, nor do you expect the heroine to be a woman who was abused by her father. I like it when the characters in books are described as real people instead of being shallow clichés.

But now, unfortunately, I'm running out of positive things to say about this book.

The story starts out good but there are two serious problems. First, there is no really nasty bad guy that you can hiss and boo. The world's stock markets go into a tailspin but it's more or less just by chance, not because of the manipulations of some sinister and greedy villain. So the hero and heroine have to save the world, but without the benefit of a nasty opponent.

The second problem with the story is that towards the end of the book the author creates a situation that is obviously very contrived. The hero and heroine are trapped on the island of Bermuda and are being threatened by a couple of nasty and unscrupulous characters, but the way in which they get trapped and the extent of the threats (just enough to provide some tension but not enough to really create a panic) is so artificial that I practically lost all interest in the story.

Another problem is that I found it unrealistic that so many of the characters in the book were corrupt and unsavory. The Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board is cheating on his wife and so stupid that he thinks you can trust blackmailers. The Governor of the Bank of England is corrupt enough to try to make a personal killing out of the international stock market rescue effort. The Governor of the Bank of Japan is engaged in expenses fraud, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority faked his college diploma, and the President of the European Central Bank is passing insider information to a lover. Maybe I'm naive, but I don't think this large a percentage of top businessmen are unethical.

Then there's a technical quibble that I have regarding the way in which the hero creates an Internet web page to unmask the bad guys. It's possible, although very unlikely, that our hero could learn how to use Microsoft FrontPage by just reading the manual, and learn how to use a scanner and an FTP program through trial and error. But then we're told that this web page, which contains dozens of scanned pictures, got one million "hits" during one day! That would give a bandwidth usage of several gigabytes, which is enough to bring any ordinary web server to its knees!

Finally, I found the author's writing style, with very short sentences and clever quips, to be somewhat irritating.

In summary, very good information about the global stock markets, good characterizations and a fairly good story until it becomes too contrived. But by the time you reach the end of the book you feel that the problems outweigh the good points.

This book is so long, and with so many characters that Kilduff's potential for excellent writing was far too diluted. It also suffers from a peppering of corny lines, e.g. "She knew he was ready to trade." I really can't imagine that thought entering the mind of a dealer, and I have worked in the City.

The book moves at a pace and has a mature insight and reflection on the personal to get you hooked and caring: Jonathon's (the protagonist) wife's death from cancer and the pressures he suffers bringing up two children on his own, whilst holding down a consultancy job. Nikki, his PA, was a star and the book would have benefited from more of her quirky outlook on life.

Jonathon is sent to Hong Kong to investigate the trades going through his old firm Mitchell's, particulary purchases by ABC, a supposed hedge fund (but without a rogue trader where's the thrill?) In Hong Kong Jonathon meets his first frontrunner, Lauren, who we'll come back to later - after she's been sacked of course. The rogue trader in New York commits suicide, ABC goes down the pan and global markets plummet. Markets are like that, nerves act like a virus.

The leaders of the world's main banks decide on a strategy to push the market back up. Along with Jonathon's boss - a sophisticated and poised cuticle-obsessed Swiss with an underlying greedy and exceptionally sick nature - a couple of them decide to frontrun their own strategy and make the millions/billions they lost on their "secure" investments in ABC. (Why none of them decided to murder the king pin of that fund is lost to me - surely that much money turn would them, unless they had so little left they couldn't afford the hit man.) Anyway, to frontrun they turn to the two experts (for different reasons) with whom we are familiar - Jonathon & Lauren. Set up on new lucrative and secretive assignments in Bermuda with a number of trusts to play with, they quickly work out that all is not what it originally seemed...

I think the dynamics of the market and the products could have been better explained for the mass market. But if you think of the Barings & Leeson debacle and skip, you'll be relatively OK. If you're good with names then you should manage to keep up with all the characters. Some appear cameo, but actually become integral to the plot or the downfall of the main characters. Hideously greedy and status conscious bankers, who will stop at nothing, are darkly illustrated. And if you're into global travel plans, whether by air or car across Europe (Frankfurt to Italy), then this book provides a nice travel guide.

I was disappointed at the beginning, but stuck with it. Overall it lifted by the end. Something tighter would have lifted it to the standard of his earlier work.

A decent read, but not Kilduff's best.