Ridpath, Michael Books

Fatal Error

Michael Ridpath

List Price: $14.45 By: Penguin Books Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $8.36

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fatal Error - a thriller in four parts 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

"Fatal Error" is a thriller built up in a rather special way.

Part 1 (chapters 1 and 2) takes place in London in Sept. 1999. An unknown assailant kills the chairman of the dot-com startup company featured in the story.

Part 2 (chapters 3 - 23) takes place in France (July 1987), Scotland (June 1992) and London (April - Aug. 1999). In other words, this part of the book consists of flashbacks that provide background information for what happened in Part 1. But the 1987 and 1992 flashbacks are interwoven with the 1999 flashbacks, so you are kept on your toes all the time. As expected (this is a thriller), a dead body turned up in both 1987 and 1992, and in neither case was the killer identified, let alone apprehended.

Part 3 and Part 4 (chapters 24 - 40) take up the story where Part 1 ended, i.e., London, Sept. 1999. Is the new killing related to the killings in 1987 and 1992? Who is sending the anonymous threatening e-mails? Will there be more killings?

The fact that almost half of the book consists of flashbacks and that the flashbacks are not presented chronologically actually heightens the excitement. However, I did find myself compelled to go back and reread Part 1 after finishing Part 2 in order to reestablish the flow of recent events in my mind.

The story is based in the heady dot-com entrepreneurial days in the late 1990's. New companies are going from zero to a stock market valuation of billions of pounds in the space of a year or so. The youthful employees are becoming millionaires and the bosses are willing to do whatever it takes to crush the competition and get a successful IPO (Initial Public Offering, i.e., getting on the stock market).

Note, however, that although "Fatal Error" is a story based on the building up of an Internet company, that the technology aspects are not the most important. Similarly, even though the financial implications of starting a company and getting venture capital financing and going to the stock market are important sides of the story, they are not the most important factors.

Instead, "Fatal Error" is basically a traditional thriller about a psychopath who has killed and is willing to kill again, and the danger this person represents to the people around him/her.

I found the book quite intriguing and enjoyable, especially due to my own background in the IT business. Surprisingly, I did not find any errors in the author's descriptions of how IT companies function and how web sites are built up. The discussions of the financial aspects also sounded correct to me, and they should be since the author has a background at an international bank in the City of London. This added to the overall credibility of the whole story.

In addition, the characters in the book seemed quite believable, with perhaps one exception. Incidentally, the story is told in the first person, but it is very well done so you hardly notice this normally problematic style.

My only major complaint is that the ending seemed too contrived. Were it not for that I'd be giving five stars to "Fatal Error".

A highly recommended thriller, especially if you're interested in the IT business and/or the financial markets.

Rennie Petersen

Final Venture

Michael Ridpath

List Price: $12.40 By: Penguin Books Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $1.43

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Michael Ridpath knows how to follow the money, something he did quite successfully in his previous financial thriller, The Market Maker. In Final Venture, his protagonist is Simon Ayot, a likable young British associate at Revere, a venture capital company whose senior managing partner, Frank Cook, is also Simon's father-in-law. Simon has just pulled off a major coup for the firm, so when Frank abruptly denies a life-or-death round of further investment in NetCo, Simon's most promising high-tech client, he's completely surprised. Could it be that Frank believes the rumors floating around that Simon's been having more than business meetings with a woman in the firm? Vowing to dispel the rumors and change Frank's mind about dumping NetCo, Simon goes to the Marshes, Frank's country house, only to find him murdered. The police don't believe Simon's alibi, and soon even Lisa, his wife, is suspicious.

Meanwhile, the firm is still reeling from Frank's death. Its biggest investment in BioOne, a biomedical research firm, is in trouble, and Simon's attempts to get to the bottom of it reveal a corrupt link between Revere, BioOne, and the pharmaceutical company where Lisa is employed, which suddenly becomes a takeover target. Ridpath does a good job of explaining the arcane details of venture capital financing, but makes little of his setting (Boston) and even less of character motivation. In the absence of enough evidence to arrest Simon, it's difficult to believe that Lisa would suddenly turn on her brand-new husband, and her lack of insight concerning her own father's private life seems strange in light of their supposed closeness. The writing is sometimes clumsy, but readers interested in the intricacies of high finance in the venture capital market will find this a good primer on the subject. --Jane Adams

Free to Trade

Michael Ridpath

By: Harpercollins Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

DULL DULL DULL 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I've read some overhyped novels in my time, but this one takes the biscuit. This man CANNOT WRITE, and in fact, from the evidence of this book cannot even punctuate.

Suspence? None. Particularly since the blurb on the back jacket of my copy says "his crusade for an explanation results in his being framed for murder, accused of insider trading and left to find twenty million by lunchtime." which 1, is in fact the entire plot, and 2, doesn't actually *happen* until page 330 (of 420)! (If you're interested, pages 1 to 330 are taken up by deadly explicatory bond meetings where people keep saying things like, "Okay. So, how exactly do you sell a junk bond?" and the characters say "okay, it's like this, blah blah blah- oh no! I've told you too much!")

Avoid. There are some brilliant stock market books out there, but this is not one of them. Oh, and note to the author: denoting one of your characters as Scottish by having them say 'Laddie' at the end of each sentence is not just completely inaccurate but shallow and demeaning, too. Okay, old chap?

Editorial Review:

When the death of an attractive colleague and the details of a suspicious investment arouse the curiosity of a young bond trader at a small London financial house, he becomes caught in a web of international chicanery that could cost him more than his career.

"It is the author's insight into the complexities of the business that gives his novel so much life. And he can write.... Yes, he has a winner here." --The New York Times Book Review

The Predator

Michael Ridpath

List Price: $14.45 By: Penguin Books Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $2.22

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The Marketmaker

Michael Ridpath

List Price: $6.99 By: Signet Amazon Marketplace: 63 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Enjoyable but not realistic 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I found the Market Maker to be an enjoyable diversion but not very believable. It seems unlikely that a new hire like Nick would be assigned to travel to South America after a couple days on the job. Furthermore, the main character's ability to influence high level financiers, escape injury and escape captivity were truly remarkable. Maybe he should have also had X-ray vision. Yet, I found the book hard to put down. Free to Trade was better but the Market Maker served its purpose.

Two Stars for the laughable collection of clichés. One stop shopping! 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Let's use some analogies.

Michael Ridpath's "The Market Maker" is to "Global Bond Markets" as "The DaVinci Code" is to "The Catechism of the Catholic Church."

Here is a list of similarities between Ridpath's fictional world and the real world of sell-side or buy-side of fixed income trading.

1) Nothing.

Okay, they both use the word "bond" but after that, the differences drop off so precipitously five mathematicians have gone mad trying to map the decay function.

Next analogy: Michael Ridpath's "The Market Maker" is to "Thriller" as "The 120 Days of Sodom" is to "Nursery Rhyme."

This work reads like an old MadLib, or a Novel-O-Matic. Our [hero], a [poor] fellow has a stroke of [luck]. He enters [glamorous world] with a [powerful father figure] who is [rich]. He soon is [befriended] by [backslapping comic relief] and meets [beautiful girl] and finds himself [attracted to her]. Soon [mysterious] events occur that involve [money], necessitating [relocation to a glamorous location], where [sudden, unexpected violence] occurs. Our hero discovers that [beautiful girl] is [rich too], but hides it because she desires [powerful autonomy] from her own [father] figure.

Next analogy: Michael Ridpath's "The Market Maker" is to "Engaging" as "Dora The Explorer" is to "Complex, intricately crafted psycho-drama."

Future editions should place a detachable barf bag between pages 20 and 21. If you ever, in desperation, purchase this in an airport bookstore, be sure to search for same from the seat pocket in front of you before subjecting your eyeballs to this tripe stew of formulaic, cliché-ridden, pablum. As the late Truman Capote said "That's not writing. That's typing." But since Ridpath dictates his books, we'd have to say it's babbling. "Gaa gaa goo goo....bond, ......bond market go `poopy!' Big diaper poopy! Phew!"

Trading Reality

Michael Ridpath

List Price: $6.99 By: HarperTorch Amazon Marketplace: 108 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Less foreseeable than "Free to Trade" by Ridpath 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The book really keeps you up all night. It has less brokering stuff then "Free to Trade" what makes it even more interesting. Ridpath manages to combine the two areas of brokering and virtual reality but keeps it near real life. The classic ending of an english criminal story of gathering all suspects in one room to make the murderer reveale himself, is varied in a fascinating way.

Better than Frey but that's not saying much... 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is my third try at reading a financial thriller, and so far I'm not impressed. Something about the blandness of the financial world goes badly with conventional, creaky thriller plots maybe. This is less financial than FREE TO TRADE and a lot better than the dreadful efforts of Mr Frey, but it still badly lacks an edge, or a sense of attack. It laps up the world of high finance with breathless enthusiasm (all those HUGE sums of money being moved around - how thrilling! Or is it?). The result is pretty flat and dull.

Editorial Review:

Mark Fairfax is a young, gifted London bond trader with a high-paying job, a stellar track record, and a beautiful girlfriend. His older brother, Richard, owns FairSystems, a small company poised to do for the virtual reality world what Bill Gates did for personal computers. Then one dark night Richard is brutally murdered in his workshop. And everything changes as Mark steps into Richard's shoes--and his life.

On the Edge

Michael Ridpath

List Price: $26.85 By: Michael Joseph Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 4 new & used starting at $7.35

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Free To >>> Trade: An Unprecedented Financial Thriller Of Internationsl Proportions, By Michael Ridpath, The Book On Abridged Two Audio Cassettes, Performed By Simon Jones

Michael Ridpath

By: Harper Audio Amazon Marketplace: 1 new & used starting at $6.98

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Editorial Review:

"FREE TO >>> TRADE: AN UNPRECEDENTED FINANCIAL THRILLER OF INTERNATIONAL PROPORTIONS BY MICHAEL RIDPATH, THE BOOK ON ABRIDGED TWO AUDIO CASSETTES, PERFORMED BY SIMON JONES: Paul Murray is a junior bond trader at the prestigious De Jong & Co. in London. Apprenticed to a cold but brilliant senior trader, Paul's career is on an international fast-track and he's enjoying every bit of it. That is until a female colleague turns up face down in the Thames, and Paul sorts through her files. When he discovers that the dead woman had found something fishy about one of the firm's investments, Paul begins to think a murder may have taken place. As he probes deeper, he finds several questionable individuals, all with reason for wanting..." [from case]

The Marketmaker

Michael Ridpath

Amazon Price: $84.95 List Price: $84.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: ISIS Audio Books Amazon Marketplace: 3 new & used starting at $8.07

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Boring 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Boredom pervades this book-- it's one long lecture. We get told the population of Sao Paolo - in first person! We get told how financial markets work. We get told the mechanics of kidnapping. We even get told what the hero is eating all the time.

All this telling is even worse when it comes to the story: to have any depth characters need to revealled through their actions, not the author's limited descriptions. Conversations are stilted. And lines like "Pushkin touches my soul" are anything but deep and meaningful.

The real mystery is how this boring guy:

1) attracts all the girls, 2) gets invited to be part of big deals without experience, because he observed something obvious, and 3)gets taken along (with gun) to take on the baddies

The ending is implausible. A suprise, yes, but not at all possible given the "bad guy's" actions throughout. (enough - don't want to reveal all)

As for the City, the idea that you can destroy a smart guy who would jump to a fierce competitor by saying bad things about him couldn't work.

Yes, fiction has to be bigger than life, but there needs to be a thread of plausibility, and it needs to be -- interesting!