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Title: The Marketmaker
ISBN: 0140271775
Author:
Michael Ridpath
Publicate Date: 1999-04-29
Publish: 1999-04-29
List Price: $14.45
Average Customer Rating: 2.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $1.86
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
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1: Exciting enough, but somewhat unrealistic and irritating
"The Marketmaker" is a thriller by British author Michael Ridpath and set in the financial world of investment bankers and bond traders. The basic idea appeals to me because I'm curious about the financal business world and the people who work in these high-paid jobs, while at the same time I like being excited by stories of murder and mayhem.
The story in "The Marketmaker" is about Nick Elliot who joins a London bond brokerage company that specializes in Latin American bonds. Soon after he starts Nick discovers that a former employee was killed in Caracas and that there are suspicions of the laundering of drug money via secret bank accounts controlled by the company. Then, during a visit to Rio de Janeiro, Nick is attacked and almost killed himself!
Nick falls in love with Isabel, a fellow employee. Together they try to determine what is going on. Is the boss aware of the money laundering? How about the boss's nasty brother, who works as the company's "enforcer"? Then, on another trip to Rio, Isabel is kidnapped!
There is no doubt that "The Marketmaker" is exciting, a good thing for a thriller. In addition, I liked the descriptions of how bond traders and investment bankers work and live. And I loved the descriptions of Brazil in general and Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in particular, especially the contrasts between the beautiful neighborhoods where the rich live and the terrible shantytowns where the poor live.
Unfortunately, there were quite a few aspects of the story that I found very unrealistic, and I dislike books where I can't believe in the story. I could go into detail but that might spoil the story for potential readers so I'll refrain.
Another problem for me was that I found the writing rather irritating at times. Nick Elliot tells the story in the first person, and I got very tired of his stream-of-thought recitals of how he could justify to himself some of the things he did. His hypocritical justification for getting revenge in a way that misused the trust of his two best friends and jeopardized their well-being was especially trying.
Still, "The Marketmaker" is a fairly good read, and I do like reading exciting thrillers set in the world of business and high finance. It's just too bad that it was so unrealistic and irritating.
Rennie Petersen
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2: A first rate book: Ridpath's best yet
I really enjoyed this book. It held my attention from start to finish. Easy to read, gripping and interesting.
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3: Nothing like Free to Trade
Ridpaths third novel is further evidence of a downward trend. The main character Nick is not someone who generates reader sympathy. What are we to make of him when he ditches his girlfriend in a critical scene mid way thro' the book? Or when he makes a play for his best friends wife? Nick is also naive in the extreme eg "What exactly is money laundering?". Nick is a drip who should have stayed in acedemia - why was he hired for his Russian expertise when no use of this is ever made by his bank? All the characters have faces which "redden" - even middle aged folk? Basic errors abound - Lord Kerton is about forty - then ten pages later he is near retirement age? The dialogue lacks conflict. The prose is laboured and pedantic. As someone else has mentioned - who can believe that a lone English guy can take on the Brazilian drug lords? Nice cover though.
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4: A formula too far....
This thriller is a little like a throw-back to the 1970s. The trouble is, the author's heart doesn't seem to be in it. Long lectures about financial matters, culled from financial journals, the internet or The Economist really don't make for a good novel, thriller or no. This story meanders slowly and predictably through a kidnap plot, adding a South American flavour, but none of this livens up a very tired idea. A disappointment.
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5: Boring
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!
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