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Title: The Set-Up by Paul Erdman ISBN: 0-312-96805-1 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 December, 1998 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.18 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Paul Erdman's best to date
Comment: I love financial thrillers and have read most of Paul Erdman's fiction, but this is by far the best. Not only does he expertly take the reader through the world of derivatives investing and international banking, he paints a picture of Switzerland from Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse to the most remote parts of the Alps that makes you long to get on a plane and go there (and I have been there--it's worth it). The plot moves fast, from the point of view of every character; his knowledge of German, Swiss-German and Italian is impeccable, and the story culminates in an around-the-world chase that keeps you from putting the book down. I can't wait for his next one.
Rating: 5
Summary: "The Set Up" is pure Erdman!
Comment: I was a young GI in Germany in 1969 just learning to appreciate "the Trib." I remember one article that caught my eye: a young American banker working in Basel at the sub of a California bank was arrested for trying to corner the world cocoa market! He failed miserably, and in the process wiped out his employer's equity base. As if the young banker, named Paul Erdman, did not know enough about Switzerland already, he was to learn more, from many months inside a Swiss jail. I next noticed Erdman several years later. He had written a novel, "The Billion-Dollar Sure Thing." I read it and liked it, and later learned that he had begun his novelist's career in that Swiss jail. Erdman's subsequent novels have never disappointed. He is the master of the financial thriller, an unfortunately under-populated genre. "The Set Up," like all of Erdman's fiction, takes place largely in Switzerland. Charles Black, former Chairman of the U.S. Fed, is arrested at the Basel airport as he enters Switzerland. (Erdman reminds us, as he never fails to do, that Basel's airport straddles the Swiss/French border.) He finds himself in the maws of the Swiss power structure, comprised of a hundred or so rich and powerful Swiss men who are, in Erdman's eye, as amoral and as slimy as any in the world. No Swiss Heidi-types here. (Had Erdman been successful in cornering the cocoa market he would have been hailed, not jailed, by this group for furthering the cause of Swiss chocolate!) To divulge any more of the plot would be cheating. Suffice it to say, there is lots of (1)German- Swiss bashing,(2)Deus ex machina that stretches credibility, and (3)untranslated "Schwietzer dooch" and other languages. There is also a woman/mate of the male hero who is sharper than the hero himself. This theme is present in most Erdman novels. Erdman has produced eight novels in a quarter of a century, about one every three years. When I haven't seen one for a while, I start looking in book stores. This year I did something different: I searched for Erdman at amazon.com. Sure enough, he'd written a new book which I ordered immediately. The several days it took to arrive in the mail was an eternity as I anticipated reading a new Erdman. It arrived, and did not disappoint. Erdman remains at the top of his form!
Rating: 4
Summary: Erdman at His Best
Comment: If you like financial thrillers, you can't go wrong with Erdman, and he's at his best here. Usually the loose ends of "thrillers" bother me for years after I've read them; years after I've read this one I still admire the neat way he ties everything up nicely.
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Title: Numbered Account by CHRISTOPHER REICH ISBN: 0440225299 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The First Billion by CHRISTOPHER REICH ISBN: 0440234697 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 29 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Insider by Stephen Frey ISBN: 0345428285 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 28 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Runner by CHRISTOPHER REICH ISBN: 0440234689 Publisher: Island Books Pub. Date: 09 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Devil's Banker by CHRISTOPHER REICH ISBN: 0385337272 Publisher: Delacorte Press Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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