BANKROLL

Banking expert Ducker (Rule by Proxy, 1976; Failure at the Mission Trust, 1986) cooks up a souffl‚ of a book in which footloose (recently divorced and resigned) financial consultant Spector decides to chase boredom by embezzling $1.7 million from the Empire State Bank. Spector's plan involves creating a Chinese box of false identities. As fellow Swarth-more alumnus Roger Weedman, he lands a job house-sitting for Chicago millionaire Edgar Parish and his wife. As Parish, he arranges a substantial line of credit from Empire State, gets pursued by Chicago neighbor Carol Kittredge, and romances bank officer Cynthia Olive, while arranging a Mexican investments scheme to launder the proceeds. As Cyrus MacNeil Reade (altered from the name on a passport that Spector steals from a men's room at Kennedy Airport), he jets to Switzerland, marks time while setting up a receiving company for his loot, and gets friendly with obnoxious Kit Humphrey and his inevitably attractive wife Devon. As Kit Humphrey, he tries a last-minute scheme to fleece Kit of another million. No matter: quick-witted Devon follows him to London, recoups the money under Spector's eyes, beds him in the bridal suite at Claridge's, and sends him on his way back to New York--where Cynthia, piqued at losing her job on Spector's account, deans him out completely. An overinflated short story, as light and nutritious as a balloon.