FEDERAL

Langeraar’s engaging debut thriller offers a tale of mystery and financial intrigue.

As the novel opens, bond trader Stephen Vinson is in the middle of a covert operation in a Seattle mall. He is being followed by an Interpol agent who wants a thumb drive full of important and confidential information that Vinson is holding. The mission goes awry when Vinson makes a crucial mistake—one that leads to the grave injury of his adult son, Anthony. The novel then jumps back three years to provide the history that led to this tragedy. The delivery of two stock certificates to the wrong person set off a chain of events that forced Vinson to confront a past he’d been trying to hide: his time as a drug trafficker wanted by Interpol in Europe. Vinson is a fixed-income dealer, which puts him in contact with high-stakes trades across companies and countries, and he soon finds that he’s not the only one who has secrets—and that financial dealings aren’t always as honest as they seem. This thriller will likely hook readers from the get-go, although the action does slow down somewhat after the opening scene. Langeraar takes readers into the depths of Wall Street, the Federal Reserve and international corporate corruption, but he makes sure that readers who aren’t steeped in the ways of finance will understand the action. Langeraar’s writing style is clear, energetic and steadily paced, and his dialogue rings true. He also enriches the story with his 30-plus years of real-life experience as an international commodities trader and investment banker, as when he tells readers that the ultimate show of respect on the trading floor is silence—not handshakes and high fives.

A well-paced, enjoyable financial thriller.