TIMOTHY'S GAME

by Sanders Lawrence ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 18, 1988

The Timothy Files (1987) was bottom-drawer Sanders, and this sequel is even weaker: three heavily padded novellas, all featuring ""the Wall Street dick,"" gawky slob Timothy Cone of Haldering & Co. (which provides ""financial intelligence"" to its clients). The first tale, ""Run, Sally,"" is the most readable of the three--because the viewpoint switches back and forth between Cone (a vulgar bore) and likable villainess Sally Steiner (vulgar but lively). Sally, co-director--with father Jake--of Steiner Waste Control, has come up with a do-it-yourself insider trading scheme: when her trucks pick up trash from a financial printing house, she goes through it, finds confidential data relating to upcoming mergers and takeovers. . .and thereby makes big bucks by buying soon-to-soar stocks. Meanwhile, Cone, hired by an investment-banking firm that realizes there's a leak somewhere, quickly figures out what Sally is up to. But the plot goes nowhere fast, and a subplot--about Mafia types who went to take over Steiner Waste Control--soon fizzles too, with a surprisingly limp fade-out. ""A Case of the Shorts"" is a more straightforward, and totally routine, whodunit. John J. Dempster, CEO of a big conglomerate, is gunned down, execution-style, the most serious in a series of assaults on Dempster-Torrey, Inc. Cone, asked to investigate the pre-murder sabotage, rounds up the usual suspects--Dempster's assistant-cum-mistress, his flaky wife, his faintly shady brother, etc.--and eventually fingers the obvious culprit with an obvious motive. Nor is ""One from Column A"" much fresher. Chin Tung Lee, aged CEO of White Lotus (a canned Chinese food company), hires Cone to find out why the price of White Lotus stock has been mysteriously rising. Could the answer be linked to the killing of a Chinese Mafia chieftain? Or the sex-secrets of Lee's young new wife? Or the kidnapping of Lee's smirky son? (Cone teams up with a FBI-man Johnnie Wong to rescue the kidnapee.) Again, the final revelations are completely predictable. Some stock-market devotees may be mildly engaged, especially in the first episode, by Sanders' mingling of trendy Wall St. scams with formula mayhem. Everything else here, however, is tired and out-of-date--from the shtick-y N.Y. vernacular (dirty talk circa 1955) to the pulpy narration to the cartoonish, stereotyped characters.

Pub Date: July 18, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION