YUPPIE SCUM

Eighties-rich University of Pennsylvania alumni chase each other around Manhattan, looking for the fiendish former friend who ran off with their life savings and one of their wives. The pseudonymous author, who works for a ``major investment bank,'' comes down hard on his co-workers and on the recent, unlamented decade of mergers and acquisitions. Larcenous software and powerful laptops made it possible for nasty Mitch Myerson to worm his way into the private bank accounts of his old college roommates, who trusted him with their personal investments. Plundering every last cent and electronically transferring the stolen millions to offshore banks, Myerson now plans to leave the country, taking with him the sex-goddess wife of wimpish computer-manufacturer Jeff Wheaton, richest of the ex-chums. Wheaton, hearing that his beautiful trophy has flown, first exorcises his grief, taking an expensive golf club to the wedding presents, then organizes his fellow fleecing victims—good- guy lawyer Brian McPhillips, Ford-Mazda dealer Chuck Beekman, and nasty, retired Master of the Universe Bruce Mazzola—into a posse, buys them all Amtrak tickets, and leads an expedition to the Big Apple, where he's sure his honey has flown to do some last-minute shopping before leaving the country. He's right. Rachel is charging up a storm, leaving a trail of credit slips that Wheaton—with a business partner's help—picks up. There are several near-connections, fistfights, trips to the Tenderloin, a couple of murders, and then one of those Stunning Reversals for which one reaches when there are pages to fill. Heavy-handed and rather preachy.