Need You Now

Starred review from October 31, 2011
A Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff proportions drives this winning financial thriller from bestseller Grippando (Money to Burn). Abe Cushman, “a former chairman of the NASDAQ stock market and a force on Wall Street trading for nearly fifty years,” commits suicide just hours before he’s supposed to report to federal authorities on charges of massive securities fraud. Upwards of $60 billion has disappeared, and some very dangerous investors are extremely upset. Dragged into the hunt for the missing money is Patrick Lloyd, “the junior member on a team of high-net-worth specialists” at the Manhattan office of the International Bank of Switzerland, along with his fellow BOS employee and former girlfriend, Lilly Scanlon. Grippando slowly reveals the twists and turns of his intricate plot while fueling the proceedings with a steady supply of action. A solid ending will leave readers wondering if the author has come up with a solution to the real-life Madoff mysteries that still remain.

Jonathan Davis's rich voice and deliberate pacing are a perfect pairing for this thriller. The mastermind behind a sixty-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme is dead, but two billion belonging to some very nasty types may have been siphoned off and hidden. A young Wall Street investment banker who has secrets of his own to guard and his equally secret-ridden girlfriend are up to their good-looking necks in danger while trying to find the money before the villains add them both to their growing body count. Davis's acting skills and ability to use slight tonal differences to make each character distinct are icing on the cake of a great story. A.C.P. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine