The Capitalist

December 14, 2015
Steiner’s disappointing fifth Louis Morgon thriller (after 2012’s The Resistance) finds the 70-plus ex-CIA operative living in a small town in France’s Loire Valley with his lover and companion, Pauline. When Pauline’s money manager brother, Jean-Baptiste, who works in New York City, commits suicide after realizing that he lost all of his clients’ money after being duped by St. John Larrimer, an unethical investment banker described as “Madoff on a slightly smaller scale,” Morgon attempts to locate Larrimer and the $3 billion that the crook stole. Morgon realizes that some of Larrimer’s victims are relentlessly tracking him, including a Russian mobster who will stop at nothing to get his money back. Though previous installments have been subdued, this entry offers little action, minimal tension, and none of the narrative richness that readers have come to expect in this series. Hopefully, Steiner will return to form next time. Agent: Jennifer Lyons, Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency.

December 15, 2015
When a retired CIA operative goes after a Machiavellian investment expert, it's personal. Premier New York investment banker St. John Larrimer wears Savile Row suits, serves on the boards of the city's leading nonprofits, and is amassing a fortune by bilking his millionaire clients. He openly disdains Bernie Madoff as rashly greedy; Larrimer steals by spoonfuls and feels no remorse because he considers many of his clients to be thieves as well. In the wake of losses reported by the likes of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, Larrimer's profitable statements look suspicious, and clients begin calling with concerned questions. Among these is French investment banker Jean-Baptiste, who, after learning of Larrimer's criminality, takes his own life. Also burned by Larrimer, though on a much smaller scale, is retired CIA operative Louis Morgon (The Resistance, 2012, etc.). Now living in France, Morgon feels an affinity for the doomed Jean-Baptiste and decides to investigate. He's in good company, since French police Jean Renard and FBI Agent Salvator Morconi are already on the case. Morgon's unique people skills are key in his questioning of Lorraine Usher, Larrimer's personal assistant, whom he gently manipulates by intimating her arrest until she tells him everything she knows. By now, Larrimer has vanished, and Morgon continues to use Lorraine as a resource as international victims and accomplices are tracked down and confronted. Morgon's elaborate plan to ensnare Larrimer involves forged art, tech savvy, and a team effort. Morgon's fifth adventure impresses both as thriller and morality play, building a memorable and complex tapestry of greed and culpability.

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February 1, 2016
The latest Louis Morgon thriller finds the retired CIA agent drawing on his old but in no way rusty skills to track down and bring to justice a Wall Street scammer (a fictionalized version of Bernie Madoff). The story is intricate and convoluted, the pacing is splendid, and the characters are richly detailed. Morgon isn't your typical action herohe's in his seventies, an art lover and gourmand, living in a small French villagebut Steiner doesn't write your typical action thrillers, either. The story evolves over the course of several years (beginning in late 2008), and, structurally, it's composed mainly of dialoguelight on car chases and gun battles. Evoking the work of the late, great George V. Higgins, the Morgon novels are intelligently written, and the stories are compelling, satisfying, and surprising (this one doesn't end even close to the way we expect it will). This is the book to change the minds of readers convinced they aren't interested in financial thrillers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)