Friday, June 03, 2005

Book Review: Numbered Account


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Excel web sharing - spreadsheet collaboration over the Internet made easy with BadBlueI just posted this review at Amazon.

Nick Neumann has what, at first glance, appears to be the perfect life. The former U.S. Marine just graduated from Harvard Business School and has joined the fast-paced world of Wall Street. His girlfriend is beautiful, the scion of an incredibly wealthy family. But Nick does have one problem: the unsolved murder of his father weighs heavily on his mind.

His father, murdered almost twenty years ago, worked for the secretive Swiss bank USB. And so Nick decides to follow in his footsteps: to move to Switzerland, join USB, and determine whether the trail can be followed or whether's it's gone cold.

Within days of joining USB, Nick finds himself entangled in a nightmarish conflict. The "Pasha", USB's premier client, is moving ever larger sums of money through the bank in seemingly nonsensical fashion. The DEA, investigating large-scale money transfers through USB, begins squeezing Nick for information. And an attractive vice president at the bank seems to be paying very close attention to Nick's activities.

This is Reich's first book and is, simply put, masterful. While its length (750 pages) is daunting, Reich's firsthand knowledge of the Swiss banking industry is invaluable and enlightening. I can almost guarantee that you'll be swept into this ambitious and fulfilling story: revenge and terror mixed into a near-perfect concoction.

Christopher Reich: Numbered Account
 

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