MAY 2012 - AudioFile
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
Publishers Weekly
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 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. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
Winning....A steady supply of action...will leave readers wondering if the author has come up with a solution to the real-life Madoff mysteries that still remain.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Need You Now
“A complex and dizzying shell game…entertaining. Grippando’s novel adds up the collateral damage when billions belonging to the wrong kind of people go missing.” — Kirkus Reviews on Need You Now
“A timely and solid plot-driven read....Another Grippando gripper.” — Booklist on Need You Now
“Readers who enjoy a good thriller with a constantly twisting plot will appreciate this timely novel.” — Library Journal on Need You Now
“Readers looking for a great thriller will see a master at the top of his game in Need You Now.” — Associated Press on Need You Now
“Superb...Current events have proved that financial thrillers set against the background of Wall Street, banking and investments can be as exciting as any espionage drama, and Grippando makes the most of this backdrop in Need You Now while delivering a character-rich plot.” — Miami Herald on Need You Now
“Grippando’s use of current events adds realism to his novels, and this ripped-from-the-headlines approach brings a sense of urgency to Need You Now. The action is nonstop but Grippando also brings the same sense of realism to his characters.” — Sun-Sentinel (South Florida) on Need You Now
“A brilliant blend of financial chicanery and government conspiracy which yields a story that is all too believable.” — Iron Mountain News on Need You Now
“Rousing. . . . An exciting tale of revenge.” — Publishers Weekly
“Grippando has definitely reached a new level with this series entry. . . . One of his best.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Filled with twists and turns and edge-of-the-seat tension.” — Romantic Times
“Superb plotting, high suspense, compelling timely issues, and finely honed characters make this crime novel/international thriller a great read.” — Library Journal (starred review)
Miami Herald on Need You Now
Superb...Current events have proved that financial thrillers set against the background of Wall Street, banking and investments can be as exciting as any espionage drama, and Grippando makes the most of this backdrop in Need You Now while delivering a character-rich plot.
Sun-Sentinel (South Florida) on Need You Now
Grippando’s use of current events adds realism to his novels, and this ripped-from-the-headlines approach brings a sense of urgency to Need You Now. The action is nonstop but Grippando also brings the same sense of realism to his characters.
Booklist on Need You Now
A timely and solid plot-driven read....Another Grippando gripper.
Booklist (starred review)
Grippando has definitely reached a new level with this series entry. . . . One of his best.
Iron Mountain News on Need You Now
A brilliant blend of financial chicanery and government conspiracy which yields a story that is all too believable.
Associated Press on Need You Now
Readers looking for a great thriller will see a master at the top of his game in Need You Now.
Romantic Times
Filled with twists and turns and edge-of-the-seat tension.
Booklist
"Grippando has definitely reached a new level with this series entry. . . . One of his best."
Romantic Times
Filled with twists and turns and edge-of-the-seat tension.
Booklist (starred review)
Grippando has definitely reached a new level with this series entry. . . . One of his best.
Booklist on Need You Now
A timely and solid plot-driven read....Another Grippando gripper.
Library Journal - Audio
Popular suspense author Grippando has written a timely novel that recalls the recent Bernie Madoff scandal. Patrick Lloyd, a young employee of an international Swiss-based bank, is drawn into the search for funds that were hidden by a man behind a Ponzi scheme. As the fraud was revealed, the director of the scheme committed suicide, and his closest colleague was murdered. A few years have passed, and the money is still missing. Patrick and his former girlfriend Lilly, who was also a bank employee, are not the only people hot on the trail of the missing millions. VERDICT Veteran narrator Jonathan Davis deftly handles the multiple characters and a somewhat overstuffed plot. Recommended for fans of financial suspense. ["Readers who enjoy a good thriller with a constantly twisting plot will appreciate this timely novel," read the review of the HarperCollins hc, LJ 12/11.—Ed.]—Mary Knapp, Madison P.L., WI
Library Journal
Swiss banks, which have always retained a cachet of confidentiality and mystery, have proved excellent fodder for many a thriller's plot, and Grippando's latest is no exception. In the wake of the suicide of Ponzi-scheme mastermind Abe Cushman (think Bernie Madoff), Patrick Lloyd, a Wall Street adviser for the Bank of Switzerland, is sent to its Singapore branch to discover what Lilly Scanlon may know about her client's scheme. When Patrick and Lilly quickly fall in love, they are imperiled as Cushman's most dangerous investors seek to recover their money. VERDICT Grippando's growing legion of fans will be delighted that recurring character FBI agent Andie Henning (Afraid of the Dark) makes an appearance here. Readers who enjoy a good thriller with a constantly twisting plot will appreciate this timely novel. [See Prepub Alert, 7/25/11; Grippando is also a lawyer who works at the firm that filed one of the first lawsuits to recover the money of Madoff's victims.—Ed.]—Vicki L. Gregory, Univ. of South Florida Sch. of Information, Tampa
MAY 2012 - AudioFile
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
Kirkus Reviews
In Grippando's latest (Afraid of the Dark, 2011, etc.), a Madoff-like character pilfers billions, but some victims don't complain. They kill. Abe Cushman was the hot-from-the-headlines Ponzi purveyor who pulled a Houdini with $60 billion. Now his suicide has left the money lost in the shadows. Patrick Lloyd is a young financial analyst for the International Bank of Switzerland, a too-big-to-fail institution luxuriating on huge accounts accessible only by code numbers. The SEC is hamstrung, but the FBI isn't. Patrick is persuaded by an FBI agent to seek assignment in Singapore. He agrees for selfish reasons. In Singapore, Patrick met and bedded Lilly Scanlon, another BOS analyst. Lilly was the agent for the electronic transfers of $2 billion flowing between Cushman and Gerry Collins' GC Investments in Florida, one of the scheme's feeder funds. Now Collins has been garroted, and Lilly is on the lam. Tony Martin, a witness-protected mobster bilked by Collins, confessed to the murder, but there are other bad actors involved. One is Manu Robledo, an Argentine with connections to South America's Tri-Border region, a lawless outpost where guns and drugs are sold and terrorists find warm welcome. Lilly lands in New York seeking Patrick's help, and as they investigate, the innocent and the guilty are kidnapped, tortured and killed. A complex and mind-dizzying shell game, Grippando's tale is heavy on action and filled with the stereotypical characters necessary to keep pages turning. The new BOS chief is a former Treasury official who must find the money or lose more than his career. There's Mongoose, a one-time covert agent. And then there's a lowly quantitative analyst, a "quant," who diagrammed a plot tracing the billions through a mysterious project code-named BAQ and into hawalas, a worldwide informal banking and money-transfer system often used by the wrong kind of people. Agreeably entertaining, Grippando's novel adds up the collateral damage when billions belonging to the wrong kind of people go missing.
