The Deadly Trade

by Ken Morris

Overview

Financial thriller pioneer Ken Morris has returned with a novel faster, scarier, and more current than even his highly-acclaimed debut, Man in the Middle.
Tim Mack is a financial analyst running from a past full of death and drink. But when he leaves the Wall Street rat race hoping to slow down his life in San Diego, he finds that a calm and peaceful existence is just not in the cards. While researching a local biotechnology firm that has just exploded into flames, Tim begins to untangle a lethal web of deceit. A frightening, secret triumvirate of mass murder intricately combines a high-finance broker, a Middle-Eastern terrorist organization, and a dying biotechnology firm willing to do anything to keep afloat.

How far will this alliance go? Tim soon finds out that a bug that “makes AIDS look like a hangnail” might only be the beginning. He teams up with Betsy O’Brien, his spunky and beautiful coworker; Joe Mack, his wheelchair-bound brother who’s a former DEA agent; and Detective Bob Moore, an aging but tenacious cop in charge of leading the formal, but furtive, investigation.

Together, they devise a plan to stop the release of the mutated virus—a plan that brings the lives of Tim, his loved ones, and the rest of the country down to the bare wire. The Deadly Trade pulls on our own worst fears, inspired by the news of yesterday and almost sure to make the headlines of tomorrow. The anthrax scare of 2001 pales in the light of Ken’s terrifying vision. What legendary sportscaster Charlie Jones said about Man in the Middle is even truer about The Deadly Trade: “It can happen—perhaps it already has. And, if hasn’t happened yet, it will.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781890862411
Publisher:	Bancroft Press
Publication date:	03/01/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	366
Sales rank:	911,855
File size:	611 KB

About the Author

Ken Morris spent his 20s learning to be a stock trader, his 30s practicing his craft at the highest levels of the world's capital markets, and his 40s writing about it. Ken is a master storyteller with a depth of experience unique in the genre of financial thrillers: He worked for Michael Milken and held high level positions with Morgan Stanley, Drexel Burnham, and Prudential-Bache. He has managed, earned, lost, and earned again millions of dollars.

For more than a decade, Ken Morris was 'the man in the middle, balancing million-dollar deals and practical business considerations against legal complexities and moral considerations. And while his personal adventures weren't quite as harrowing as those of his protagonist in this novel, Ken was a 'Wall Street trading legend who played by the rules, fought the system (and won), made friends and enemies, and shook world financial markets.

A Southern California native, Ken Morris obtained his undergraduate degree from UC Santa Barbara, and his MBA from UCLA. In the 1980s, he became a stock trader for Morgan, Stanley in New York, and by the age of 31, had become a celebrated, much sought-after trader operating at the highest levels of the world’s capital markets. In 1992, at the tender age of 39, he stunned and perplexed the financial world by turning his back entirely on Wall Street. Returning to California, he set up a part-time consulting practice, and began devoting himself to his family, to reform of the capital markets, and to writing. Man in the Middle, the first of his novels to be published, received attention from The London Times, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNBC’s “Kudlow & Cramer,” among others. The Deadly Trade is his second novel. He lives in Del Mar, California, with his wife, a fund manager, and their four sons.

Editorial Reviews

“In his second outing, Morris sticks with the same setup he devised for last year’s popular Man in the Middle—innocent financial analyst drawn into his own company’s evil web—yet does so with addictive verve. Morris, a former Wall Street trader, caps off his plot with a nerve-wracking finale. His deft handling of pacing and compelling research into bio-weapons make his sophomore effort highly readable.”

Publishers Weekly

“Morris adds a financial twist to the novel’s obvious topical relevance. He works hard to make the details clear, but doesn’t bog the novel down with needless explanation. Recommended.”

Library Journal

"Author Morris keeps the reader a couple of steps ahead of both trusting Tim Mack, the protagonist, and hard-boiled detective Bob Moore, who’s ultimately sidelined in a deadly ambush. The narrative of a hundred-plus chapters offers multiple twists as well as frequent perspective shifts . . . And Morris gets suspense mileage out of Tim’s uncertainty about whom to trust, and whom not to . . . A brisk thriller.”

Kirkus Reviews

“No one ever put down a Ken Morris thriller.” (JIM CRAMER IS THE HOST OF CNBC'S MAD MONEY)

Jim Cramer

“[Morris is] a first-rate storyteller who generates plenty of narrative steam with a mystery that blends high-end finance with international intrigue.”

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