Free To Trade by Michael Ridpath

Hardcover blurb:  When the world's top publishers fight to get hold of a new author's first novel, you know it must be something special.  And Free to Trade (published 1994) certainly is outstanding - an exemplary thriller, an exceedingly good story, it is a superb debut for Michael Ridpath and the publishing event of the decade.

Paul Murray is a junior bond trader.  He runs to keep fit, he hates the office coffee machine and he's forgotten what it's like to have a girlfriend.  He loves his job though and he's keen to make a good impression - but how keen does he have to be?

When the vivacious Debbie Chater, a colleague of Paul's, is found dead, floating in the Thames, his life is turned upside-down.  Paul's search for an explanation becomes a crusade as he uncovers a web of deception, fraud and murder.

Everywhere he looks he finds only more questions:  What is "Uncle Sam's Money Machine"?  What is the connection between Irwin Piper, an American entrepreneur with much to hide, and an aristocratic English lawyer?  Where does Cash Callaghan, the honesty-free bond salesman fit in?  And why is Cash's assistant, Cathy Lasenby, once so standoffish, now so keen to help?

The trouble is, Paul has no idea who is out to get him, let alone what it is they want to hide, and in a business where there's most definitely a killing to be made, he has every reason to feel paranoid.

My take:  This is Ridpath's debut (quite some time now) and also his very first financial thriller.  To date, he has written a total of eight financial thrillers before veering off the financial path to write crime thrillers set in Iceland.  His reasons are stated here.

I like stories that tell of an innocent man used as a scapegoat for someone else's gain or of an unsuspecting man wrongly accused of some misdemeanour which he did not commit.  Usually, that man has to fight and fight hard against unseen foes and the force of time to exonerate his name and catch the real perpetrators.  In this case, it is made harder among all the wheelin' and dealin' going on in a cut-throat world of finance, wrought with people who routinely lie and cheat to make a killin'.  Fortunately, he has some friends who help him along the route to justice and a few minor storylines to add intrigue to the main plot.

All in all, not a bad read, but nothing to shout about for yours truly, who does not know what some of the wheeling and dealing is about and the financial jargon can be from Mars for all I know.  Hard to warm to the characters, though, for they do not stand out.  I think the story makes the characters rather than the characters make the story.

For a debut, I thought it was a very good story and would go on to read the next one because the financial world intrigues me.  And, after all, good stories are best written by authors who know what they are writing about.

Here are the other seven financial thrillers:

Trading Reality (1996)
The Marketmaker (1998)
Final Venture (2000)
The Predator (2001)
Fatal Error (2003)

Alex Calder series:

On The Edge (2005)
See No Evil (2006)

Michael Ridpath's official website.

Rating:  3/5