This book gets off to a slow start, taking a bit too long to let us in on what’s going on, but once it gets going, it’s not bad.Wynn Bryant is a man of means who obviously travels in better circles than I do, since at a mere suggestion from his sister, he becomes an interim Congressman. He wanders around DC without a clue until he gets dragged on a journey to Rome and Cairo, and gets pulled into some hefty intrigue.Jackie Burke is a windsurfer with a crappy job who suddenly gets hired by the wife of the ill Congressman whose place Wynn takes. Jackie realizes something big is afoot when the investigation she has been hired to undertake gets her apartment broken into and trashed. She meets Wynn and feels an instant attraction and kinship when they go to Rome, though most of their relationship throughout the rest of the book happens over the telephone.Behind all the aforementioned intrigue is financier Pavel Hayek, a billionaire maverick who moved his foreign exchange trading business to Florida from Wall Street. As the author took so much time carefully constructing the plot, it seems unfair to give it away here. Suffice it to say, Hayek is a very bad man with some very big, very bad plans, and it’s up to Wynn and Jackie to figure out what they are and stop him.Once things got moving, it was a fairly compelling read. It was hard to get a fix on Wynn’s character, aside from the fact that he had a painful past and a lot of money to blow. The other characters, save one or two, didn’t go very deep, either. Jackie was likeable, though. Things wrapped up a little too neatly with a pretty bow on top, and the author relied too heavily on leaving everyone out of the loop—the protagonists and the reader—but getting there managed to keep my interest. All in all, not a bad financial/political thriller.
I would love to give this book more than 3 stars, but I can't do it. The story line is intriguing and the premise is terrifyingly real. However, understanding derivatives in the financial sector is apparently above my abilities. No matter how many times I read the explanations, I came away knowing that I was missing something and that took away some of my enjoyment in reading the book. My other complaint is that there were so many players that I a hard time keeping track. It was one of those books where you really wish you'd written down all the names and relationships at the beginning and by the time you realize that you're lost, it's too late to go back.I will probably read more by T Davis Bunn because I've enjoyed past books. I'll just need to be sure the content is something I can grasp.
What do You think about Drummer In The Dark (2001)?
Even with the many surprises at the end, I am giving this book a rating of three. Perhaps it would be great for one who understands high finance, the stock market, and national and international banking, but it was often over my head, and therefore less enjoyable. Also,I had to frequently return to my list of characters to keep everyone straight. This has not been the case for me in reading Grisham. I am still glad I read the book. It was another eye opener, this time to the potential for abuse among national and international money movers.
—Connie
I will be honest - I really struggled to finish this book. Not that it wasn't riveting - I can't ever imagine I'm going to be able to read another thriller on international debt relief again. The plot was great, and really sheds light on how politics works (it's a bit difficult to explain without giving away spoilers). It's just that some of the writing- the imagery, the style etc. - somehow didn't really appeal to me. The atmosphere of the book seems so dark and covered in an unending gray that it was sometimes difficult to slog through even a few pages. However, the author does have a unique voice - maybe we've been ruined by the short and crisp commercial writing of the books that dominate best seller lists. At any rate, I look forward to reading more from this author.
—Shihab Azhar
I didn't want to stop reading. At first I thought that I would be put off by the intense focus on finance--which I knew nothing about. I was hooked and when I was done I ended up going to the internet to do some more research. I was thankful that I was reading this on my Nook (an e check out from our local library) because that afforded me the opportunity to look up the words that I didn't know with out leaving that page! I like the way this author stretches my mind and my faith. I recommend it highly.
—Tina Hunt
