Paul ErdmanBesprekingen

Paul Erdman is one of those authors that actually has substantial knowledge and experience with the subject of his novels (others being Frederick Forsyth or Robin Cook).

When someone who knows how things are done decides to write about it in form of thriller, you get so interested that even rather (I mean come on we are not kidding anyone :)) dry economic matter becomes very interesting and bursting with energy.

In this power ride we follow unscrupulous bankers and hustlers trying to make a substantial profit from the economic crisis in 1970s, fall of USD and rise of price of gold. It is always amazing to me how much things rely on a handshake and word of trust (ha!) so when rumors start to spread it takes a lot of effort on all sides to put back everything under control. And at the end, that is never rosy with authors like Mr. Erdman and novels like this, every action has a consequence and sometimes these consequences are the final ones. I especially liked very realistic reaction of the Swiss intelligence officer after he figures out that he was played.

Excellent novel, highly recommended. And after you read this treat yourself with Crash '79 from the same author. After that one sees that there is nothing new under the sun for the things that shake the planet.

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The Set-Up is another excellent Erdman novel. In this tale the ex-chairman of the federal reserve, Charles Black, is on his way to attend a meeting at the international bank of settlements on a temporary basis standing in whilst a new chairman is appointed. Unfortunately for Charles, he is arrested at the airport upon entering Switzerland and held for insider trading & fraud - something he has not done.

Once more Erdman's intricate knowledge of the financial world is on display with a realistic portray of the fictional events and the manner in which they unfold.

Overall the book is very good, but I was a tad disappointed in the way it ended compared to his other books; that being said it's still a good book and worthwhile reading.½

Paul Erdman is one of my favourite writers, in my opinion he writes the best financial novels there are and The Palace following in the footsteps of The Crash of '79, The Panic of '89 & The Silver Bears is no exception to this.

From the opening pages where we encounter a hustling guy running a coin store who becomes involved in money laundering from organised crime, the source of which, a casino that is no longer profitable. It's losing money as it's being fleeced and the protagonist just happens to be the very man laundering said money, as such he's aware that the money losing casino that's coming up for urgent sale is in fact a bargain if he's able to get control of what goes on inside the walls, and so begins the rise to power of Danny Lehman, coin store owner.

I really enjoyed this and would highly recommend it.

Interesting premise. Intriguing story. Quick read.

I always enjoy financial thrillers and probably the best writer out there of them is Paul Erdman - I've never read one of his books and been disappointed and was keen to dive into another immersive tapestry from his imagination.

The Billion Dollar Sure Thing is set in the 1970s when the US Dollar has a fixed exchange rate and Gold has a fixed value set in US Dollars, the premise of the novel is the US has decided it will devalue it's dollar and change the value of gold. As such anyone holding US Dollars will end up with "less" money vs other currencies/commodities and anyone holding gold will be able to sell it for "more" US Dollars after the re-valuation/re-pricing.

So it's pretty important that the US Treasury keeps their plans a secret, oops, someone's copy has been stolen. Uh oh, Russia is shorting US Dollars hard, and postponing gold sales.... in comes a seedy financial broker and also collusion between Swiss & UK banks...

Entertaining read and karma has an unexpected hard bite at the closing of the narrative.½

Zero Coupon is a financial thriller like all of Erdman's other books.

Whilst not as good as the Panic/Crash/Last Days books it is nonetheless an interesting read. I did find that it become someone bogged down in the middle however the ending did redeem that criticism in my eyes.

Overall, a solid financial thriller.½

Having read several other Paul Erdman books I have to say I was rather disappointed with this one: it's a strange mix of fact and fiction, more or less following a path of true events in world war 2 it just feels cumbersome and slow.

It was business & finance without the intrigue, set in world war 2 without the war for the most part and involved spies with a somewhat disjointed follow through of their activities.

For fiction would recommend Crash of '79, Last Days of America & Panic of '89 over this by far.

For a non-fiction seat of the pants 'story' would recommend Richard Preston's The Hot Zone.½

This was the second novel written by Paul Erdman, it was written after he fled Switzerland when he was released on bail. It is his first novel outside of jail (The Billion Dollar Killing was written whilst incarcerated).

The novel is well constructed, although having read some of his other works you can see a definite evolution in complexity and plots in the later novels.

Unlike some books where the author tries to bumble their way through knowledge gaps with generalisations it is clear the author has a good understanding of the topic at hand. One would presume so after all considering he did go to jail for his part in the collapse of Salik Bank after it took large losses speculating in the cocoa market.

The story basically covers a group of Americans who decide to open a Swiss bank to hide their money. They get drawn into a deal on an Iranian silver mine amidst a skyrocketing silver price which then makes their new bank a target for a shady corporate take over by a billionaire who is trying to corner the silver market.

An enjoyable read on the commodity markets with some international finance intrigue thrown in, if you enjoy this I'd highly recommend The Crash of '79, Last Days of America and The Panic of '89 - these are later Erdman books which are slightly more refined and very enjoyable.½

Whilst this novel is a slightly slower pace than the Crash of '79 and The Last Days of America, it is nonetheless highly enjoyable.

It follows the plan of two rich Venezuelan brothers to bring the American economy to it's knees and as a by product make themselves a fortune. Backed by the help of Swiss & European banks their plan starts coming to fruition until ex-International Monetary Fund executive Paul Mayer becomes involved.

Terrorism, Soviet Union intrigue, spies, secretive Swiss banks and inflated American egos come together to form a good story. I was a little disappointed there wasn't more focus on the Swiss banks at the end of the novel but nonetheless a good read.½

This book is primarily set in Saudi Arabia & Iran, although Switzerland, America & Europe also are featured. Written in 1976, and set in 1978-9 it is a little dated, the leader of Iran is the Shahanshah, Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavī, so obviously it takes place in a world where there's been no Islamic Revolution, no Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, etc.

However if you're able to take this in your stride it is a gripping tale of high finance & international intrigue. At 350 pages it's a medium length novel, yet enthralling enough that I tackled it in one sitting without noticing the time passing.

The writing style could be classified as 'coarse' however I felt such fitted well with the narration by the cynical protagonist Bill Hitchcock and gave you a greater feeling of the character.

I'm looking forward to my next Paul Erdman read.

This was a solid political/business thriller, not quite as good as Erdman's The Crash of '79, but nonetheless still a good solid read.

Whilst it was written in 1981 and therefore is now set in the past asides from their being East & West Germany and the Soviet Union the story does transfer well to our current times - in fact there was recently a similar scenario occurring with missile technology being provided to China. So in reality asides for a handful of country changes the story is still realistic and pertinent.

The story essentially revolves around an American defense contractor attempting to sell it's new fangled missiles to NATO. When the deal appears in jeopardy they attempt bribery which leads down a path they were not expecting and to the eventual down fall of American foreign policy.

Buon giallo sul mondo della finanza

It is interesting to read a book like this where a chapter i 1984 is "The Next four years an optimistic forecast". Or even a chapter "The Debt Crisis".."bankers brought the financial world to the edge of an abyss as a result of their sovereigh lending to basket cases around the world" p. 49, only then he didn't mean China to the US

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