The Power Broker » (Unabridged)

Stephen Frey is a managing director at a private equity firm. He previously worked in mergers and acquisitions at JP Morgan and as a vice president of corporate finance at an international bank in Manhattan. Frey is the bestselling author of The Protégé, The Chairman, Shadow Account, Silent Partner, The Day Trader, Trust Fund, The Insider, The Legacy, The Inner Sanctum, The Vulture Fund, and The Takeover. He lives in Florida.

In this tense thriller, Christian Gillette, hero of The Protégé, is approached by a shadowy group representing vast wealth and vague motive. They're a politically conservative alliance interested in a partnership with Gillette's company, Everest Capital. Then he's contacted by a charismatic liberal politician named Jesse Wood, who is about to announce his candidacy for president; Wood and his advisors want Gillette to run for vice president. Skeptical of both offers, Gillette tries to discern who can be trusted. But he soon realizes a colleague has ties to one party and ultimately, he can't trust anybody at all.

Publishers Weekly

Murder, global conspiracy, treason, blackmail, sexual infidelity and perversity propel bestseller Frey's entertaining, if highly implausible, third financial thriller starring Christian Gillette (after 2005's The Protogo). Christian, the CEO of Everest Capital, a hugely successful Manhattan-based investment firm, faces a host of adversaries, chief among them the Order, a secret society made up of nine white American businessmen and government leaders whose predecessors have been manipulating financial and historical events since the society's inception in 1839. Led by Jackson Prescott Hewitt, chairman of U.S. Oil, the Order fears that America is falling under the control of minorities whose agendas include statehood for Puerto Rico and Mexico and the election of the nation's first African-American president. Christian comes to the attention of this cabal and, aided by series regulars Allison Wallace and Quentin Stiles, is soon fighting for his very life. The action roars along like a small tsunami, sweeping logic aside and carrying aloft those readers willing to suspend a substantial amount of disbelief. (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.