The Domino Effect

September 19, 2016
Bunn (The Patmos Deception) transforms this novel, which begins as a gripping financial thriller, into little more than a flimsy romantic fairy tale, piling unlikely event upon unlikely event. Esther Larsen’s success as a risk analyst for Carolina First Mercantile, an enormous bank based in Charlotte, N.C., has come at the cost of any meaningful interactions with others. Her need for her salary to support her gravely ill brother, Nathan, leads her to stay quiet when her supervisor proposes a risky transaction that could net CFM at least $100 million in just days. Despite her concerns that the bank is engaging in Enron-like ventures, Esther keeps her worries to herself. That changes after she’s fixed up with an attractive divinity student, Craig Wessex, who, in one of the plot’s many coincidences, turns out to be the same man she recently saw sitting by Nathan’s hospital bedside. Esther soon opens her heart to connecting with others while simultaneously becoming a crusader against reckless bankers whose greed threatens the global economy. The author’s ability to make the financial aspects accessible doesn’t compensate for an increasingly cloying story line.

Starred review from September 1, 2016

The world's financial markets are set for a collapse that would eclipse 2008's Great Recession. Risk analyst Esther Larsen's warnings are ignored by her myopic, ruthless boss, who sees only prodigious financial gain. Esther risks her career--and her life--by making this information public. With support from the community, she has an opportunity to lead the global economy out of utter ruin before time runs out. Bunn's economics and finance background combined with his subsequent industry experience shine through in this financial thriller. The heightened level of detail allows readers to feel deeply Esther's sense of impending doom. VERDICT Four-time Christy Award winner Bunn (The Fragment) bases his latest novel loosely on the biblical story of Esther, delivering a stylistically complex work that lends itself to a variety of audiences, from Bible study groups to fans of financial thrillers such as Michael M. Thomas's Fixers.

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