Author: David Baldacci
Publication: Grand Central Publishing (July 12, 2022)
Description: A cryptic murder pulls a former soldier turned financial analyst deep into the corruption and menace that prowl beneath the opulent world of finance, in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller from David Baldacci.
Every day without fail, Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase, and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at the city’s most prestigious investment firm. In the mornings, he gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. In the evenings, he listens to the fiscal news on his phone, already preparing for the next grueling day in the cutthroat realm of finance. Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead
Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building—presumably a suicide, at least for now—prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, before the day is out, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm. This treacherous role will take him from the impossibly glittering lives he once saw only through a train window, to the darkest corners of the country’s economic halls of power . . . where something rotten lurks. And apart from this high-stakes conspiracy, there’s a killer out there with their own agenda, and Devine is the bull’s-eye.
My Thoughts: Travis Devine is a West Point grad who served honorably in the Army as a Ranger but left the service as a Captain when something happens that fills him with guilt. Bowing to family pressure, he gets an MBA and begins work for an investment company named Cowl and Comley. He has an entry-level analyst position and hates it.
When a woman he knows - the woman who mentored his induction group - is found hanging in a broom closet at work, he receives a cryptic and untraceable email informing him of details about the death. After going to the closet and seeing her body, Travis is determined to find out what happened to the woman he could have loved.
However, the death is just the first of the strange things that pull him out of the rut of his new job. He is recruited - under threat of imprisonment - to discover what is going on at Cowl and Comely since the government is sure that something hinky is going on there.
And his friend's death is only the start of the deaths surrounding Cowl and Comely. With the help of his three roommates: a Russian emigre white hat hacker, a newly graduated law student, and a woman preparing to launch her new dating app on the world, Travis begins to look into the strange things.
This was an excellent and fast-paced thriller with lots of twists and turns. I liked it very much.
Favorite Quote:
Favorite Quote:
The people he'd seen from the train earlier were filtering out now. No doubt they had to get back to their fabulous homes and do fabulous things before getting up the next day to continue being fabulous. But maybe he was just being fabulously cynical and envious.I bought this one May 28, 2023. You can buy your copy here.
Sounds good. Thanks for the review.
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