Suppose There Is Nothing

"Snappy mystery. Enjoyable noir vibe. A fine puzzle." (Publishers Weekly) What holds up a modern financial system? That's the question animating James L. Ross's latest novel. Stockbroker John McCarthy witnesses a former hedge fund manager plunge to her death from a financial district hotel. Her ex-fiance, a prominent Harvard professor, tells the media she was despondent over her fund's failure. But the dead woman has left evidence with McCarthy that the world's financial markets are in a more precarious state than Wall Street dares admit. For McCarthy, who is on his third marriage, skepticism comes easily. His actress wife remains friends with her last lover, a high-powered lawyer whose clients include just the sort of bankers who might view murder as a cost of doing business. Nor does he find any comfort as the Securities and Exchange Commission investigates: the same SEC that let a well-connected crook named Bernie Madoff operate for twenty years. As McCarthy tracks the Harvard professor to a predatory hedge fund, financial markets shudder lower, just as though there's nothing under them but dying public trust. Readers who enjoyed The Big Short will appreciate this fictional romp through the lower end of American finance.