From Library JournalFor Augustus McKnight, there's good news and bad news: he's just made a killing, but his wife wants a divorce. Then she's murdered, and McKnight gets her juicy life insurance policy and a whole lot of trouble. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistOn the basis of previous novels such as The Vulture Fund (1996) and The Inner Sanctum (1997), Frey could be called the Grisham of financial thrillers. Here, he tarnishes that reputation a bit by offering an interesting but implausible story of the mixed-up world of a novice day trader. Augustus McKnight, married to his high-school sweetheart, has noticed that the spark has faded from their relationship. He figures it is due to their financial problems; he is a salesman, and she is a legal secretary. Augustus is obsessed with the financial market, managing a ghost portfolio that triples in value in a short time, and with the encouragement of his laid-back, playboy friend, Vincent, Augustus considers changing occupations. That decision is hastened by the murder of his wife. In his grief, and with a million-dollar life insurance policy in his future, Augustus takes the plunge and signs on with a day-trading group. The husband is always a suspect, of course, so adding to the stress of his newfound livelihood is the constant appearance of homicide detective Dorsey. As Augustus is investigated, he ventures on his own search, finding disturbing connections among his wife, her boss, his motley crew of coworkers, a certain gentleman's club, and his supposed best friend, Vincent. Frey attempts to paint Augustus as a tragic hero, his fatal flaw being his naivete, but it's hard to buy. He is intelligent, strong, insightful, but incredibly blind to his surroundings. Nonetheless, expect demand for this page-turner. Mary Frances WilkensCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

New York Times bestselling author Stephen Frey thrills readers with the mesmerizing tale of a small-town sheriff who must confront the worst violence that man and nature possess. Bruner, Wisconsin, is really two different towns. On one side are the magnificent summer estates of wealthy families who value their privacy and privilege above all else. A few miles away, but a world apart, are the homes of the working men and women who cook, clean, and tend to the needs of the summer visitors. It’s a place of staggering natural beauty, but where death can come unexpectedly and with no regard for a person’s bank account or family tree. A place of steadfast loyalties and friendships, but where the long and brutal winter can make even the most intimate friends turn on each other with frightening intensity. This is the place where Sheriff Paul Summers finds himself grasping for answers when the wild, unpredictable woman who captured his heart years ago is discovered brutally and spectacularly murdered inside her family’s snowbound estate. As the last person to see her alive, and given his complicated history with the victim, Paul is not only lead investigator on the case but, in the eyes of many in Bruner, the prime suspect in her killing. Battling rumors of an evil cult’s being formed just outside of town, the disappearance of another citizen, and a wife whose grasp of reality is quickly slipping away, Paul must race to find the true guilty party before a massive winter storm leaves them all cut off from the outside world and at the mercy of a remorseless killer. As the approaching storm gathers in intensity, so do the twists and turns that bring Paul ever closer to unraveling the big secrets that haunt this small town. In a stunning conclusion, Paul witnesses firsthand the startling power and beauty of heaven’s fury.From BooklistIt’s easy to see that Wisconsin sheriff Paul Summers has some problems. He’s stuck in the small, gossip-driven town where he grew up. He lives with a jealous wife he’s not sure he still loves. And he yearns for his high-school sweetheart, unreachable Cindy Prescott Harrison, the daughter of one of the town’s elite. Given all that, it’s no surprise that his first-person narrative makes him sound pretty conflicted; he’s definitely not a strong, admirable protagonist. Rumors of a cult in the area, questions about the disappearance of his deputy’s wife, and Cindy’s murder make things even more difficult for Paul. Though Frey gamely tries to pull it all together, he falls a mite shy. For readers who cleave more to forested northern vistas and small-town dynamics than to straight action tales, however, this may fill the bill. Recommend C. J. Box’s Joe Pickett as a follow-up. --Stephanie Zvirin Review“Fast-moving, zestful, stirring…full of twists and surprises…compelling characters.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review on Silent Partner

Amazon.com ReviewFinancial chicanery is Stephen Frey's forte, and in his newest thriller (following The Insider and The Day Trader), he sets up one of the world's richest men and a young bank executive, who's trying to wrest custody of her son from her well-connected ex-husband, in a sting operation to expose blatant racism in the mortgage practices of a big Virginia financial institution. Angela Day, whose African American college roommate died in her arms after a racially motivated attack, is a gutsy and appealing woman whose life is turned upside down when she gets involved with Jake Lawrence, a billionaire with his own reasons for wanting to expose the corruption at the core of the bank that employs her. When he offers her the chance to get her son back, she plunges into a world of double-dealing where nothing and no one are what they seem and everyone's motives are suspect. Some of the coincidences strain credulity, and the characters are too one-dimensional to care about, but Frey makes the most of his convoluted plot and wraps up the details with an unexpected love story. --Jane AdamsFrom Publishers WeeklyVeteran financial thriller writer Frey (Trust Fund; Day Trader; etc.) returns with another novel of greed and intrigue set in the back corridors of finance. Angela Day, an up-from-the-trailer-park young executive on the fast track at Sumter Bank in Richmond, Va., is summoned to a Tetons hideaway, lair of the reclusive and powerful moneyman Jake Lawrence. Lawrence wants Day to help him take over Sumter Bank and oust Day's boss, chairman Bob Dudley. There is no love lost between Day and the despicable racist Dudley, who schemes to keep blacks out of white neighborhoods by denying them loans; helping Lawrence would mean lots of money and a golden career for Day. But it also puts her life in danger, and she finds herself carelessly used as a pawn by both men. Toss in a muckraking black reporter friend of Day's, whose presence stirs her guilt over the horrific death of a black schoolmate at a college frat party, and a cowboyish bodyguard (complete with ten-gallon hat and pocket flask), and you have the makings of a television movie. Frey is best describing the internecine workings of financial institutions and those who manipulate them, but it's hard to spin an exciting yarn out of mortgage applications, especially when a stereotyped cast of hopeful black homeowners is pitted against nasty Southern good ol' boys. Frey's unremarkable prose ("How could humans be so awful? Why couldn't they just get along?") doesn't help. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers WeeklyCorporate financier Frey's debut novel concerns a secret society of powerful businessmen who attempt to engineer a large-scale economic disaster to topple the President. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalThe unlikely hero of this first novel, an investment banker with (gasp!) a conscience, risks all in probing a crooked takeover scheme. Plans for a motion picture from Paramount are underway.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

National security, terrorism, and human rights–these explosive issues lie at the heart of Stephen Frey’s riveting new thriller, a high-octane novel of suspense, revenge, and intrigue. Dynamic chief financial officer Michael Rose is looking to add an exciting and profitable new dimension to energy conglomerate Trafalgar Industries via the major acquisition of CIS, a global information technology company. But it’s far from a done deal, thanks to fierce resistance from CIS, and from certain members of Trafalgar’s own board, to Rose’s takeover proposal. But Rose isn’t about to sacrifice his best shot at the score that could land him in the CEO’s chair. While swiftly scaling the corporate ladder, Rose has played the big business power game expertly enough to know he has the moves to outmaneuver the opposition. But what Rose doesn’t know is the truth about his latest adversaries at CIS–that they are linked to an organization hell-bent on a twisted mission and are lethal to anyone who stands in their way. The Order, an ultra-secret shadow government agency, was founded by high-level administration officials in reaction to the assassination of President Lincoln. Nearly 150 years later, the group was galvanized anew by the worst act of terror ever perpetrated on American soil–and pushed to dangerous extremes by the specter of fear . . . and the taste of power. The Order had always been sanctioned to manage national security at all costs, by any and all means, without consequences. But behind the sleek veneer of CIS Technologies, the fourth and newest incarnation of The Order not only maintains the ultimate nationwide surveillance and intelligence-gathering system, but conducts officially licensed covert operations rife with torture and murder–all in the name of freedom. The mission cannot and will not be jeopardized, even if innocent lives must be sacrificed. Unfortunately Michael Rose doesn’t yet realize that his hardball tactics have made him the Order’s number one hard target, and his penchant for playing to win has brought him unwittingly into a deadly duel with an enemy more powerful than he can imagine. In a world where the rule is kill or be killed, Rose’s rep for sealing deals might just seal his fate.From the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers WeeklyFrey's latest pecuniary adventure follows his formula of extremely complicated plots spun around illegal, high-level financial shenanigans. He's used it with variations before (The Takeover; The Legacy; The Insider; etc.), and despite clunky writing, implausible situations, lucky coincidences and untied threads, it proves perfectly serviceable once again. Investment banker Conner Ashby is checking his e-mail while beautiful girlfriend Liz Shaw lounges nude on his bed when he accidentally intercepts an interoffice memo that refers to improprieties in an entity named Project Delphi. The wayward communication states that this company is engaged in rampant corporate fraud: "Big expense accounts, undocumented loans, and tons of in-the-money option grants. Plus, the senior guys are hiring executive assistants who look like centerfolds but can't spell their own names." Shortly after Conner receives the message, an intruder breaks into his apartment and starts shooting. Conner is out the window and on the run; Liz is dead. The plot encompasses a mysterious presidential chief of staff who is out to either save his boss or do him in, a secretary of the treasury who has cashed in big time on ill-gotten corporate shares, and quite a few women who either want to be Conner's girlfriend or want him dead. It's all very tangled, but Frey has the undeniable ability to explain complex financial transactions while at the same time providing plenty of action and nuggets of insider money lore. Those readers who like their financial fiction fast and furious will be perfectly happy as long as they don't pay too much attention to the details. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. FromConner Ashby took a job as an investment banker with Phenix Capital because its founder and president, the now elderly Gavin Smith, is a wonderful mentor and an up-by-his-own-bootstraps man, like Conner himself. So it's no surprise that Conner turns to Gavin for help after a series of events that seems to defy explanation. During a tryst with Liz, a wealthy heiress engaged to someone else, Conner hears a beep from his computer, signifying the arrival of e-mail. The message alludes to an apparent conspiracy to rip off investors with the bank. Later, returning home after running an errand, he finds his apartment ransacked, Liz dead, the intruder still on the premises. Conner evades the thug, summons the police, and returns to his apartment to find everything in pristine condition--including the spot where Liz's dead body once lay. Finding the connection between that e-mail message and the disappearance of Liz becomes Conner's obsession, despite Gavin's advice to forget the incident and move on. Staying true to the formula that has made his financial thrillers successful, Frey throws his financial-wizard hero into a situation in which he can trust no one and forces him to risk his life while uncovering a bizarre web of corruption and deceit. There are no real surprises here, but Frey does what he does skillfully, and he's found a large and receptive audience. Mary Frances WilkensCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

New York Times bestselling author Stephen Freypresents a financial thriller of corruption at the highestlevels of government and the greed that drives it. An IRS agent suspects foul play when her boss dies during an investigation into the financial profile of a senatorialcandidate's campaign. Now she possesses the information that could ruin the candidate's career, expose the military's secret black budget, and damage the credibility of a major investment banking firm. With the help of the banking firm's portfolio manager, she intends to reveal her information...unless she is silenced first! * Stephen Frey is the New York Times bestselling author of The Takeover * Both The Vulture Fund and The Takeover were optioned by ParamountPictures and Neufeld/Rehme Productions, the producers of Tom Clancy's Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger * Published to coincide with the Dutton hardcover publication of Stephen Frey's The Legacy * The Inner Sanctum includes a teaser chapter for The Legacy

For decades, the top-secret Red Cell Seven unit has operated beyond the reach of the law—defending the United States by any means necessary, with absolute impunity. But the tables have turned, and the untouchable anti-terror squad is under attack. Determined to end Red Cell Seven’s ruthless, lawless existence, the US president has tapped military assassin extraordinaire Skylar McCoy to lead a covert search and destroy mission. But McCoy isn’t the only one gunning for Red Cell Seven. A vengeful drug lord has dispatched his own hired killers to eliminate the elite commandos as the first step in the ultimate terrorist plot: exterminating the highest echelons of American government. Caught in the middle, the agents of RC7 must fight their dirtiest, most devastating battle—and dare to decide who will be saved or sacrificed for the greater good.**

Forced to retire from his job as a scout for the Yankees, Jack Barrett is just getting by in a small Florida town when his daughter drags him to watch the local minor league team play. On the field, he spots a remarkable player, Mikey Clement, a kid whose amazing natural skill on the field is overshadowed by his bad attitude and solitary habits. In Clement, Jack thinks he might have found his ticket back to the big time. But the young man has a secret that will put all of Jack's plans--and maybe even his life--in jeopardy.