Amazon.com
The game of Russian roulette is alive and well and living on Wall Street, where it's known as the derivatives market. In his aptly named book F.I.A.S.C.O., Frank Partnoy, a former derivatives trader at Morgan Stanley, exposes the seamier side of high-stakes finance. Derivatives are securities whose worth is determined by the value of other securities; according to Partnoy, however, the derivatives market is an elaborate illusion performed with smoke and mirrors. In fascinating, frightening detail Partnoy describes several of Morgan Stanley's slick deals that, in his eyes, are just this side of outright fraud. More than just dishonest, the bait-and-switch tactics Wall Street traders employ to rig the markets are downright dangerous, since the massive debt these deals conceal will inevitably come back to haunt the dealmakers.
F.I.A.S.C.O. could be subtitled Portrait of the Trader as a Young Man, for Frank Partnoy is indeed young, and his short tenure on Wall Street left him sadly disillusioned but much wiser. His book will leave you wiser, too--and probably very worried.
Book Description
The Orange County bankruptcy. The fall of Barings Bank. Shocking losses at Procter & Gamble, Dell Computer, and Gibson Greetings. The Mexican peso crisis. What did all these disasters have in common? A class of financial instruments known as derivatives -- the most dangerous (and profitable) products ever devised on Wall Street. In FIASCO, a former derivatives salesman takes readers onto the trading floor of a leading investment bank -- and in a tell-all, no-holds-barred expos, reveals for the first time the ugly truth about these complex financial products and the people who peddle them. Writing with the same eye for telling details as Michael Lewis in Liar's Poker, Frank Partnoy shows how the once genteel world of investment banking has now become a place where the rallying cry is "There's blood in the water. Let's go kill someone."
Partnoy was in his late twenties when he landed the job of his dreams -- a position in Morgan Stanley's Derivatives Products Group, the single most profitable division of the venerable investment bank. With vivid character sketches and a wealth of funny-yet-disturbing anecdotes, Partnoy takes us inside the culture of Morgan Stanley's derivatives group. Encouraged by upper management and egged on by gun-toting senior salesmen, derivatives had become a business-as-war, take-no-prisoners operation where people pored over Soldier of Fortune and gloated when they sold a product that "ripped off" a client's face.
As he leads us through the ups and downs of his fifteen months at Morgan Stanley, Partnoy explains in plain English what derivatives are -- and shows how he and the other "rocket scientists" at the bank custom-designed these arcane financial products to dodge government regulators, encourage foreign currency speculation by pension and mutual funds, disguise risky gambles with AAA Standard & Poor's ratings, and avoid capital gains taxes for weathy individuals. He also details, for the first time, the deal that earned Morgan Stanley the fattest fee in Wall Street history -- a $74.5 million profit for devising a derivative that wiped hundreds of millions in losses off a Japanese company's balance sheet. But dreaming up ever more complicated derivatives products -- Dollarized Yield Curve Notes, Constant Maturity Treasury Floaters, Trigger Notes, and Total Return Swaps, to name a few -- was never enough. For the bank to earn its fee, they had to be sold -- usually, as Partnoy notes, either to "cheaters" (fund managers who wanted riskier investments than their regulators or charters normally allowed) or to "widows and orphans" (unsophisticated fund managers who couldn't understand the risks in fine print).
Throughout the book, Partnoy gives us a trading-floor view of the disasters fueled by derivatives trading and provides the formula of greed, daring, and ingenuity that are the basic ingredients of all derivatives. Written with humor, insight, and a mounting sense of moral outrage, FIASCO is both a brilliant insider's account of investment banking today and a blistering indictment of the largely unregulated market in derivatives -- a book that everyone who has a pension plan or invests in mutual funds needs to read.
Customer Reviews:
This best part of this book is it's a loan to me.......2006-03-15
The copy I read was a loan from my colleague and that was the best part about it. I'm sure I wouldn't have bought this book myself.
Other than that, the only better part is in the description of how some Japanese companies used financial derivatives to inflate their revenue or to mask their losses. In light of the off-balance-sheet deals we have witnessed in several corporate scandals through late 1990s to early 2000s, the author surely shows what could have been under the rug.
The author might have been honest with what he had come across with his fixed income derivatives sales jobs in two Wall Street firms. Yet I sincerely doubt how wide and deep such exposure he could have on things going around that complex world from his narrow corner. It's like telling the stories of Detroit after having been a used car salesperson for two or three years.
Over the book, there are the author's opinions on how great the fixed income derivatives department is and how low the others, e.g., municipal bonds, are. Apparently those opinions are very subjective as I believe he didn't have sufficient knowledge on the other operations to base his opinions. At least, he didn't seem to have worked or learned about the works in those other areas.
Even in the author's own fixed income derivatives department, the reader cannot find much on works, say, product structuring or risk management, outside the sales team. Simply put, we understand that the firm puts together certain derivatives products and hold inventory of them until they're sold. What would the firm be if market conditions changed before its salespersons could dump the products to the seemingly ignorant customers?
Another drawback with this book is the author tends to argue that since there is huge money to be made with these financial transactions, the government would never be able to impose an effective regulation for the public good.
It may be natural for the author to argue on the regulation issues, based on the fact that he left Wall Street to pursue a legal career. The fallacy of that argument in the book is it fails to recognize two prerequisites of the issue: whether and what regulation can protect the public good.
Fair to say is regulations surely can increase employment for lawyers but not necessarily serve the public good.
Here's why derivatives become more and more complex.......2003-01-02
The book has the merit of going through the most complex derivatives and structured products explaining to a fair extent business motivations behind the deal, an information that is not only confidential, but that constitutes the bread and butter of investment banks.
I loved the book until I got to the last chapter. I would have rated this book ... if it wasn't for this last chapter that the author has added in more recent editions.
I would like to make two comments:
The book tends to explain the concept of present value in simple words, but still wants to go through the most complex derivatives. As a result, certain parts are boring to someone without the financial background, but I would doubt that anyone without the financial background would make it to the second chapter or even be attracted to the book.
My second criticism is regarding the last chapter, "Epilogue". This chapter ruins the book. The author develops an anti-derivatives theory that turns to be amusing. As everyone knows, a tool is neither good nor bad by itself. It is what one achieves with the tool that is good or bad. This principle is also valid for derivatives. It is useless, not to say irritating to go through a list of lawsuits and settlements. This is not proving any further that derivatives are bad or that investment banks are evil.
Good, entertaining reading about derivatives.......2002-03-01
Now that there is a proven market for recent financial history/humor books, after the stunning success of Liars Poker, Predator's Ball and Den of Theives, this book FIASCO is another one of these books that tries to emulate the financial stories from the 1980's.
To my knowledge it is the first book to take on the derivatves trading industry, which is extremely volatile and can be the most risky sector of the financial markets, if you choose to speculate in it. More importantly, there will eventually be a derivatives disaster outside of the Long-term Capital one that occurred a couple of years ago.
This book, as I read it, is highly sensationalist. I have worked in the financial service industry with institutions and chose to leave the industry about a year ago. Here are my thoughts on this book as it relates to the derivatives markets.
1. Mr. Partnoy gives a high level description of some of the transactions that he was involved in
2. He seems to be indicting the market in derivatives, which I disagree on since he is dealing with institutions, which already should have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients. If they are dumb and allow an investment bank to "rips their face off" as Partnoy claims then they shouldn't be 1) in those financial products or (2) doing business with them. It is their choice!
3. From the reading it seemed as though Partnoy doesn't understand his role in the machine known as Wall Street. He is a salesmen, pure and simple. He gets paid to ring the register, nothing more. Other people construct the deals and he is the marketer to clients. If he makes clients money they should come back more and more. Often times, there are MANY other factors that cause business to vary from firm to firm. LOTS of different agendas/goals in mind.
4. Some of his anecdotes, particularly those in which he discusses the atmosphere in an investment bank around bonus time (pg.40 - 42, 202 - 205), are pretty amusing and dead on accurate.
5. The author's descriptions of some of his deals are clearly told from a junior banker's perspective, but they do a good job of putting forth what was being done, how it was being done, what everyone's perceived incentives for the transaction were, the work required to get the deal done, what kind of money, and importantly what kind of fees were involved.
In conclusion, like all books written by former investment bankers the book contains liberally sprinkled anecdotes regarding job interviews from hell, the ridiculous daily escapades that can occur on a trading floor, strip clubs, the lack of personal lives, gambling trips and other stories which could easily have been pulled from the pages of Mr. Lewis's book or "Monkey Business" by Rolfe and Troob. Folks, not all folks on Wall Street are like that but a HUGE percentage are. Nothing wrong with that lifestyle but it is a choice everyone is free to make. Hope this helps everyone.
A lesson in 'let the buyer beware'.......2002-01-23
Partnoy takes the reader through many real-life examples of how greedy, ignorant people can be taken by clever salesmen. He demonstrates the stupid bravado of clients who, for fear of looking unsophisticated, continue to buy what they do not understand. Incredibly, these people are apparently in charge of many other people's fortunes, retirement incomes and lives and they generally behave as gamblers in a Las Vegas casino.
Buy Liar's Poker instead.......2001-10-09
Ok let me get this straight. Here is a guy that believes in the efficient market theory but was a salesman/trader. There are tons of conflicts in the book. Partnoy is obviously a professor now. He is practically begging for more regulation in investment banking and feels that financial reporters and professors are not only smarter but deserve more money compared to the investment bankers. He starts out at First Boston and is doing well financially. Then moves to Morgan Stanley and does complicated derivative deals and makes a ton of money. Now a professor and investment banking is pure evil (now that he made a ton of money). Another conflict is Partnoy said he quit Morgan Stanley but on page 277 he writes "...I am not referring what Morgan Stanley did to me." This is where he is talking about another Morgan Stanley employee being fired. I rate this book 2 stars because it was somewhat entertaining but think about this before you buy it. Do you really want to read a book by an author who believes in the efficient market theory but also worked as a salesman/trader? I only bought this book for $3.29 used on amazon.com. I definitely wouldn't recommend paying full price for it.
Book Description
Blood on the Street is a riveting account of the Wall Street scam in which ordinary investors lost literally billions of dollars -- in many cases their life savings -- in one of the greatest deceptions ever, by the crack reporter who broke the original story.
In one of the most outrageous examples of dirty dealing in the history of Wall Street, hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit profits were made during the booming 1990s as a result of research analysts issuing positive stock ratings on companies that kicked back investment banking business. Now, for the first time, award-winning journalist Charles Gasparino reveals the whole fascinating story of greed, arrogance, and corruption.
It was Gasparino's front-page reporting in The Wall Street Journal that brought the story to national attention and spurred New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer to launch an official probe. Now, Gasparino goes behind his own headlines to tell the inside story of this spectacular swindle -- with revelations from his unprecedented access to never-before-published depositions and documents, including e-mail exchanges leading all the way up to Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill.
Drawing on his research and interviews with industry insiders, Gasparino takes readers into the back rooms of Wall Street's top investment firms and captures the outsize personalities of three key players: Salomon Smith Barney's Jack Grubman, a braggart with one of the largest salaries on Wall Street; Merrill Lynch's Henry Blodget, the Yale graduate who hyped his way to the top of the research pyramid; and Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker, the "Queen of the Internet," who foresaw the market catastrophe but gave in to the pressures Blood on the Street shows how regulators, like former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt, allowed the deceptive practices to fester and grow during the 1990s bubble, leaving the door open for a then- little-known attorney general from New York State to step in and make his mark by holding Wall Street accountable.
Gasparino provides the first major account of Spitzer's rise to prominence, detailing how the attorney general pursued key players to build his case against Wall Street, including his shifting allegiance to the powerful New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso.
A fast-paced narrative rich in sharp insights, Blood on the Street is the definitive book on the financial debacle that affected millions of Americans.
Download Description
"Blood on the Street is a riveting account of the Wall Street scam in which ordinary investors lost literally billions of dollars -- in many cases their life savings -- in one of the greatest deceptions ever, by the crack reporter who broke the original story. In one of the most outrageous examples of dirty dealing in the history of Wall Street, hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit profits were made during the booming 1990s as a result of research analysts issuing positive stock ratings on companies that kicked back investment banking business. Now, for the first time, award-winning journalist Charles Gasparino reveals the whole fascinating story of greed, arrogance, and corruption. It was Gasparino's front-page reporting in The Wall Street Journal that brought the story to national attention and spurred New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer to launch an official probe. Now, Gasparino goes behind his own headlines to tell the inside story of this spectacular swindle -- with revelations from his unprecedented access to never-before-published depositions and documents, including e-mail exchanges leading all the way up to Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill. Drawing on his research and interviews with industry insiders, Gasparino takes readers into the back rooms of Wall Street's top investment firms and captures the outsize personalities of three key players: Salomon Smith Barney's Jack Grubman, a braggart with one of the largest salaries on Wall Street; Merrill Lynch's Henry Blodget, the Yale graduate who hyped his way to the top of the research pyramid; and Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker, the ""Queen of the Internet,"" who foresaw the market catastrophe but gave in to the pressures Blood on the Street shows how regulators, like former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt, allowed the deceptive practices to fester and grow during the 1990s bubble, leaving the door open for a then- little-known attorney general from New York State to step in and make his mark by holding Wall Street accountable. Gasparino provides the first major account of Spitzer's rise to prominence, detailing how the attorney general pursued key players to build his case against Wall Street, including his shifting allegiance to the powerful New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso. A fast-paced narrative rich in sharp insights, Blood on the Street is the definitive book on the financial debacle that affected millions of Americans. "
Customer Reviews:
More background and wider perspective than Dan Reingold's book.......2007-03-18
I read this book after I read Dan Reingold's book, which is copyrighted 2006 while this is copyrighted 2005. It reaffirms a lot about the conflict of interests, sexing e-mails, and tying of research recommendations with admission into private schools, but covers the same issues in the Internet sector as well. This book made me realised that actually a lot of the details are in the papers, except that I missed most of it during that time because I was not paying attention to Wall Street. It reaffirms the feeling I had that stock investing is really dangerous for the small investors, as the big guys are clearly in this to milk as much out of the "fat tail" of small investors as much as possible. However, investing in mutual funds may not really be a solution either, since they are also at the mercy of whether the research report(s) they are relying on is truthful or not.
It also puts into perspective the political undercurrent going on behind the scene.
Finally, there is a quote in the Epilogue that sends a chill down my spine, "They always eat their own." Even though the Epilogue is short (308-317), the fact that it is still an interesting chapter is a credit to how good this book is.
Comparing Dan Reingold's book with this one, the former is clearly a vent of the frustration he had with not being able to compete with the supposed number one analyst in the telecom industry, whereas the latter offers a far wider perspective that just a two-person rivalry. I should have thought of it earlier - the difference between that of an analyst that is deep into a particular sector is far more narrorw-minded that that of a reporter.
An Interesting Tale.......2007-03-03
In Blood on the Street, Charles Gasparino tells an intriguing story about biased sell-side Wall Street research. Regardless of your feelings on the matter, you will read the book quite amazed at the level of the detail in his descriptions of various events. Accounts of meetings, email messages and one-on-one conversations are retold in granular detail. Some even get quite racy with graphic images of propositions by one female analyst towards a male counterpart. In total, the book makes for engaging story, especially if the reader has any interest in the inner workings of Wall Street.
In providing so much detail, the book is significantly longer than it needs to be. But it isn't so much about the message as it is entertainment. The characters in the book were on par with those in fictional world. At the same time, the key events in the book were public news by the time it was written. There is no smoking gun not already known to the public. So be prepared to read for enjoyment not edification.
If you have particular feelings about the matter of Wall Street research, you might walk away with the opinion the author was highly biased against sell-side analysts and their soft dollar revenue streams. Gasparino glosses over the established "framework" as one analyst puts it that didn't necessary generate unbiased opinions. With a high proportion of "buys", "holds" that implied "sells" and virtually no "sells" across all analyst recommendations, it was clear that there was a great deal of salesmanship in the reports. Presumably, most readers would have known this before starting the book. Even so, there didn't appear to be any attempt to tell the other side of the story.
It would have been nice to gain a better understanding of the logic involved in the sell-side equity research process. Obviously, endlessly hyping stocks only will lead to a crash as fundamentals across the board will not be able to keep pace. This lack of the other side of the story is my one complaint about the book. Yet, even with this problem, it is still a worthwhile read.
A VIVID, FASCINATING Look at Wall Street's REAL GAME!!!.......2007-03-03
This book is a PAGE TURNER
If you love Wall Street and what really goes on in the trenches, there may not be a better read than what Charles Gasparino has put together in Blood on the Street. The author takes on the big names of Wall Street during the late 1990's, the so-called Internet Bubble years.
You get vivid portraits of the players, and you either love them or hate them. The one thing this author promises you, is that you won't be sitting on the fence as you read through every chapter. The characters are brought to life. You feel as though you are in the room with them while the stories are playing themselves out.
You realize how gullible investors can be, and how some of the smartest people in the world are just as subject to crowd psychology as everybody else. This is the world of big money, of the movers and the shakers. By the time Gasparino is done putting together his portraits of these people, your understanding of Wall Street will never be the same. You will also realize that a million dollar a year paycheck just ranks as a beginner.
These are just some of the characters you will meet, and come to admire or hate:
Eliot Spitzer
What a breath of fresh air, the New York State attorney general became during the entire Internet debacle. The first man to take on the system on its own turf, using laws drafted 80 years ago, that were never employed before. Spitzer displayed extraordinary courage, and legal skills in waging legal war against individuals with unlimited financial resources at their disposal, plus the clout to make phone calls to the right people. Spitzer just wouldn't let go, and ultimately exacted huge, monster size settlements from the perpetrators who thought they were above the law.
Jack Grubman
This was the Salomon Smith Barney technology analyst who thought he was smart, when he was simply riding a tidal wave, and taking credit for it too. Paine Webber's Joe Grano, a very astute former Green Beret, had Grubman pegged when the analyst tried to use a Salomon competing job offer to hold up Paine Webber for an increase in salary to $3 million plus.
Grano essentially told Grubman "Not to let the door kick him in the a-- on the way out." Grubman went on to make $15 and $20 million annual paychecks at Salomon by bringing investment banking deals through the door, and then getting paid on them as well as writing up stock research. This was the biggest conflict Attorney General Spitzer had ever seen, and he put Grubman through the ringer for it.
You'll love the story of how Grubman traded a favorable write-up on a very famous company that he had been knocking for years and years, until Grubman needed to get his child into a very famous Eastside kiddy school. Grubman leans all over the Chairman of his company to get him to write a letter, make a phone call, just do anything you can to get my kid into that school. In essence what Grubman does is trade his soul for a slot at the school. Ultimately with the ensuing scandal, the poor child never did get to go to the school.
Henry Blodget
What a guy Blodget was. This the Yale graduate who without an analytical bone in his body or mind, went to the top of the Internet Analyst ranks by becoming the number one player in the game at Merrill Lynch. I equate him to the character in the movie, "Being There", Chance the Gardener. He simply played off the needs of a sales force of 12,000 professionals to believe in someone, because they could not believe in themselves. Blodget had every top executive at Merrill Lynch fooled into thinking he was a genius; the reality is he was an incompetent, highly lucky guy for a while.
Mary Meeker
Meeker was the Queen of the Internet. Hired away from SG Cowen by Morgan Stanley in the early 1990's, she to her credit was one of the truly early people to recognize the power of the new technology that the Internet was bringing into fashion. She rocked Wall Street by bringing the Netscape Communications initial public offering to Morgan Stanley in 1995.
Spitzer drilled her for hours, but in the end decided not to CRUSH her. The press on the other hand destroyed her reputation on a daily basis after the Internet Bubble burst. Her employer Morgan Stanley was not left untainted by the scandal even if legally Meeker was. The investment banking firm had to contribute a fortune to a global settlement engineered by Attorney General Spitzer. Today Meeker remains head of the global technology research team at Morgan Stanley.
There are other players in this book, which includes long pieces on Sandy Weill, the magical corporate engineer who capped his career with recreating Citigroup. Sandy Weill managed to escaped this volatile period unscathed, another tribute to his massive ability to survive and weather any storm. His reputation was tarnished by the experience, but still there is still some difference between being tarnished, and dragged into a court of law like some of these other characters that author Charles Gasparino is writing about.
In conclusion, if you want a book that you can't put down, written in a way that is just down out fascinating to read about how everybody got wrapped up in the Internet Bubble, than you don't have look any further. This book tells it all. In a weekend, you will knock out this book and love every minute of it. You will also count your blessings if you survived the financial destruction that this period is about. Good luck.
Richard Stoyeck
Great, great book about those lovely Bubble years $$$$$!!!!!!.......2007-02-16
I love how "Blood on the Street" starts with a description of Jeff Liddle, one of the legal brethren who embodies my personal attitude about litigation: Treat your opponent like a filthy pig, and step on his neck until he squeals. Liddle knows the law, and has a field day with shareholder suits against poorly managed Wall Street firms, which allowed major conflicts of interest to grow among their ranks in pursuit of dot-com wealth. Author Charles Gasparino provides a riveting account of how the research function become corrupted at Merrill Lynch and Salomon Smith Barney, and how New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer gave the Masters of the Universe a good, New York City ash-kickin'.
Great Narrative.......2006-05-18
I read this book and what I like about it is the great narrative flow. It's a difficult subject but the author really manages to make it come alive.
Amazon.com
Guido Brunetti, the protagonist of Donna Leon's brilliant series about crime in high and low places in Venice, Italy, is back in a smart thriller about a murdered street vendor, one of the illegal immigrants who sell fake fashion accessories outside the tourist mecca's high-priced boutiques while trying to stay one step ahead of the law. Someone had a reason for wanting the nameless African man dead, and the search for the killers and the men who sent them to Brunetti's beloved and beautifully evoked city shortly before Christmas leads the thoughtful, multifaceted and uxorious Commissario to the unfamiliar Venetian milieu where the vu cumpra live. In the cramped, airless room where the Senegalese vendors manage to find shelter, Guido discovers a fortune in so-called "conflict diamonds" hidden among the murdered man's meager belongings. But finding the diamonds' provenance and the killers who were seeking them proves to be an exercise in bureaucratic misdirection. Warned off the case by his boss in the name of "national security," Guido nonetheless persists with his investigation, in the course of which he discovers what--and who--really matters to him. Leon depicts the city she also clearly loves with such skill the reader can almost hear the watter lapping at the edges of the canals and smell the espresso beans roasting in the crisp cold winter air. A tour de force from an author whose reputation for skillful plotting, extraordinary descriptive powers, and complex characters has earned her a loyal base of fans; if you haven't discovered her work before this, Blood from a Stone will only whet your appetite for her extensive backlist of titles featuring Brunetti and his colleagues. --Jane Adams
Book Description
Blood from a Stone brings Donna Leon's celebrated character Commissario Guido Brunetti back on the scene: On a cold Venetian night shortly before Christmas, a street vendor is killed in a scuffle in Campo San Stefano. The closest witnesses to the event are the tourists who had been browsing the man's wares before his death-fake handbags of every designer label. The dead man is one of the many African immigrants purveying goods outside normal shop hours and trading without a work permit. Like everybody involved, Commissario Brunetti wonders why anyone would kill an illegal immigrant. But once Brunetti begins to investigate this unfamiliar Venetian underworld, he discovers that matters of great value are at stake within the secretive society. Warned by Patta, his superior, to resist further involvement in the case, Brunetti only becomes more determined to unearth the truth behind this mysterious killing. Reluctant as he is to let this event be smugly relegated to the category of "not worth dealing with," how far will Brunetti be able to penetrate the murky subculture in this illegal community? Blood from a Stone is an exquisite and irresistible mystery offering an unexpected take on life in contemporary Venice.
Customer Reviews:
Should it be considered a mystery?.......2007-08-24
I have mixed feelings about this book and I would have given it one star if it weren't because she touches a very important theme, although she does it in such a pathetic way that you are left with that 'Orwelian' feeling that things are just getting worse!
It didn't take more than 50 pages for me to begin to get impatient with this book. The plot unravels so slowly and, granted that Brunetti's bosses want it that way, Donna Leon wasted precious opportunities to keep the reader's interest. Her characters are dull, her descriptions of places and characters border on the cliche, in short, she does not make you grow fond of the characters. Brunetti's character is simply lame. There is absolutely nothing extraordinary about him. It almost seems that is wife would be more equipped for his job than he is. He seems insecure, shy and untalented. She introduces 'phantom' characters of sorts who don't bring much to the table. I read she is a famous and known writer because of her insight on Italian life and ways. However, her insight on Venice, apart from constant reference to various landmarks, is minimal. I kept on wondering, has this woman ever been there or did she just read about Venice on a guidebook? I cannot say this was a distinctively Italian mystery. Brunetti seems more like an American blue collar worker to me.
I have to say though that the way the plot unravels is different and surprising. Pity she didn't use it to her advantage. She could have touched on the intricacies of the plan, and in the end the reader is left with the notion of what happened but with a few questions unanswered...
Coming from a background of Agatha Christie mysteries, I don't consider this worth my time or that of a serious mystery reader. Brunetti, like Paris Hilton, is famous for having done nothing. He just makes a few calls and that's it. No insight. No "little gray cells". No brains whatsoever, pure speculation and "pulling of strings". I do understand not every murder can get solved, let alone given justice. However, her idea was grand but her execution pathetic. Folks, don't waste your time with this one.
Perfect Pacing and Delicious Accents in David Colacci's Reading.......2007-08-06
Books full of psychology and verbal sparring rather than action benefit from being listened to rather than read. The professional reader (or author) is able to use timing, pace, and pauses to bring inaction to life and invite you deeper inside the mind of the narrator. I found that David Collaci's reading of Blood from a Stone upgraded this book from a four-star effort as a personal read into a five-star listening experience through the unabridged CD.
The main character in Blood from a Stone isn't Commissario Guido Brunetti, but rather the city of Venice. If you know and love Venice, you'll add one star to your experience with this book or CD by being reminded of your great experiences there.
The book is a near-literary-quality novel, even though portrayed in a police procedural format. Ms. Leon is much more interested in having your think about what it means to be a good human than in intriguing you with her mystery and exciting you with her plot. The book raises fundamental questions about our connections to every other person on the planet, our colleagues, friends, loved ones, and family members. Although the book will seem preachy at times about one view or another, Ms. Leon leaves plenty of room for you to draw your own conclusions. But you'll definitely find your sensitivity honed as you think about more dimensions of relations with others . . . and their consequences for you and others.
As the book opens, two assassins stalk and kill an illegal street vendor who is a black African. The police don't rush to the scene and don't find any helpful information to identify the man. Commissario Brunetti makes slow progress through a combination of Signorina Ellatra's computer and persuasive skills, his own snooping around, and Sgt. Vianello's willingness to provide loyal shoe leather and silence. A visit to the abode of the victim yields more clues, but no identity. The clues raise disturbing questions that don't belong in a police investigation.
Soon, Vice-Questore Patta is telling Brunetti that he should go through the motions and not find the killer. The pressure to ignore the killing grows. Brunetti plays along while pursuing a hidden investigation that features his trustworthy colleagues, friends, and family in off-the-record activities. Why is the fix in? Brunetti can only speculate until late in the story.
The book's conclusion leaves Brunetti with an interesting dilemma, one that you should think about as though it were your own before you find out what Brunetti does.
The strength of this book is in its superb portrayal of the ambivalent attitudes and relationships among the illegal African street vendors, the police, the vendors' customers, ordinary citizens, and the vendors' landlords. Ms. Leon does a wonderful job of getting across the full range of perspectives and experiences. Ultimately, she wants you to decide what the crimes are and who the criminals are in the illegal set-up from a moral rather than a judicial perspective.
If, however, you just want an intriguing and fast-paced mystery, you'll wonder what all of the side trips into philosophical questions are all about.
One of her best.......2007-03-09
I think this is one of the best that Leon has written. Maybe I'm somewhat influenced by a recent trip back to Venice and lots of encounters with the "vu cumpra" (mostly Senegales who sell fake Gucci, Prada etc.). But it was a good read with a fairly complex plot that managed to tie together the murder, the locale and the good Commissario with international themes of terrorism and systemic corruption.
Venice Lover.......2007-02-13
I thoroughly enjoy Donna Leon. Her sense of place, her characters, her menu descriptions and her stories. Bon appetito!
Not Her Best.......2006-06-19
I love the Brunetti books, but this one just seems to miss the gondola, as it were. It's a mystery in which which Brunetti seems to be more of a spectator than the solving sleuth. Even Leon's usually amusing interchanges between Brunetti and his boss Patta lack spark here. About the only thing in which this book excels is Leon's descriptions of Venice. Armed with my map of the city, I follow all the action canal-by-canal, calle-by-calle. So, mainly for the travelogue I give it three stars. Donna Leon is a superstar in my book and I guess she is allowed to occasionally boot one. Hope her next book regains the artistry that her previous offerings do.
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In the Blood
Suzan-Lori Parks
Manufacturer: Dramatist's Play Service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0822217562 |
Customer Reviews:
Review.......2006-01-30
The book is in mint condition and was delivered in 3 days. Wonderful experience!
Customer Reviews:
I Waited YEARS To Get This..........2006-11-19
I first learned about this book in 1993 - when it was out of print. I had become acquainted with James Dale Davidson and his sequel to this book, The Great Reckoning. It took nearly a decade before I found a copy...and I am very glad I did.
This isn't light reading...so be forewarned.
The wisdom was true back then...only those in the know were aware of these tactics for amassing wealth by paying attention to whether there truly is VALUE in an industry, in spite of the prices, in spite of the headlines...and preferably buy low, VERY low.
One of the most fundamental teachings...when an industry is fundamentally sound, if everyone is throwing away their share because of some sort of governmental calamity, new article or reporting, does the value of that industry or commodity go away?
No!
So when does it make sense to pick up share?
When there's blood in the streets. Yes...when everyone else is getting rid of their shares/ownership, then you can pick up REAL ASSETS for pennies to dimes on the dollar.
And then wait til they rebound - when the situation that made them "risky" turns around.
Has this strategy worked? Yes, many and many a time. Just look back a decade or so ago when Argentina was having its problems. The inflation was rampant. However other currencies were HARD MONEY to theirs - and you could pick up good investments cheap - then hold them for the ride back to stabilization.
Again...these strategies usually have some holding period for the undervalued asset to rebound. But rebound many of them do.
Examples: junior gold stocks bought for pennies and sold for dollars. Yacht clubs bought, upgraded and resold to upscale international patrons for very big profits.
Pick this book up...and gain insight into how real wealth is made and accumulated. This one key insight works.
With all the economic turmoil going around, I think I need to read this book again!
Absurd in 1987, but Prophetic in 2004.......2004-06-22
The 1987 U.S. stock market crash gave rise to all sorts of "now is the time to panic" and "the world is ending soon" books about financial crises, and economic depressions.
None of it came to pass, because the Reagan revolution demolished communism without a shooting war, and global capitalism surged in the aftermath.
But in 2004, the next world war has already begun. It is an economic war, where blocs of countries are being organized and urged to join in alliances rooted in ethnicity, religion, or nationality. It is also a culture war, rooted in religion and ethnicity (Islam against 'the west') with a long history that makes it far less amenable to a rational or peaceful resolution thatn was 'The Cold War'.
The US failue to define terms of engagement, and thereby control the outcome of the Iraq war of 2003-2004 is the end of the dream for a Pax Americana, with the US acting as the arsenal of a unified, largely democratic world. Instead, we have the non-polarized and chaotic world that authors Davidson and Rees-Moog feared.
It is a world where capital flows along paths of least resistance, and once welthy populations are devastated by capital outflows. Governments will likely become more tyrannical and shift from benevolent welfare statism to active police statism -- to preserve order.
The book takes its title from the infamous Baron von Rothschild quote about investing where blood runs in the streets. In such places, people crave peace, and safety. They care not who makes the laws, nor who coins the money.
WHile this book seemed absured and hyperbolic in 1987 (like most of the gloom and doom texts of that year), it sees eerily prophetic looking ahead past 2004 and 2005. State-less terrorism is a defining power in today's world. Economies with aging populations are becoming consumption societies, which produce less as the populations age. As exports drop, net inflows of wealth dry up, and the results are soaring government debt, declining employment opportunities for younger people, and increased class divisions and stratifications.
The "great depression of 1990", predicted by dozens of authors, was postposned by the fall of communism, and the expansion of capitalism into eastern Europe & Russia. The collapse of Communism also resulted in a 'peace dividend' that reduced defense costs in the U.S., and provided financial capital to fund new business ventures and fuel economic growth.
The U.S. federal reserve (and other central banks) keept inflation low by funding productive rather than defensive projects. The commercializing of formerly military & defense technologies (the internet, for example) generated economic expansion. That was a cyclical expansion, dependent on the creation of major new growth industries. In the 1990's it was information technologies (communications, networking of data systems, and the opportunities created by rapidly dropping costs for Information Technology equipment. Biotech and life-sciences, the next (current) new industry, has not proved to be stable or predictable in terms of products and markets. Financing models are far less certain.
The economic growth and expansion cycle made possible by the 'peace dividend' and the rapid global advances for Information & Communications tecchnologies postponed the "great depression of 1990". But with a new global war clearly underway, defense and the economic austerity needed to fund a long term global military effort will be the focus of governments. Civil peace is out, and general prosperity is no longer a priority. Thus, it appears that the expansion cycle is coming to an end. The Great depression of 1990 may become the (even greater) depression of 2010.
It is almost scary to read this book from 1987 and realize that the authors may be correct, but their time-line was about 16-17 years ahead of events.
A Now Book.......2004-02-23
Davidson and Rees-Moog team up to tell us that when things seem the worse may be the time to take advantage of opportunity. The Chinese symbol for crisis also means opportunity.
This book shows that throughout history, some of the greatest became that way because they had the forethought, and sadly, sometimes the foreknowledge, of events that they took advantage of them and won in a big way.
The title of the book comes from Lord Rothshild's statement about when blood is running in the streets, invest in a future. Of course, what to invest in is really the question. This book will give you a look to see and evaluate the opportunities that are out there.
Although the book was written in 1987, it is a now book, filled with facts of how to take advantage of a market. Hey, did Warren Buffett read this? Or did he understand the concept of "Blood in the Streets."
Customer Reviews:
Great from cover to cover.......1999-02-10
One of my favorite Shadowrun novels. I highly recomend this to all Sci-fi/fantasy readers.
Gritty novel that captures the benighted feel of Shadowrun........1999-01-16
I enjoyed this novel a lot. It was fast moving and the megacorporate plot was truly serpentine. Among the characters is a master plotter nearly equal to the corps in Geraint, unlike most SR novles where straightforward hoop-kicking runners figure things out through shear grit and persistence. England in the world of Shadowrun is a dismal place and Sargent and Gascgoigne capture this feel well. The ending is also as bittersweet as it should be. Most Shadowrun novels have happy endings, which seem out of place in the grim future dominated by megacorporations.
Average customer rating:
- The greatest heroes that never were...
|
Streets of Blood (Nevermen, Book 2)
Phil Amara ,
Guy Davis , and
Dave Stewart
Manufacturer: Dark Horse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1569718237 |
Book Description
After saving Midnight City from the twisted machinations of mutant villains, the Nevermen return to their lives as everyday citizens, unaware that an even greater threat stirs far below the city streets. He calls himself Winterbone, and he has something catastrophic in store for the city's goggled gangbusters. To end Winterbone's icy reign of terror, our Nevermen have got to find out who this creep is and how he knows so much about their past. But they aren't going to like what they find out. Streets of Blood, the follow up to the critically acclaimed, existential thriller, answers questions and reveals secrets about the enigmatic protectors of the innocent.
Customer Reviews:
The greatest heroes that never were..........2007-10-10
This is the follow-up to the Amara & Davis's first Nevermen effort. Though not at long a read or epic a story, Streets of Blood has all of the strengths of the first outing, while amping up the action a bit.
The monolithic deco-style city is still as big a character as the heroes themselves, and plays an impressive backdrop for the Nevermen's pulp/noir adventures. Details are dealt out about the Professor, Muderist, and the Nevermen, though Amara is still holding most of the cards close to his chest; no real revelations were cut loose, but he definitely gives the impression that they are coming.
The main villain is Winterbone, another of the Professor's creations and predecessor to the Nevermen. Trapped and frozen in the Professor's tower, Winterbone is released during the catastrophe at the end of the first book. Free at last, Winterbone collects and unifies the surreal and horrific criminal elements of the city, and plans to revenge himself against his father.
Amara's writing is much stronger in this book, and the dialog is much easier to follow. Davis's artwork is better than ever, and lends an fun-loving energy to unusual citizens of the Nevermen's hometown. Visually this book is as beautiful and dynamic as the first, and is a gritty delight to follow the Nevermen as they belt out justice, two-fisted style.
For those who love super-powered action, but are tired of capes, masks, and perfect heroes, this is a great change of pace. The heroes are fractured, the villains grotesque, and bystanders walk along like nothing is out of the ordinary. An enjoyable, if not surreal, read.
Product Description
Multiple books shipped as one item for your convenience. Save on Shipping/Handling charges.
Books:
- Fatal Revenant (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)
- Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems (5th Edition)
- Fortune's Fool (Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Book 3)
- Gehenna, the Final Night: The Final Night (Vampire the Masquerade)
- Ghosts of Vesuvius: A New Look at the Last Days of Pompeii, How Towers Fall, and Other Strange Connections
- Grandfather Tang's Story (Dragonfly Books)
- Heart Full of Soul: An Inspirational Memoir About Finding Your Voice and Finding Your Way
- Heaven and Hell (North and South Trilogy Series Volume 3)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
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