Chapter Four

Continuing my reading of the Nicky Marsh book.

In chapter four, Ms Marsh turns her attention to works she evidently considers not-very-literary, low brow potboilers. These are the finance world's equivalent of John Grisham or Tom Clancy.

She says that there was a "rash of novels" that applied thriller conventions to the world of finance not long after the arrest of Nick Leeson at Frankfurt Airport in March 1995.

The resulting novels seem to be read largely by people with connections to the finance industry themselves, and to be read as if they're in code, in an effort to dope out who or what is the story-behind-the-story. One such author, Paul Kilduff, posts appreciative reader e-mails on his website and Marsh quotes a bit of that.

"Is your story really based on true facts? If yes, could you indicate to me a web site where I could access the information you used to write your novel? All I recognized was the LTCM bankruptcy in the first part of the book."

His readers have an eye for detail, and want to be helpful, as shown by other examples Marsh quotes. "And in HK the main MTR interchange is Admiralty not Central...the DAX is not the name for the German Stock Exchange. It is the name for the German counterpart of the Dow Jones," and so forth.

If this makes any one curious to see that website, feel free.

Just Click Here.