August 1, 2021
Drawing on four decades' worth of experience in international finance, debuter Newman introduces a group of former military men intent on getting their favorite candidate elected president so they can step in and restructure foreign policy and U.S. society itself. That means forming alliances with the people who know where the illicit money is. Along the way, readers pass through New York and Washington, then on to the Middle East, the French countryside, and Putin's private restaurant in St. Petersburg. With a 150,000-copy first printing.
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November 1, 2021
Newman’s overstuffed debut, a financial political thriller, opens on a promising note when ex-military types from the U.S., assisted by Russian contractors, intercept a $2 billion cash drop in the remote Jordanian desert for use as seed money for an eventual presidential campaign. Ben Corn, Nebraska’s junior senator and a decorated combat vet, is to be that candidate. Three years after the heist, the cabal selects billionaire Elias Vicker’s Industrial Strategies hedge fund as the vehicle to launder their cash with members of the group managing a shadow takeover. Industrial Strategies, as it turns out, is in business with individuals with direct connections to Vladimir Putin and are manipulating markets through sabotaging key infrastructure. Much of the book is taken up with intricate backstories of various characters’ financial shenanigans, with little action to move things along. Loose ends suggest that this may be intended as a series opener. Readers will hope Newman, a veteran of the world of global finance, provides a stronger hero and a more exciting plot next time. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM Partners.
November 15, 2021
To finance a better future, some comrades in arms steal a lot of money. Under the aegis of Army Gen. Tommy Taylor, a group of soldiers steals more than $2 billion, intended for bribes in Syria, to help advance the career of Nebraska's junior senator, Ben Corn. Naturally, there are some not-very-ordinary people involved: CIA agent Greta Webb is beautiful, worldly, brilliant, sexually omnivorous, practiced in the art of deception, and lethal in several disciplines, while Don Carter, in charge of security, has raised paranoia to an art form. Also present at the heist, though not a member of the group, is Fyodor Volk, head of the Parsifal Group--a Blackwater-like paramilitary organization--and one of Vladimir Putin's favorite minions. Parsifal had contracted to provide backup security for the operation, and Volk quickly figures out what is being stolen and initiates a close relationship with Webb and the money. It turns out that having $2 billion is not the same as spending $2 billion, and a lot of exposition is provided on the various ways of moving large sums into mainstream economies. Finally, the group settles on using a hedge fund, and thus Industrial Strategies and Elias Vicker, Wall Street's most psychopathic billionaire, enter the plot. Vicker spins out of control, Volk crashes the party, it turns out that in the world of really big money everyone knows everyone else, and the convolutions of allegiance and plot are dark and tangled. The narrative is further burdened with analyses of American policy failures in several areas: military action, foreign relations, social initiative, and more. These ostensibly demonstrate what a fresh and clear vision Corn possesses (and most of the others share with him), but sometimes they feel a little extracurricular. Perhaps to compensate the reader for time spent in the desert, the action sequences are especially violent and bloody and the sex scenes, extravagant. Much of the digressive material could have been edited, at the cost of toning down the aggressive didacticism, but if you start with $2 billion, what is excess? Energetic action, a tricky plot, and political analysis are not always comfortable together.
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December 1, 2021
After multiple tours in the War on Terror, Major General Thomas Taylor and his team of elite commandos plot to remedy their disillusionment with American politics by placing one of their own in the White House. Funding came easy with the theft of a cash drop meant for Syrian warlords, but laundering the money forces Taylor's team into duplicitous partnerships with a deranged hedge fund manager, a cunning Russian mercenary, and a shadowy Dutch investment entity. Led by Don Carter, the team's iconic warrior, and Greta Webb, their expert in subterfuge, the team targets Elias Vicker's legendary hedge fund as a prime laundering cover and initiates a coup. But the airtight plot threatens to implode when a Kremlin-connected mercenary forces himself into the caper, and Vicker's profitable trades begin to coincide too neatly with devastating global "accidents." Newman's international-finance background is evident here as he takes readers deep into the cloaked financial-espionage world where tricked-out planes and jet packs provide glitter and layers of double-crossings mask the final play.
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