Squeeze Plays by Jeffrey Marshall
Take a rich, lazy and arrogant tabloid owner, a hard-charging bank executive who can’t keep his pants zipped and add a powerful Russian oligarch with buckets of money. Top it all off with a hard-working journalist intent on exposing financial misconduct and you have all the key ingredients for an exciting financial thriller.
Jeffrey Marshall’s Squeeze Plays (Atmosphere Press) takes us on a journey to New York, London, Nantucket and the English countryside. We follow Marshall’s rich pampered characters, from sailboats to penthouses and private jets to luxurious homes. This gripping thriller explores the upper reaches of the newspaper and global banking worlds as they collide with the unsavory manipulations of a Russian oligarch.
MONEY WITH STRINGS ATTACHED
Winston Crumm’s newspaper empire, Star Enterprises, is failing in the digital age and is in desperate need of cash. Corbin van Sloot is the CEO of Whitehall Banking Group, the company that is holding over $15 million of Star’s debt. Van Sloot ultimately decides to call the loan in order to protect his bank, should Star go under.
Enter Maxim Ripovsky, a rich Russian oligarch with no moral compass. Ripovsky generously invests $20 million in Star, but not without strings attached. Ripovsky wants to use Crumm’s newspaper as his own personal public relations tool. His goal is to ease his entrance into New York society and take advantage of the connections and business opportunities that entail.
Tensions rise when we learn that Ripovsky has purchased a large amount of Whitehall’s stock on the open market and is pressuring the bank for a board seat. Not only that, but Ripovsky has some nasty leverage on van Sloot — leverage that can destroy both van Sloot’s marriage and his career. And Ripovsky isn’t afraid to exploit van Sloot’s sexual escapades to achieve his nefarious goals.
AUTHENTIC STORYTELLING IN THE WORLD OF FINANCE
Jeffrey Marshall introduces us to his most important character, Bob Mandell, a diligent reporter for the Financial Times who can smell a good story from across the room. He begins the arduous task of trying to unravel the many layers of finance, greed and passion swirling around this cast of questionable characters. His goal is to expose their plots and schemes in one massive front-page expose.
This may sound like familiar ground — a thriller wrapped in finance-speak. But what sets Squeeze Plays apart from other novels is Jeffrey Marshall’s years of experience as a business and financial writer. Even if you’ve never addended business school or worked in finance, Marshall’s writing has the ring of authenticity and gives the reader legitimate access to the murky world of global banking and finance. He has created a novel that is both satire and thriller, full of shady characters who are willing to do anything to maintain their beloved wealth and power.
About Jeffrey Marshall:
Jeffrey Marshall is a writer and former journalist and the author of five books, including three novels, of which Squeeze Plays is the latest. He spent most of his career as a business and financial writer and editor, much of that in New York, and was editor-in-chief of two national business magazines. As a freelance writer, his work has appeared in publications as varied as The New York Times, High Country News, Nonprofit Times and Tail fly-fishing magazine. Marshall has degrees from Princeton and Northwestern. He lives in Scottsdale, AZ, with his wife, Judy, and dogs Maggie and Blaze.
