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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.”

Mark E Greene’s review of Jeffrey Marshall’s Squeeze Plays (Atmosphere Press) perfectly encapsulates the way this novel starts things off with a bang. From corruption to cover-ups, Marshall transforms the world of finance into a searing satirical thriller. And it’s no wonder he has such a grasp over the subject matter —  with over 25 experience as a business and finance writer and editor, Marshall used his time in high-pressure Manhattan as inspiration for his future narrative. In this interview, he reminisces on past trials, tribulations and mentors who all added fodder to the novel. Take a look to see how Squeeze Plays came to be, and the real-life inspirations that makes this book as outrageous as it is accurate.

Q: What inspired you to create this particular depiction of corruption and power?

A: My wife actually suggested I consider writing a book about a former boss, a financial editor in New York. He then became the reporter figure in the book, Bob Mandell. I was also inspired by Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities, a wonderful book about the perils of wealth and power in New York. I decided to invent a bank with headquarters in New York and London, which became the two major locations, and to add a cunning Russian oligarch to stir the pot. I’m convinced the oligarchs are some of the worst financial actors on the world stage.

Q: Do you have any previous experience in the business and finance world? How did that experience influence your story?

A: Absolutely. I was a business and finance writer and editor for 25 years, most of that actually in Manhattan, and learned a great deal about banking and finance. I’ve used that experience to shape some of the plot in the novel, though there is nothing technical and nothing that would trouble a reader who knows little or nothing about finance. Financial machinations became a key ingredient of the novel.

Q: Take us into the minds of your two main protagonists. Did you go into the story knowing their characteristics and the struggles they’d be facing?

A: The two principal characters, a bank CEO and a tabloid publisher, are very different; I certainly shaped their basic characteristics, but the struggles they faced evolved as I developed the plot. I wanted the banker, Corbin van Sloot, to be privileged but also self-aware and sympathetic, though he has obvious flaws. The publisher, Winston Crumm, is very different: spoiled, largely incompetent and vain, the product of a family dynasty, and someone who could cajoled by a stranger.

Q: What drew you to the world of satirical thrillers? Is it a challenge balancing the humorous with the serious?

A: I go back to Bonfire of the Vanities, which has a lot of laugh-out-loud passages and digs its satirical teeth into the rich and pompous in New York. While that book is more than 30 years old, it offers a great model. It’s hard to balance the humorous with the serious, and I wrestled with how much satire to inject. It can be tricky. Straightforward exposition is much easier, and satire can require references or nuances that some readers may not immediately grasp.

Q: In the book’s description, you mention the importance of strong and principled female characters. How did you go about developing these characters?

A: Finance is often perceived to be something of a man’s world, and I felt I needed to broaden the novel and make it more accessible to all readers by creating some female characters capable of standing up to the men. One character, the publisher’s wife, is often dismayed by his actions or his attitude and isn’t afraid of confronting him; another, a young woman who works for the oligarch, is deeply troubled by something she learns about him and actively works to damage him, though secretly.

Q: What do you hope readers will take away from Squeeze Plays?

A: I’d like readers to feel they’ve been both entertained and learned something about financial shenanigans and the people involved in them. So far, reviewers — both professional and otherwise — have been tremendously receptive to the twists and turns in the novel, the characters and the page-turning qualities. That response was certainly true of the wonderful BookTrib review. I’d like readers to feel that the book is brisk, realistic, frequently amusing and eminently entertaining.

 

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 TimesHigh Country NewsNonprofit 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.

Squeeze Plays by Jeffrey Marshall
Publish Date: May 17, 2022
Author: Jeffrey Marshall
Page Count: 268 pages
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
ISBN: 978-1639883691
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