Bankroll

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In this tale of bank fraud and deception, bored Wall Street hotshot Spector gives up a brilliant career, turns over most of his money to the wife he's divorcing and looks around for something more exciting to do with his life. An ad for a house sitter in Illinois gives him the idea for a fabulous fraud. While wealthy Edgar and Lila Parish vacation in Europe, Spector, using a new identity fabricated around the name of a college classmate, stays in their house and uncovers their whole financial history. Impersonating Edgar and offering the Parish stock portfolio as security, Spector gets a $2 million loan from a hungry New York bank and launders the money through a Mexican pipeline he learned about during his Wall Street days. On his way to Europe with a third identity, he opens a new bank account in New York and encounters the beautiful loan officer he fell in love with as Edgar Parish. The denouement is highly satisfactory. Ducker ( Rule by Proxy ) writes an intricate and absorbing tale about the development of a con man. (Aug.)