Fiction, Fiction Subjects

The Millionaires

Name: The Millionaires
Author: Brad Meltzer
ISBN: 9781455508181

by Brad Meltzer

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Overview

Two brothers.
Three Secret Service agents.
And millions for the taking.
Brad Meltzer, the author of the runaway bestseller The First Counsel, is back with another edge-of-your-seat thriller-a tale of two brothers trying to hide in a world where your every step can be traced.

The Millionaires
It started as the perfect crime. Then it took a turn for the worse.
Charlie and Oliver Caruso are brothers who work at Greene & Greene, a private bank so exclusive you need two million dollars just to be a client. But when the door of success slams in their faces, they're faced with an offer they can't refuse: three million dollars in an abandoned account. No one knows it exists, and even better, it doesn't belong to anyone.

It's a foolproof crime. More important, for Charlie and Oliver, it's a way out of debt and the key to a new life. All they have to do is take the money.

But when they do, they quickly discover they've got a lot more on their hands than the prize. Before they can blink, a friend is dead-and the bank, the Secret Service, and a female private investigator are suddenly closing in. What invisible strings were attached to that account? How are the brothers going to prove they're innocent? And why is the Secret Service trying to kill them? Trapped in a breakneck race to stay alive, Charlie and Oliver are about to discover a secret that will test their trust and forever change their lives. This is Brad Meltzer at his most electrifying-a breathtaking, suspenseful story about two brothers chasing a dream that may cost them everything they hold dear.
The Millionaires

What would you steal if you couldn't get caught?

Author Biography: Brad Meltzer is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, and The First Counsel. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School, he currently lives in Maryland with his wife, Cori.

About the Author, Brad Meltzer

BRAD MELTZER

Brad Meltzer is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Fate, as well as the bestsellers The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, The First Counsel, The Millionaires, The Zero Game, and The Book of Lies.

He is also one of the co-creators of the TV Show, "Jack & Bobby" – and is the Eisner Award-winning author of the critically acclaimed comic book, Justice League of America.

His first non-fiction book, Heroes for My Son, is a collection of heroes – from Jim Henson to Rosa Parks – that he'd been working on since the day his son was born. This December, he'll be launching "Brad Meltzer's Decoded" on the History Channel. And his newest thriller, The Inner Circle, will be released on January 11, 2011.

Raised in Brooklyn and Miami, Brad is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School. The Tenth Justice was his first published work and became an instant New York Times bestseller. Dead Even followed a year later and also hit the New York Times bestseller list, as have all six of his novels. The First Counsel came next, which is about a White House lawyer dating the President's daughter; then The Millionaires, which is about two brothers who steal money and go on the run. The Zero Game is about two Congressional staffers who are – literally – gambling on Congress. The Book of Fate is about a young Presidential aide, a crazed assassin, and the 200-year-old code created by Thomas Jefferson that times them together. For authenticity, The Book of Fate was researched with the help of two former Presidents, Clinton and Bush. His last book, The Book of Lies, is about the missing murder weapon that Cain used to kill Abel, as well as the unsolved murder of Superman creator Jerry Siegel's father. Brad is one of the only people to interview Jerry Siegel's family about the murder and, with his charitable site, OrdinaryPeopleChangeTheWorld.com, has been the driving force behind the movement to repair the house where Superman was created.

His books have spent over ten months on the bestseller lists, and have been translated into over 25 languages, from Hebrew to Bulgarian. In The Tenth Justice, the opening lines are: "Ben Addison was sweating. Like a pig." In the Hebrew translation, it became: "Ben Addison was sweating. Like a horse." We're not sure if it's a Kosher thing or what!

Brad has played himself as an extra in Woody Allen's "Celebrity," co-wrote the swearing-in oath for AmeriCorps, the national service program, and earned credit from Columbia Law School for writing his first book, which became The Tenth Justice. Before all of that, he got 24 rejection letters for his true first novel, which still sits on his shelf, published by Kinko's.

Brad currently lives in Florida with his wife, who's also an attorney.

Biography

Brad Meltzer didn't hope all his life to become a novelist. He came to it by chance, after a job at Games magazine didn't pan out. "I had no idea what to do," he says. "So I did what all of us would do in that situation. I said, 'I'm gonna write a novel.'" After one false start, a book called Fraternity that 24 publishers rejected, Meltzer hit his stride. In 1997, The Tenth Justice (which earned him extra credit as a student at Columbia Law School) was picked up by Morrow and hit The New York Times bestseller list. A year later, he repeated the performance with Dead Even. He's been writing bestselling legal thrillers ever since.

Critics like Meltzer's fast pace and nifty plots (Kirkus called The Tenth Justice "a mean, paranoid fantasy that'll have you turning pages in a frenzy," and USA Today said it "reads fast, rings true, and refreshingly breaks the mold of legal thrillers"), but it's the details that distinguish his novels from most legal fiction. The key, he says, is "Research, research, research," a task that can consume two to six months of his year-long writing schedule.

In addition to his thrillers, Meltzer is a bestselling author of critically acclaimed comic book series like Identity Crisis, Green Arrow, and Justice League. He has also written short stories, television scripts and nonfiction articles, including reviews of The Sopranos, the multiple Emmy Award-winning TV show.

Good To Know

Meltzer played himself as an extra in Woody Allen's Celebrity.

He lives in Florida with his wife, a high-school sweetheart to whom he devotes a lengthy essay on his web site.

With his friend Steve Cohen, Meltzer conceived Jack and Bobby, a critically acclaimed television program about two young brothers (not the Kennedys), one of whom grows up to be President of the United States. Cohen and Meltzer wrote all 22 episodes of the show, which was cancelled after one season. Widely considered a premier example of intelligent, high-quality TV, the series has since become a cult favorite.

Meltzer spoke with former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush in order to accrue authentic details for his 2006 novel The Book of Fate, a thriller set in the world of White House politics.

A major plot element in The Book of Lies (2008) is the unsolved murder in 1932 of Mitchell Siegel, whose son Jerry created the iconic comic book hero Superman. Meltzer, himself a rabid comics fan, interviewed the Siegel family to research the murder.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Master thriller writer Brad Meltzer has made a career of providing his readers with action-packed novels that play to the paranoia in all of us. This time out he takes on the world of high finance and topples it into the gutter.

Brothers Charlie and Oliver Caruso, both bankers, enmesh themselves in intrigue and embezzlement when they discover that corporate boss Henry Lapidus has been undermining Oliver's career. The duo decide to nab three million bucks from a dead client's inactive account, but even before they can put the money to work for them, a group of underhanded Secret Service agents move in on the prize. But the Carusos soon learn that there's even more at stake, because their initial $3 million is tied into Disney technotronics and a new invention that will revolutionize the entertainment industry. This provides even further incentive for murder and mayhem as the brothers flee to Florida, pursued by trouble at every turn.

In this, his fourth thriller, Meltzer capably takes on the theme of financial misadventures and hits on the main element that would appeal to the average Joe on the street: the idea of getting your hands on big money just when you need it. Although there's something of a moral mixed message here, you won't mind much as the plot zips along and nasty villains emerge from every shadow. With a likable narrator, Meltzer keeps the thrills balanced with easy humor, making The Millionaires an inviting suspense novel as well as an engaging charmer. (Tom Piccirilli)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This giddy fourth thriller by Meltzer (The First Counsel) mixes up banking, cyber-theft and Disney World in a fast-paced, fresh-scrubbed tale of financial adventure. Oliver Caruso is sweating out some scut work for Henry Lapidus, bigwig at Greene & Greene, a private bank so exclusive clients require $2 million just to open an account. When Oliver and his younger brother, Charlie, find proof that Lapidus has been sabotaging Oliver's career plans, the brothers conspire to rip off the lingering balance from a deceased client's account. Silly boys! Not only is the local security goon Shep (formerly Secret Service) already chiseling in on their scam, the real Secret Service thugs are on the case almost immediately. The $3 million the Carusos swiped has somehow cybernetically blossomed overnight to over $300 million. Desperate to clear their names, the boys escape to Florida, following the money to the daughter of the deceased millionaire, a former tech wizard for Disney with a secret invention everyone in this book would happily kill for. The ins and outs of how to steal money that isn't really there makes for an interesting premise if you don't think about it too much, but two flaws detract from the action. First, the narrative POV jumps too often from one character to the next and from present tense to past, making for a choppy read. Second, the novel's juvenile flavor from the PI who bluffs her way into a building by claiming to be searching for her mother's favorite sock to the hapless schoolboy dialogue ("You touched her cookies, didn't you?") loudly proclaims its Hardy Boys heritage. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

What begins as a tidy scheme to steal a measly $3 million from a closely held private bank quickly spins out of control-in the biggest and wildest of Meltzer's paranoid action fantasies (The First Counsel, 2001, etc.).