Chameleon

Reviewed by Ellen Hogan for Reader Views (11/06) Jon Phillips is a trader in government bonds for the Bank of Manhattan. He has come up with a get rich quick scheme by cornering the market on bond trading on a particular day. As long as nothing goes awry, he should be free and clear and able to leave his job a very rich man. However to do this his bank has to make a deal with a very shady U.K. Trading Company. Jon needs them to help buy up all the bonds. The day arrives and things are going great. Jon has control of all the bonds and is just getting ready to start selling them off, when word comes down that the head of the Federal Reserve has had heart trouble. This news throws the market into frenzy and Jon has to sell all his bonds at a loss. Jon knows that his time at the bank is now limited; he expects to be fired. Sure enough, he is called for by the board and is let go. Jon's friend Robert Baldwin dies in a strange accident right before he is let go. Then there is a smear campaign to destroy Jon's character, saying he is a drunkard, cross dresser and drug addict. He emails an old friend Penny Jordan and asks her to look into the U.K. Trading Company for him. Jon's brother David comes to visit on his way back to Australia. The brothers had not seen each other for a long time. While Jon was gone David was killed in his stead. From then on Jon goes after the people who framed him and killed his friend and his brother. As a chameleon changes color Jon is able to change his appearance and stay one step ahead of those pursuing him. With the help of sharks, a sabotaged mainsail, a hunt in the English countryside, and a sabotaged plane. From the U.S. to England to Australia greed, murder and romance are played out. Jon slips away to anonymity and tries to find ways to launder his ill- gotten gains. There is plenty more to the story but you will have to read the book to find out. "Chameleon" is a very well written book that keeps you in suspense with all the different characters and twists and turns it takes. The writer shows he has knowledge of the stock market and the trading that goes on. I would recommend the book highly and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Do you like to suspend disbelief when reading a "thriller"? If so, then don't bother with Chameleon. This novel is believable, no doubt because its author bases his story on real-life events in the worlds of finance and crime, and on the nasty character traits of some who work (and play) in those worlds. The author, Richard Hains, an accomplished international businessman and investor, demonstrates his keen sense of observation as he takes his readers on a brilliant ride through high and low doings on Wall Street and around the globe. Our anti-hero, Jon -- and he is an anti-hero, when dealing with both his enemies and his ladies -- seeks one last score, big enough to allow him retire large, or at least leave the rat race that Wall Street has become for this Australian transplant. But Jon can't pull this score off alone, for reasons based on federal regulations promulgated by the SEC to prevent this very kind of scheme. So Jon takes on accomplices and learns -- to his great detriment -- the first rule of crime: If you want to commit the perfect crime, do it alone. You show me accomplices and I'll show you trouble. Jon's accomplices just happen to include Russian criminals who need to launder a spot of dirty cash. Jon's big score goes spectacularly awry for reasons that (realistically) have nothing to do with the merits of the deal but everything to do with the so-called logic of the marketplace. The Russians are none too happy and set about to recoup their losses -- their tactics include murder and arson -- while protecting themselves at Jon's expense. Our anti-hero, however, isn't having any of it. He commences a globe-trotting counter-effort to protect himself -- his tactics include high-tech forgery and a bit of extortion -- and Jon proves himself a worthy anti-hero indeed. The ending, of course, is not to be revealed. Suffice it to say that Hains leaves Jon appropriately wondering -- all this, to what end? The plot of Chameleon springboards from real events -- principally, Salomon Brothers' 1991 effort to corner the market in U.S. Treasury bonds, supplemented with dashes from the sagas of Long Term Capital Management, Drexel Burnham Lambert, and other spectacular collapses and scandals of the past two decades. Hains's characters are real and plenty compelling -- London barrow boy traders, ex-CIA operatives and former Soviets who made a ton of money in slightly dicey ways, Harvard Business School math wizards, a reporter for a London tabloid exploring her sexual orientation -- all finely observed, described and painted large. Hains has plainly done his research; he has the details right, details about yachting in the Hamptons, upper crust (and not so upper crust) pheasant hunts in the countryside outside London, wandering the family farm-ranch and surfing the beaches in Australia. Not to mention, of course, the highlife and the low life of Wall Street, in their offices and in their bedrooms (and in a few other choice

I really loved this book - not only was it exciting and full of twists and turns but also it gave a great overview of the financial markets.I also enjoyed the various international settings- from the Meat District in NY to Lorne australia.So glamorous but yet ...trust no-one and expect a surprise ending! The sex scenes made for racy reading [and I do think the author pushed the envelope to the edge of accceptability here-only my opinion of course..]Overall a rivetting read but don't pass it onto Mother! Kate Farmer

Bought the book for finance and got much more: Advanture, travel on three continents, intrigue and a great story. Could not put it down after the first 50 pages!

What I really liked about this book is that the author clearly knows whereof he speaks, and the authenticity of the fascinating world in which his main character moves--fast-moving financial and uppercrust social circles from New York to London to East Hampton to Australia, just for starters--kept me turning pages throughout. (Never mind some of the hottest sex scenes I've read in a long time.) This is one book that should appeal to both men and women equally.