Financial Fiction

Rhoda West has the world at her feet. As the luminously charismatic CEO of Radical, a fast-growing start-up, Rhoda has built a wellness company whose core mission is the betterment of women’s lives. But just as Radical announces the latest fundraising round that will take it over the top, an anonymous Twitter account begins revealing the company’s secrets and starts questioning its beliefs and approach, and Rhoda herself. Is Rhoda really the nurturing leader that she presents to the world, or a fraud on a mission to exploit the women she claims to want to help?

As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers? According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy.

Picho, voiced by the sagacious Harvey Guillén, serves as our guide through the intricate tapestry of frauds woven by his intimidating con man of a father, Pietro La Greca, played with captivating charm by the one and only Peter Stormare. Pietro, our suave protagonist, moves from one con to another, finally running Mexico’s biggest money-laundering scheme during the worst economic period in the country’s history.

When customer complaints on Christmas Eve about tenfold inflated bank balances herald not early gifts, nor a botched system upgrade, but the most sophisticated cyber attack in history, National Bank Chief Operating Officer Rob Tanner finds himself in the eye of a ‘Black Swan’ storm no one predicted, but anyone could have anticipated. Tanner enlists the help of brilliant American cyber security expert Ashley Markham, but the attacks only worsen.

A compact text providing a step-by-step formula to become a self-made millionaire, based on the success secrets used by other millionaires. Includes 21 strategies and ideas for moving ahead in finance and in life, showing how to get organized and make plans for becoming wealthy.

The terrorist Guy Fowle has escaped from prison. Jude Lyon of MI-6 has been saved from a Syrian ambush by his lover - and enemy? - Julia Ermolaeva. A mysterious Russian has been murdered in London and his thumb cut off. The chancellor of the Exchequer has made an unfortunate social connection at a party, which he hopes he can keep secret. And suddenly, the world is literally going up in flames. Jude needs to start putting together the pieces of this jigsaw and quickly, because someone is putting into play a terrifying Russian plan to disable and destroy the UK.

As DS Lucas Walker recovers from his injuries, he heads from Caloodie, Queensland, to the Gold Coast. Surfer's Paradise: a seaside city where gleaming high rises fringe sparkling surf beaches, sunny days lead to wild nights, and criminals and bikie gangs mingle with tourists and dignitaries at five star hotels, clubs and casinos. Before long, Walker is part of a team trying to solve a horrific home invasion and murder that has claimed the life of a young mother and left her nine-year-old daughter fighting to survive. Can he help them find the perpetrators, and keep the young girl safe?

Still bruised and heartbroken from their last calamitous quest, Gorm Ingerson and his band of washed-up heroes try to make amends for the orcs they accidentally betrayed. But justice is put on hold when an old foe marches to the city gates. Gorm is horrified to discover a liche pitching the frightened city-dwellers on the merits of the undead lifestyle...at the head of a corpse army. To save the city from high-pressure sales tactics and an inevitable siege, the dwarf warrior and his misfit band hatch a harebrained scheme that lands them at the top of the king’s kill list.

Set in Malaya, Almayer's Folly is Joseph Conrad's first novel. In it, he charts the decline of a Dutch merchant after a 25 year struggle against overwhelming odds. Though married to a bitter and hateful Malayan wife, Almayer refuses to accept the financial ruin which he has precipitated. Instead, he dreams of fantastic wealth and a return to the civilization of his youth, accompanied by his loving daughter, Nina.

Ben Roselli, president of First Mercantile American Bank and grandson of the founder, makes the shocking announcement that he's dying. With no offspring to inherit the company, Roselli knows that executive VPs Roscoe Heyward and Alex Vandervoort are the obvious candidates to succeed him. Heyward, who has been with First Mercantile for two decades, will do whatever it takes to bring in new clients and win the coveted presidency. Vandervoort, a newcomer from the Federal Reserve with a left-wing girlfriend, advocates for a socially responsible plan of growth.

On May 6, 2010, financial markets around the world tumbled simultaneously and without warning. In the span of five minutes, a trillion dollars of valuation was lost. The Flash Crash, as it became known, represented the fastest drop in market history. When share values rebounded less than half an hour later, experts around the globe were left perplexed. What had they just witnessed? Navinder Singh Sarao hardly seemed like a man who would shake the world's financial markets to their core.

Will Matthews came to Wall Street with hopes and dreams of hitting it big, but is on the verge of being fired. Then he meets the fabulously wealthy Sam Abaddon. Winning Sam’s business answers Will’s prayers, catapulting the young stockbroker into the privileged world of money and luxury. Not only that, but Will also has met his dream girl. But when Will witnesses a shocking act of violence, his charmed new existence is revealed to be a waking nightmare as the truth about his benefactor - and his own complicity in criminal conduct - becomes devastatingly clear.

These two unabridged chapters from Charles Mackay’s two-volume evergreen work, Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841) deal with the disastrous South Sea Bubble and the extraordinary outbreak of Tulipomania in Holland.

It's 2027. The AI revolution has merged with quantum computing to take control of global financial markets. Operated by the mysterious Bank for International Settlements based in Basel, Switzerland, the quantum supercomputer known as ICARUS has promised the world a more stable economy, devoid of bank failures and volatile share prices. And it has delivered . . . until now.

Max Emerson is rich and powerful: a patron of the arts and the owner of a multinational business. But Max's business is money laundering, and, for the first time in his fortunate life, he's in trouble. Hackers are targeting his company. The FBI is pressuring him to betray one of his crooked clients. And a dark secret from his own past looks in danger of resurfacing.

First to a Million explores the many advantages of FI, while explaining the secrets of investing, living frugally, and maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset. Treating your finances differently than the average teenager will put you miles ahead of your peers, and with time (and compounding) on your side, you can win the game before it even starts!

Witt's End is in trouble. The small town of artists is at risk of disappearing from the map if Serenity Makepeace can't expand her small grocery store into a mail order enterprise to sell her neighbors' handcrafted goods. High-priced start-up advisor Caleb Ventress was intrigued by Serenity's impassioned letter. A small town grocer wasn't high profile enough for him, but her request earned her a meeting. And Calebs' attraction to her earned her a few more.

Fueled by resentment of America's global dominance, Russia and China conspire to dethrone the US Dollar from its lofty perch as the global reserve currency. Their weapon of choice? Bitcoin - a game-changing digital currency shrouded in mystery, with an enigmatic developer who walked away from a 70-billion-dollar fortune rather than see his creation corrupted by evil.

In a family that has everything, one tends to forget that some things are beyond even their control. After fate sends the family an unmistakable message, Christopher suddenly finds himself on the receiving end of a financial avalanche, yet fully incapable of managing or even understanding the full magnitude of it. In a world beset with vipers and jackals, he would be as helpless as a sheep led to slaughter in handling the family’s substantial financial assets.

Weary of fighting, Lucas wants nothing more than to return to Shangri-La and the arms of Sierra. But circumstances conspire against him, and he soon finds himself embroiled in a war he wanted no part of while his loved ones are imperiled by ruthless adversaries who want them dead. The latest installment of The Day After Never series continues in the tradition of the earlier novels, with twists, reversals, and surprises aplenty.