Money to Burn audiobook

Interestingly strange and twisty plot with characters you come to care about. Lite (very) profanity. Some gore. Love the narration and highly recommend.

SETTING: New YorkSERIES: StandaloneRATING: 3.5Michael Cantella is a guy who’s got it all. At the tender age of 35, he’s recognized as a financial wizard at his Wall Street investment bank and has earned more money than he could ever hope to spend. He’s got the great car, the beautiful second wife and a future with no limits. The only thing that has ever gone wrong for him is his first marriage, an impulsive match with a quixotic woman named Ivy Layton. Although they are soul mates, their time together is all too short; on the eve of their wedding, she disappears, with her remains later showing up in a shark’s stomach.Well, as might be expected, the sun doesn’t shine forever. On the eve of a surprise birthday party set up by his wife, Mallory, Michael takes a few moments to look at his online accounts. Much to his shock, each of them is showing “zero balance”. In a matter of hours, his entire portfolio has been wiped out and his wife is seeking a divorce. He determines that he has been a victim of identity theft, but it’s a hard sell to the members of his firm and the media. In fact, he is painted as a villain who has driven the company to the brink of bankruptcy. Whoever has set him up has done a devilishly clever job of it; there is no trace of the transactions, and information about the situation trickles out in ways that make him look worse and worse. In fact, Grippando piled it on a little too much; there was nothing in Michael’s life that was working and more bad stuff kept being added to the mix. It didn’t help that Michael would never follow good advice and just kept getting himself more tangled in his own downfall.And then there is the unexpected reappearance of his first wife, Ivy. She’s been on the run after her attempted murder four years earlier and has only contacted Michael because of his precarious situation. She is a very resourceful woman, but I felt that Grippando gave short shrift to Ivy’s back story. It would have added another dimension if he had devoted some page time to exactly how she managed to elude her “murderer” and then a group of pursuers for four years. She had the potential to be a much more powerful character, but perhaps that would have stolen some of the thunder from Michael’s story.There were a few times where the explanations about various financial transactions went over my head, and I found some of the plot twists and characters to be over the top. However, discovering the truth behind the situation that Michael found himself in kept the book moving along well.MONEY TO BURN is a financial thriller that feels like a true story right from the headlines. We all know about the ramifications of identity theft and how difficult it is to right that wrong. And the news of the past few years has been filled with the impact of decisions made by financial institutions that put the world’s economy on its ear. Perhaps the scariest part of this book is that it is so true to life. The book is more of a horror story than any tale featuring vampires or ghouls. It’s terrifying to believe that the identity theft of a person of influence can lead to the fall of giants, but all too believable.

At thirty one , Michael Cantella is a rising star at a wall street premier investment bank, Saxton Silvers. Everything is going according to plan until the love of his life Ivy Layton vanishes on their honeymoon in the Bahamas. Fast forward four years. On the eve of his thirty fifth birthday. Michael is still on track, successful career, beautiful new wife, piles of money until he logs into his computer, enters his password and discovers all his accounts have been wiped out. His only clue is an email message. Just as planned xoxo with these three words Michaels life is liquidated along with his investment portfolio. Saxton Silvers is suddenly on the brink of bankruptcy and he,s the leading suspect in its ruin. Michael is left alone, framed and facing divorce, with FBI agents afoot, spyware on his computer, and mysterious emails from a JBU. He,s desperate to clear his name. What if Ivy has come back from the dead, only to visit on Michael a fate worse than Death! A must read if you love suspense stories.

Wall Street thriller that contains descriptions, in layman's terms, of the reckless adaptation of financial instruments, derivatives, and relaxed net capital rules that caused the banking disasters that led to the 2008/9/10 bailouts.

Very good read fast moving keeps you interested all the way. One of my favorites also by James Grippando Found Money well worth a read. Like his style.

Audio bookMy first Grippando experience and I was impressed. Four stars for well put together mystery. The extra star was the writer's skill in having me be emotionally involved in a real nightmare.

This new Grippando makes a good tale out of the recent melt downs of Wall Street and the investment community. Its 2003 and Michael Cantella is a hot player in the investment bank business and off on a company cruise when his girlfriend who is as tired as he is of the company aboard the yacht suggests they “jump ship” at the next port and go off on their own cruise. They are having a good “alone” time and end up getting married in a quick ceremony on a small island. That night, after a bit too much celebration Michael is out for the count and when he wakes up in the morning his new wife Ivey is no where to be found. After an investigation it is determined she must have gone for a swim and drowned. Moving forward to 2007 and Michael is remarried and still a rising star in one of the biggest companies on Wall Street.Suddenly things go wrong, horribly wrong. While checking is accounts one day he finds that all his assets have been reduced to 0. This is the beginning of his desperate attempt to recover his wealth, and the demise of the company he works for as it is forced into bankruptcy by rumor and outside manipulation. What happens and why, your will have to read this very current tale to discover. ISBN - 9780061556302, Suspense, Pages - 320, Print Size - L, Rating - 4.5 All books reviewed are from the library or purchased by the reviewer.

Michael Cantella has problems. His personal portfolio, worth millions, has vanished into cyberspace. Saxton Silvers, a brokerage firm that he works for has just dropped 90 percent in value. Chuck Bell, a reporter for the Financial News Network, who has been harassing Michael, has just been found murdered and he is considered a prime suspect. His wife is divorcing him over a dead woman, his former wife, who suddenly seems to be no longer dead.Wow, and you think you have problems!!!!!James Grippando has put together a barn burner of a novel. It is very contemporary in that it mirrors what has been going on in the financial market today. A novel that will keep the reader on his toes throughout the book. There are enough twists and turns in the story that will keep the best of us guessing until the very end. One also has to be concerned that not everything or everybody may not be what they seem to be.I highly recommend all of Grippando's novels, but "Money to Burn" is by far his best effort. The story is fast moving, gripping, and thrilling.

Re-read this and bumped it up to 5 stars. I could see this being made into a movie.

Listened to the audiobook while travelling. Really enjoyed it. This would have been a 5 star book for me in terms of just sheer mindless entertainment but for just a couple of things (I'll get to those).The audiobook reader (Jonathan Davis) was one of the most polished I've listened to. He has a couple of little blips along the way, but his array of voices, pacing, and sense of the story were fantastic. A big thing that bothers me in readers, and which he avoided completely, is reading a voice for the opposite sex in a way that sounds like you are mocking them. I would rather they just took a little off the way they read other characters than try to operate outside of their vocal range, because outside the range sounds demeaning and inauthentic. Davis was great.The characters were generally interesting. Each one has some unique characteristics and back story. I also found myself with people to root for and others to loathe. The book has some surprises along the way, but mostly follows a basic formula that works.By the end of the book, there is a solid wrap up but a few loose ends which kind of keep it alive in your imagination. After this, I immediately got another Grippando book just to see if I've found a solid mainstay during periods where I'm driving a lot.Now, the bad...I think this book could have ended in half of the epilogue and been just fine. The author carried me along well enough but I didn't need such a long denouement. I waded through the whole thing but it left me bored and waiting for it to end. Sad after such a solid book otherwise. Also, a couple of regular, yet semi-minor, characters were not as fully rounded out in terms of their arcs, though I was hopeful to see a bit more.

WOW! I am NOT a conspiracy theorist. But a friend from grad school was a victim of a major academic conspiracy to destroy her life and they succeeded. If I had picked this book up before I learned what hell she went through, I would have approached the book differently. Mike, the guy who lost his fortune, his wife, his grandparents, his 2nd wife and was the victim of a huge financial and murderous conspiracy-he was the innocent fall guy. Other than Michael, NO ONE is who he thinks they are! The suspense, the stress he faces every minute of his life after the false accusations against him are heart wrenching. Violence is not ever present, but when it does appear in the book, the violence is disturbingly graphic. Knock you off your feet violent. A 100 year old financial institution is on the brink of collapse as the direct result of the conspiracy against Micheal. Will he figure out scam and save his old employer's firm or?