What
critics have said about The Marketmaker...
“This is thriller writing of a high
order”
Publishing News
“Ridpath has the rare gift of being
able to write clearly and simply about the corporate world in
a way that suggests he actually wants the reader to understand
it.”
The Times
Publisher's Description…
Disgruntled academic Nick Elliot
is the greenest trader at a tough firm of City brokers, Dekker Ward.
Led by Ricardo Ross, the most successful trader the region has ever
seen, they dominate the turbulent market in Latin American bonds.
He is the Marketmaker. And as Nick soon notices, you're either with
him, or you've made an enemy for life.
But while Nick is still learning the ropes, strange things start to happen to Dekker employees. One top trader is fired without warning. Another dies in a bungled robbery. As tension mounts, Nick can't disguise his feelings for his attractive colleague, Isabel. Then she too is kidnapped. And while Nick debates the wisdom of taking matters into his own hands, the all powerful Marketmaker is ready to make his move.
About the Marketmaker…
When I worked in the City, I always wanted to trade the Emerging
Markets, that is bonds from developing countries such as Mexico,
Brazil or Russia. They wouldn't let me. The markets were too risky.
But they couldn't stop me writing about them, and so when I was
searching for a topic for a third novel, Emerging Markets seemed
a natural choice.
They didn't disappoint me. True, they are fraught with risk, but the returns are also there for the smart or the lucky. And they are fun. The culture of over-regulation, twenty minute lunch breaks, and complete information disclosure which took the fun out of most of the global markets in the 1990s, had yet to be felt. The market was full of colourful characters, enormous egos, and great stories.
The research was interesting. I decided to focus on Brazil. I knew little about it, but had always been fascinated by it. It is a complex country full of opposites. The people are relaxed, happy go lucky, friendly. Yet they can also be violent, depraved and callous. The financial system seems like a joyful shambles, but the Brazilian investment bankers I met are some of the most driven and intelligent I have come across. And, yes, I did have to spend time lying on a beach in Rio watching the women go by to do my research properly.
Nick, the hero of the book, is an academic. He was inspired by my friends outside the City who see all the wealth made by their contemporaries, and wonder whether they couldn't do as well themselves. Perhaps they can. But intelligence isn't the problem, ruthlessness, or aggression, or most euphemistically, “hunger”, is. There are four characters in my book who all have different reasons for wanting to work in the City. They are all faced with the question, “How far will they go?” It is their answers to this question which drives the plot.
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