Book Review: Ghost Of Manhattan By Douglas Brunt

I recently received a copy of the new book Ghosts Of Manhattan: A Novel by Douglas Brunt to review.

Nick Farmer is a 35 year old successful bond trader with Bear Stearns - back in 2005, before it went ka-boom a few years later. Work rules his life - even in the evenings, when he's out from place to place to woo clients. This means strip clubs, hookers, and a variety of alcoholic and drug indulgences. His wife is increasingly frustrated, and they have no bonds between them - his job is killing his marriage. But Nick loves his seven figure salary, and he's addicted to his yearly bonus. He's warned about where his company is about to go, but no one seems to want to take this report seriously. Well, except for the hot cable TV financial journalist, who really seems more interested in him than the company's soon to be demise. Everything is crumpling around him - even his wife may have found someone else. Will Nick fold?

The hot stories of the year seem to be coming from the Wall Street sector. While this first person book is fiction, it's another hard look into all the craziness and excess that goes on over there. I can't find myself ever identifying with the lifestyle - or even wanting that much money (OK, well, sort of yes - but it would all go rescuing animals, you know me), and there were moments I found myself gritting my teeth reading through the insanity of limitless expense accounts. Knock yourselves out, Wall Street and overpaid folks. I like my life a lot better. ;) It's an interesting book nonetheless, especially if you're interested in a peek behind the scenes of financial craziness - it was hard to believe this was the author's first book. (You can visit his website over here) He seems to know the world he's writing about very well.

Ghosts Of Manhattan: A Novel by Douglas Brunt is a hardcover fiction book published by Touchstone. It is 288 pages long. The suggested cover price is $24.00, but Amazon has it available for $15.12 as of this posting. It is also available as an e-book for the Kindle and other e-readers.

I received a copy of this book in order to read it and share my thoughts on it. All opinions are my own, and not that of the author(s) or publisher.