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Summary
Summary
In a rip-roaring plot that could be torn from tomorrow's headlines, bestselling author T. Davis Bunn weaves political intrigues and disturbing moral dilemmas into a chillingly credible portrait of the cutthroat world of international finance. Jackie Havilland is working in an Orlando detective agency when she is approached with an unusual request: Esther Hutchings, wife of Congressman Graham Hutchings, wants Jackie to find out who is behind a smear campaign to destroy her husband, who has recently suffered a debilitating stroke. Congressman Hutchings was investigating a secret project called Tsunami, the biggest currency scam in history. Jackie is instructed to unearth all she can and to leave no paper trail. Wynn Bryant, a successful, wealthy businessman, is the brother-in-law of the governor of Florida. Wynn has never liked politics and is surprised when his brother-in-law contrives to have him take Hutchings's place in Congress. The reason soon becomes clear: Legislation to relieve Third World countries of their debt--dubbed the Jubilee Amendment--is in the offing, and the governor is determined to have it quashed at any cost. Just as Wynn is about to decline the position, he is told that refusing isn't an option. As Jackie and Wynn get more deeply involved in their new assignments, they begin to feel ripples of a conspiracy carrying a destructive power far more dangerous than the notorious Tsunami scam. It is a killer wave that threatens to crush them both--and permanently reshape the world economy. In his previous Doubleday novel, The Great Divide, T. Davis Bunn spun a legal thriller that wowed critics and readers alike. In Drummer in the Dark, he captures contemporary political and financial maneuverings with the same dazzling artistry. Climaxing in a highly charged showdown between the demands of morality and the driving forces of economic globalization in our increasingly interdependent world, Drummer in the Dark brings the suspense novel to a whole new level of excitement.
Author Notes
Thomas Davis Bunn grew up in North Carolina. He became an international financial expert and worked in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Bunn is writer of historical fiction and legal thrillers, in which Christian faith plays a big part. He has written novels together with Canadian author Janette Oke, and others with his wife Isabella. Bunn has recently begun publishing using the name Davis Bunn. Bunn has also used the pseudonym Thomas Locke. He won a Christy Award three times
T. Davis Bunn is a Christian writer who won the ECPA Gold Medallion Book Award for Fiction for Tidings of Comfort and Joy (1998). He has also collaborated with Janette Oke on works, including Another Homecoming, which also won the ECPA Gold Medallion Book Award for Fiction, and Return to Harmony.
His works include Falconer's Quest, Full Circle, All Through the Night, and Gold of Kings.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Taking its cue from two recent financial disasters (the Emulex story and the Barings collapse), this clever mix of politics, morality and high-tech suspense makes for a riveting thriller about (of all things) financial derivatives. Former high-tech guru Wynn Bryant is tapped by his brother-in-law, the new governor of Florida, to replace Congressman Graham Hutchings, bedridden with a stroke. His single mission: to help defeat Hutchings's pet piece of legislation, something called the Jubilee Amendment. Surrounded by scheming lobbyists, staffers who know more than he does and peers who dismiss him as a stand-in, Bryant's research into Hutchings's amendment puts him squarely in the path of Jackie Havilland, who's been hired by Hutchings's wife to find out who's been smearing her husband, and why. Both Bryant and Havilland find their investigations leading to the same source: infamous financier Pavel Hayek, head of the Hayek Group and mastermind of a secret plan that Hayek calls Tsunami. Since Bryant is ignorant of finance, his education in the details behind Tsunami, which involve the dangers of hedge funds and derivative financial instruments, is our education as well. Bunn (The Great Divide) obviously knows his stuff there's a scary reality behind this fiendishly simple plot, made all the more convincing by virtue of Bunn's financial expertise. And while the novel starts out slow, once the characters start bounding around the world from Rome to Cairo and the violence and danger escalate, the novel takes off. Bottom line: Bunn has crafted an intelligent, fast-moving novel about hedge funds; and if a writer can do that, he can do just about anything. (Aug. 7) Forecast: Originally a Christian Book Association bestselling author, Bunn still maintains a large Christian following. This book, however, fortifies his crossover appeal and cements his reputation as a writer of excellent mainstream thrillers. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Financial thriller about a shadowy cabal of bankers who plot an assault on America's monetary system. Just another cashed-out high-tech millionaire with too much time on his hands and more ambition than he knows what to do with, Wynn Bryant long ago promised his older sister, Sybel, that he would give her anything she wanted for her birthday each year. Since Sybel is deeply involved with an ecumenical group called Sant'Egidio, these birthday gifts have often involved help for the poor. But this year, Sybel makes a different request: Wynn must go to her husband, Grant, who happens to be the governor of Florida, and do whatever he says. Wynn subsequently agrees to run for a seat in the House of Representatives-a seat just opened since its current occupant is in a coma-with one mission from Grant: vote against the upcoming Jubilee Amendment, a bill that would relieve Third World countries of their financial debts to the US. Meanwhile, a group of politicians aligned with Sant'Egidio has enlisted Jackie Havilland, a rudderless employee at an Orlando detective agency, to investigate the actions of an immensely powerful hedge-fund banker, Pavel Hayek, who is part of a movement dedicated to the defeat of the Jubilee Amendment. Wynn and Jackie slowly become privy to a Ludlum-esque world-destroyer of a conspiracy: an operation called Tsunami, in which some immensely wealthy financiers use the shady but very legal practice of hedge-fund-trading to knock out the foundation of the American dollar and make a killing in the panic that's sure to follow. While he's at it, the author makes a few thoughtful points about the darkly immoral consequences of today's deregulated international banking bazaars and provides an excellent setup . . . . . . but fails to follow through. Bunn (The Great Divide, 2000, etc.) aims for a higher purpose than you're likely to find in most thrillers. Still, this one's mix of heavily technical detail and strong characters (a la David Lindsey) doesn't save it from ultimately falling flat..
Booklist Review
Wynn Bryant is a rich but unhappy widower whose sister is married to the governor of Florida. The governor appoints Wynn to finish out the term of a congressman who's had a stroke, warning him that he must at all costs stay away from the "Jubilee Amendment." Turns out the congressman was a principled man whose Jubilee Amendment would bring some control to unregulated international currency trading, which destabilizes Third World economies, according to Bunn, and may be a threat to Western countries as well. Disregarding the governor's instructions, Wynn, along with his new girlfriend and a computer hacker named Colin Ready, sets out to bring down the unscrupulous traders, symbolized by the evil Pavel Hayek. In a subplot, Wynn heads to Rome to find his sister, who leaves the crooked governor on a religious quest. A former best-selling author of Christian fiction who has turned to mainstream thrillers, Bunn is a world traveler and knows a great deal about international finance, but he's not at his best here, writing hurriedly in a style that strikes a high tone and then descends into stale slang and shallow characterizations. The evident haste may derive from the pace he's on: this novel follows Kingdom Come, an evangelical effort with Larry Burkett (Thomas Nelson) from earlier this year and last year's The Great Divide [BKL Ap 15 00], Bunn's first, rather more successful attempt at a mainstream thriller. --John Mort