The Devil's Banker by
Christopher Reich
hbk out September 03
Published by Headline
at £18.99
A very modern espionage novel, symptomatic of these troubled times. The
old Soviet enemy has gone and now the CIA, MI6 and a host of agencies
with exotic initials battle against Islamic terrorists.
The hero is Adam Chapel, a former accountant, now enlisted as a financial
intelligence wizard to identify terrorist groups world-wide by tracking the
money that funds them. The heroine is Sarah Churchill, a 'feisty' British
woman, seconded to the CIA by MI6. Though the action starts in Pakistan,
most the book is set in Paris and describes the mixed co-operation and
hostility between the resident French agencies and the Americans imposed
upon them. It becomes apparent that some major act of mayhem is in the
offing, presumably in the United States and a Saudi-based group called
Hijira is the culprit, run virtually by one man embedded in the West.
The author obviously knows a great deal about financial institutions and
operations and apart from the story, gives a lot of interesting information
about the way in which money is made and transferred about the globe.
The story has plenty of violence, from stabbing, shooting and bombs to the
dubious methods used by the French security services to extract information
from suspects.
The writer seems less than fond of the Arabs and is pessimistic about the
future, bluntly forecasting that eventually, there will have to be a full
confrontation between Islam and the rest of the world. Not a cheerful book,
but a compelling page-turner, so read it now, before the balloon goes up!
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
The Devil's Banker by
Christopher Reich
