Publisher's Synopsis
The Invisible Hand uses the thriller genre to explore human contradictions: life and death, right and wrong, love and obligation, loss and dreams. The Invisible Hand is a thriller with brains and heart, about the vast greed and lust for power driving financial globalization. It is about men whose ethical visions are seen through broken glass, and who travel along roads that beckon with false light, inevitably leading them to dark channels of violence and mindless destruction-the deadly fantasies of powerful old men's dreams. It is about our time. A frightenly current and realistic tale of intrigue and duplicity, The Invisible Hand is set in the world of international monetary speculation. It raises fundamental questions about whether or not it's possible to make the world a better place for ordinary people. Are the opportunities for corruption so pervasive, the domination of technology so complete, the capacity for brutality so inherent, the speed of destructive forces so beyond comprehension and control, that efforts at significant progressive change are inevitably doomed? Has the nation state lost its ability to govern and meet the needs of its citizens? Two men-Matt Webster and U.S. Senator Zeke Hascomb, both unable to let go of the past-clash on opposite sides of the race to control foreign exchange speculation before the world economy collapses. Unlikely hero Matt Webster, an ex-baseball great and former phantom Wall Street trader known only as "RBI," is pressed by the U.S. president into crafting a solution. Matt, having lost two life dreams, believes that he puts the people he loves in danger; which is exactly what he does when he answers the president's call. Zeke leads a cabal of ruthless men in foreign currency speculation to achieve dark goals. Also plagued by horrific losses-including a recent psychotic breakdown of his beloved daughter-he concludes that it will be easier to change the world than save his loved ones. Matt's team of crack analysts uncover the secrets of global financial speculation but come across signs of a money plot that will topple governments and shred markets. We follow Matt's crew pulling apart and reassembling diverse pieces of information from around the financial world, much of them hidden, like today's bundled derivatives. Zeke's security uncovers Matt's group and he hires a killer to silence them; suddenly, lives are in danger. Two women ultimately determine the outcome. Matt's colleague-lover, Peg Donahue, gradually coaxes him to yield his guilt and listen to his heart. Jenny, Zeke's wife and the intellectual architect of his political career, becomes suspicious when she sees Zeke changing. She decides she has to do something to alter his course or all will be lost. Death is the lynch pin between Zeke and Matt; one is in love with its power, the other cannot stop running toward it. Killer Frankie Cavallaro is not just a hired gun; he is Death personified. Frankie willingly becomes Zeke's instrument but paradoxically struggles to establish sanity in Zeke's relationship with death. Frankie ultimately loses his battle for order with both Zeke and Matt as they rush toward self-destruction. Death, futility, tragedy and betrayal stalk both men to the end. The story brings us face-to-face with two ancient conundrums: Man's attraction to Death as an instrument, and his inability to find a way to decide at what point ends stop justifying means.
