A Killing on Wall Street

A clever plot helps offset the so-so writing of this debut novel by a professional securities analyst, who here combines a primer on investing in the stock market with a whodunit that could only happen in that rarefied world. Cliff Cavanaugh is a day trader and former investment analyst with a taste for solving mysteries. When portfolio manager Kyle Hooperman is shot to death at home, Cliff's old firm, Rutherford and Hayes, hires Cliff to figure out what happened and to see that their reputation remains solid. Cliff's assistant in sleuthing is Tracy deGrandpre, a luscious Broadway star-in-waiting, who earns extra money by playing Archie Goodwin to Cliff's Nero Wolfe. As they pursue a thorny trail of IPOs gone wrong, Cliff explains to Tracy (and hence the reader) some of the basics of investing, like stock splits, options, company valuation and bonds. Cliff even mentions an outdated investment guide, This Is Not Your Father's Stockpicking Book, "by someone named Derrick Niederman." Niederman, who's written a guide titled The Inner Game of Investing, spends a bit too much time telling, instead of showing through action and dialogue. More grievously, he violates a cardinal rule of fair play: his his killer never appears onstage. Some readers may find this highly annoying.