Why would anyone want to murder a portfolio manager? Well it seems there is so much professional jealousy on Wall Street that former fund manager Cliff Cavanaugh runs a detective agency just to nail those cads who pick off stockpickers.
His sidekick is Tracy deGrandpre whose mock ignorance allows cliff to explain, en passant, whole swathes of Wall Street folklore from IPOs and red herrings to option theory and the technology bubble.
Cliff started his career by chance: he got his first man because of a slip about the habits of George Soros. Other names dropped in the course of this adventure, besides the author's own, are detective Perry Mason, Naomi Campbell, Newt Gingrich, Emma Peel, and Mamie van Doren; you need to know about Trivial Pursuit, the Zapruder film, and that AARP means the American Association of Retired Persons. If you take all this in your stride, you are in for a racy read that does convey the frothy life of those who live for the next stock offering.