LitPick Review
Stanley McKnight, an investment advisor, moves from California to London after his mother is killed in an automobile accident. He and his wife separate after experiencing many nervous breakdowns because he blames his wife for his mother’s death.
He is offered a job and moves to Switzerland to work for a private Swiss Bank, Laville & Cie. Two months after he accepts the job, he is offered the position of client relationship manager, responsible for acquiring new clients from Russia. McKnight is not Russian, but he speaks Russian well; the previous account manager has been killed in an accident. McKnight flies to Moscow and meets with Durand and Lagrange to prepare to meet his Russian client. He has a night of sex, drugs, and too much drinking. The next day he feels like it has all been a dream.
McKnight meets Viktor Gagarin, a very valued client, and is swept into a world of drugs, alcohol, sex, and violence. He is in charge of handling billions of dollars of dirty money. Everything is good until the government begins to catch on. McKnight is caught between the US and the Russian Mob after being framed for stealing Gagarin's money. He is on the run, and everyone is after him; nowhere is safe.
Opinion:
Violence, drugs, and sex are the main content of this book. Carter spends a lot of pages describing different types of vodka, food, and the customs of the Russian mafia. There is somewhat of a plotline, but it gets lost in the excessive details; in other words, the book has too much going on. Some things seem realistic, but these are overpowered by the unrealistic. It becomes hard to see McKnight as a real person, due to the amount of torture that he endures, yet he still survives. People who enjoy movies or books about organized crime would enjoy this story.
