A lot of characters to take in right away, but if you can manage, it's written in a compelling suspenseful way.

Stephen Frey has this plot so twisted that I may have to read the final chapter again to make sure I got it right. Love that in a book!!!

Stephen Frey has this plot so twisted that I may have to read the final chapter again to make sure I got it right. Love that in a book!!!

The Power Broker by Stephen Frey (pp. 416)
Frey is definitely a hit-or-miss writer. This was a definite miss. Christian Gillette, a New York investment banker, is again embroiled in some dangerous intrigue. A group called The Order made up of a committee of moneyed men who have influenced the direction of American politics and markets for the last 200 years have Gillette and an up-and-coming black presidential candidate in their cross hairs. The main character remains likeable, but the number of new characters and wacky layers of in-the-shadows conspiracies feels like drinking from the idea firehose. No editing of concepts. Too many rough cuts between scenes. Characterizations depends very much on current news event stereotypes for shorthand.

When most of your characters are unethicial, rich white guys, the story lacks for a lot of character development. Motivations are thin. The only real thing carrying the reader through the story is the desire to stop the confusion and figure out what the hell is happening. It’s not suspenseful. It’s irksome.

Frey is a working writer. His lack of distance from the world he bases his books on may be part of the downfall of this offering. In the past, that’s done him well. But here he seems too enamored with his main character who we’ve seen in three previous offerings. And unlike legal or military fiction there’s only so much the head of a private equity firm can do for a dramatic offering. The premise for guns, death, and blackmail become overworked.

Give the author points for imagination, but call this a bad investment of his time and the readers.

Chairman - Protege - Power Broker - Successor. In this order, follow the career of Christian Gillette through these four novels. The best is the Chairman and then the rest are a blur, but some were better than others.

Stephen Frey is my favorite fiction author. I like the Stephen Gillette series of books and hope he continues. Now I just need to get a hold of The Successor.

This book is a continuation of the Christian Gillette series. Gillette is now firmly in control of Everest and that is unquestioned. However, this time, a presidential election and trouble with Laurel Energy, CST, and his new NFL team are slowly converging on each other. In addition, a secretive group of “good ol’ boys” is controlling things behind the scenes.

Stephen Frey did a great at both continually building up the Christian Gillette character, while also reminding the reader of his story in case they forgot. In addition, Frey kept the reader constantly second guessing who was behind things, keeping the reader engaged and turning the age.

Frey's books on Christian Gillette are always interesting, but this one falls short of the first two in the series.
Finance and the world of high business, Frey's forte, are just a background to what is all a very messy, intricately and fairly or unrealistic political conspiracy. Furthermore, the plot takes off very very slowly, not keeping you stuck to the book as usual and then, as it often happens with this author, speeds to a sub par conclusion,
Only for the real fans of the series, not worth your time as a stand alone

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== DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU ARE GOING TO READ THE BOOK ==
== Notes to myself as I read the book ==
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Chairman of Everest Capital - Christian Gillette
Exec.Asst. - Debbie

Managing partners:
--Nigel Faraday -2nd in command
--Allison Wallace -added quid pro quo, non-paid
--Quentin Stiles -

Portfolio Companies:
--Laurel Energy, Canadian Oil & Gas
--Dice NFL expansion franchise in Las Vegas
--Dice Casino in Las Vegas
--Aero Systems

Other Players:
--Faith Cassidy -Christian's rock star girlfriend
-Kurt Landry -NFL commissioner
--Ray Lancaster -Head coach & GM of Dice, new NFL team
--Jesse Wood -senator, could be 1st black president
--Elijah Forte -one of the wealthiest men in U.S.
--Heath Johnson -executive VP under Elijah Forte

The 29th Order of the Ivy (est. 1839):
---Samuel Prescott Hewitt -Texas mogul, master of the Order, Chairman of U.S. Oil
---Mace Kohler -CEO of Networks Systems International, in collusion w/McDonnell
---Franklin Laird -ex-chairman of the Federal Reserve, killed in a hit-and-run
---Richard Dahl -5-star army general, Joint Chiefs
---Trenton Fleming -Chairman of Black Brothers Allen
---Blanton McDonnell -CEO of Jamison & Jamison Pharmaceutical, in collusion w/ Kohler
---Stewart Massey -ex-senator from Texas, ex-prosecutor, was drowned in a lake
---James Benson -oldest member, ex-director of Defense Intelligence Agency, shot himself.

--Bob Galloway -CFO of Central States Telecom & Satellite
--Vivian Davis -SEC investigator
--Carmine Torino -takes care of dealings w/the mob, hung in his hideout
--Alan Agee -Chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, threatened to not talk to Christian
--Don Roth -he & his wife caretake the Order's bldg on the island
--Patty Roth -husband, Don, had taken the fall for someone else, killed in the lodge's secret room.
--Cal Segal -owns NFL team that's trading a QB to The Dice. Somebody convinced him to settle on a deal.
--Todd Harrison -reporter
--George Bishop -snooping for Harrison
--Frank -got $1M from Christian
--Frank's real photographer
--Carl -decoy photographer for Frank
--Jefferson Roundtree -activist minister from Philly

Liked it. Lots of expected elements of a Frey thriller, with a few new angles. Enjoyable for fans of this genre.

Deceit, trust and honesty are themes that are repeatedly surfacing in Frey's novel "The Power Broker." All relationships are questioned and tested in this action and crime packed story.

The novel encompasses several original story lines that did not seem to mesh together until the second half of the book. The two powerful, secret orders one of white and the other of black men entailed a large amount of detail on both sides that left the reader confused as to which characters belonged to which orders. Each of the orders had separate goals for a presidential hopeful.

I had great difficulty keeping track of the dozen or more characters in this novel, even though many were killed off during the course of the novel.

I did quickly become attached to the true main characters of the book Christian, Quentin, Nigel and Allison. I found that my favorite part of the novel was the dialogue between these individuals. The story that was told with these characters through their business practices was easy to follow and believable.

In all honesty, I had to force myself to read past the first few complicated and intricate chapters. There were too many characters and settings introduced in the first few chapters. I especially found myself very perplexed as to how the prologue fit in with the beginning of the novel. As the story progressed, the amount of story lines seemed to increase and did not converge until the final few chapters.

This novel could have used a character chart or map to prevent the reader being lost with too many characters and settings.

The Power Broker is a melodramatic, thoroughly unbelievable tale set in the financial world. Christian Gillette is the chairman of one of the most powerful private equity firms in the world. In this novel he is pitted against forces with even more power than him in the form of Samuel Hewitt and a former Black Panther leader. There are many subplots at play including getting licenses for Las Vegas casinos, getting players for his new NFL team, and an offer to become the vice-president of the black, democrat candidate for the presidency.

I am only willing to suspend my disbelief so far. Unfortunately this novel is so full of utter ridiculous nonsense and clichés that my disbelief was required to extend well past the Milky Way. Let me count the ways. A private equity firm cannot own an NFL franchise. Only individuals are allowed to own franchises. To think that they can shake down an NFL owner, who despite what would have to be immense wealth had no personal protection, to make favorable trades is laughable. Organized crime hasn’t run the Vegas casinos in about forty years. The Order, composed of rich, old money white males who have unlimited amounts of money, power, and influence is so utterly cliché. That Jesse Ford would select someone as a vice-president candidate with absolutely no political experience is a joke. That they would not thoroughly vet Gillette is an even bigger joke. The only thing entertaining about this novel was that it was so outlandish that it was entertaining. This is a book you will want to avoid.

Carl Alves – author of Reconquest: Mother Earth