Keep Your Enemies Closer — Richard Parker

KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER is a corporate thriller about Wall Street, the City of London and Hollywood. When ex-lawyer and investment banker Rob Perkins is appointed as F! Corporation's new Chief Operating Officer, he doesn't know that his predecessor was fired for his failed attempt to oust F!'s duplicitous CEO, Jonathan Feldman. Within weeks of joining the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerate Rob learns that if he is to survive the highly treacherous corridors of the Shard in London, the global headquarters of F! he will need to keep his friends close, and his enemies even closer. Martin Saul's failed boardroom coup leads to an internal witchhunt by Feldman for all those who were loyal to Saul. Soon Saul is gone, as is the hugely successful head of F!'s iconic film studio, Dave Sherwin, Saul's most loyal ally. As the novel moves from the Cannes Film Festival in the French Riviera to the City of London, Wall Street and Hollywood Rob looks to stamp his mark on F! as its new COO. Rob quickly finds himself in the midst of a highly competitive and acrimonious battle for a 51% stake in United Pictures with a host of bidders including the corporate raider and private equity firm Bainbridge Capital now headed by Martin Saul. It doesn't take long for Rob to realise that Saul's appointment as CEO of the giant private equity firm and hedge fund, Bainbridge Capital, changes everything for Feldman, F! Corporation and Rob himself. Rob's and Saul's battle for control of United Pictures proves to be just a prelude to Saul's ultimate goal: control of F! Corporation and deposing Feldman and F!'s Chairman, Sir Hamish Childs. When Bainbridge Capital surprises the markets by taking a 15% stake in F! Corporation Feldman knows that Saul and Bainbridge Capital are coming after him. The only question is can he stop them? Can Rob stop them and does he want to? As Rob battles with Bainbridge Capital and Feldman, who has come to see Rob as a threat to his ongoing tenure as CEO, the FBI and SEC have come to believe that a number of high profile individuals in the capital markets of London and New York are involved in systematic insider trading. With the help of court-approved wiretaps the FBI begins to close in on a group of people at some of the world's most powerful corporations, law firms, investment banks and hedge funds. The question is who at F! Corporation and Bainbridge are involved and what will the fall out be, if they are caught?