The Predator — Michael Ridpath

Ruthless, selfish, dangerous. In fact, just right for the job. At top investment bank Bloomfield Weiss, they taught them to be winners, predators, killer deal-makers. On the bank's training programme in New York, Chris and Lenka had become part of a close-knit gang of ambitious trainees, working and playing hard. But when a failed affair sparked a confrontation during a drunken boat-trip, one of the gang died, leaving the rest to cover up the truth of the tragedy. Ten years later a helpless Chris watches Lenka's lifeblood soak into the snow of a Prague street �" and his world falls apart. With his friend and business partner dead, Chris not only has to fight to keep his company afloat in the face of nervous investors, but must also discover who is behind Lenka's seemingly random �" but coolly professional �" murder. Then others are killed, and it looks like Chris could be next. Now it seems that their shared past might contain an even more sinister secret than Chris had thought. And that someone from the training programme took their lessons rather too seriously. Michael Ridpath has written eight bestselling financial thrillers, published in over 30 countries. PRAISE FOR MICHAEL RIDPATH'S FINANCIAL THRILLERS: “Ridpath has that read-on factor that sets bestsellers apart.” - The Guardian “It is the author's insight into the complexities of the business that gives his novel so much life. And he can write... Yes, he has a winner here.” - The New York Times “It'll send a shiver down bankers' spines.” - Mirror “The author makes you feel the intensity of the trading floor, the combination of number-crunching and gut instinct that leads people to take big risks, the thrill of playing a hunch and getting it right.” - Los Angeles times Book Review “For sheer entertainment, there's nothing in the mystery genre to beat a well-constructed thriller… …the new book of Michael Ridpath provides a master-class in how it's done. I read it in one gulp." - The Observer “As slick and compulsive a piece of storytelling as can be found in the best of blockbuster fiction.” - Sunday Express.