cover image THE DEADLY TRADE

THE DEADLY TRADE

Ken Morris, . . Bancroft, $25 (366pp) ISBN 978-1-890862-35-0

In his second outing, Morris sticks with the same setup he devised for last year's popular Man in the Middle —innocent financial analyst drawn into his own company's evil web—yet does so with addictive verve. The hero here is Tim Mack, a recent widower whose wife and young son were killed in a car crash in New York City. The tragedy persuaded Mack to leave the pressures of Wall Street and flee to San Diego, where he now works in a lower-stress job, analyzing biotech stocks for a small investment banking house. Mack's troubles start when the headquarters of one of his employer's clients, Isotopic Research, is reduced to rubble in a mysterious explosion. In trying to advise investors about Isotopic's prospects, Mack pieces together a disturbing story: Isotopic and several of his employer's other clients appear to have abandoned their original missions and now serve as testing stations for sophisticated bio-warfare weapons, such as advanced strains of anthrax and sarin gas. Mack, along with his trading partner and love interest, Betsy O'Brien, find not only their jobs but their lives at risk as they try to determine who's funding the research and, more important, who's buying the weapons. Morris, a former Wall Street trader, steers his plot down a formulaic path, capping it off with a suitably nerve-wracking finale. Although the writing and characterizations are workmanlike at best, Morris's deft handling of pacing and compelling research into bio-weapons make his sophomore effort highly readable. (Mar.)