[.uk] The Protégé: A Novel (Random House Large Print ... (ISBN 0739326139)

A Good Follow-up to the Chairman:
If you enjoyed the Chairman, you will like this book. I gave the Chairman 5 stars because it seemed like it was a bit darker and more unique with regards to it's development of supporting characters like Coen, and Nigel Faraday, who, unfortunately, is downplayed in the next 2 books.

Slow pace:
Not the best in the Stephen Frey production. The plot is a bore, you can not write three books with the material for one

Fast Paced:
The author is good at moving things along at a quick pace. In this book, Wall Street Financier Christian Gillette returns to battle the forces of evil. Namely, a branch of the Mafia represented by The Carbone Family and a shadowy branch of the Defense Department- DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)represented by Norman Boyd and his associate Ganze. It turns out that Boyd is trying to get at a small company owned by Gillette's Everest Capital investment firm in order to profit from nanotechnology. Along the way the reader is introduced to the bright and beautiful heiress Allison Wallace who is ready to invest 15 billion dollars from her family into Everest. But. With conditions. Other events of interest are Gillette's acquisition of a professional football team and approvals for a Las Vegas casino as well as his girlfriend the beautiful singer Faith who is under contract to one of Gillette's companies. All this between big financial deals. And don't forget Gillette is a self made success and good guy who counsels his top employees to donate generously to charity. He is also searching for the answer to his father's death in a plane crash. His father had been a U.S. Senator. As well as the identity of his mother. Who was The Protege? David Wright, heir apparent at Everest, who unintentionally murdered a woman during some kinky sex that was secretly photographed by the mafia. Naturally, they used the photos to blackmail him. The CIA enters the picture too. A lot of different subplots but the author ties them reasonably well together in a fast paced read.

Dynamic:
Christian Gillette, a multimillionaire and succesful CEO of Everest Capital is get caught up in a conspiracy when he received a proposal of a FBI agency to use one of his companies like a cover up to develop "some inventions" in the nanotechnology sector. As Gillette went deepening in his investigatiion about this proposal, he find out that his person and company are victims of a very dangerous conspiracy on the part of that FBI agency that doesn't hesitate to use the Mafia as their executioners in the blackmail, murder and deceits to carry out their purposes. A very dynamic novel developed in the world of the high finances with intrigues, industrial espionage, conspiracy and murders as main ingredients of the plot.

Disappointed:
What a disappointment. Frey attempts to work in too many plot lines, his poorly developed characters have no substance other than to assure that they function best as whiny spoiled children. Adults who behave that way in the real world would be out the door of a firm like Everest. My only reason for even finishing the book was because I was on an airplane. Had I a selection of other books from which to choose (or could have found a passenger willing to trade), I would have set this book aside without temptation to learn the ending. I'm disappointed with all of the strings that Frey leaves dangling, clearly setting up the reader for another book in the series. I will not be purchasing that one.