Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read! Intelligent, Fast moving and Informative.
Review: I'd heard good things about this book and I wasn't disappointed. Started quick, kept moving and kept me glued to the page. The atmosphere of the book is wonderful. Made me feel if I was walking down the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich. This the best book I've read since Absolute Power, maybe even Eye of the Needle. Reich is a wonderful writer. Can't wait to read the next one!
Rating: 
Summary: Egregiously bad
Review: I am amazed that a book this bad could have even been published. As I was reading it, I kept thinking to myself, "Where was the editor?" The prose is horrible - it reads as if it had been written by a twelve-year-old who was trying to sound like a grown-up. The authors veers between a ridiculous sounding pseudo-literary style, and a jarring out-of-place slanginess. He also has all of the characters sound exactly alike, and the dialogue sounds as if it had been written by someone who has never heard an actual live human speak. To call the character development one-dimensional would be to pay it a compliment. The plotting also reads as if it had been created by a twelve-year-old. The ending is ridiculous, combining wild coincidences (one of the secondary characters suddenly happens to speak the native language of the villain), and stupid cliches - the talkative villain who has to explain the plot to the hero rather than kill him, in order to give the hero time to get away, and then still fails to kill him at his second opportunity, for no good reason at all except that the hero clearly can't end up dead.) I do not think I have ever encountered a book that was this bad, certainly not a book that was considered a major presentation from the publishing house, as this one clearly was. I don't expect great writing in the thriller genre, but I do expect writing that is at least competent. The awfulness of this book was truly mind-boggling.
Rating:
Summary: A poor attempt at being Grisham.
Review: Not much here. Sterotypical characters molded to implasible roles. Brightest of the bright higher by the best of the best _firms_. Powerful woman is made his lover. Firm's president is oblivious to his actions. US government needs his help. (Sound fimiliar?) Plot moves at times slow, other times slower. Writing is mediocre at best. Cliches abound. Character development is weak. Dialog seems force. One example has the protaginist kissing a women lamenting how long it has been since he has felt the touch of a women. Yet, on the very next page we are reminded of his fiancé last seen only two months ago. Give me a break! I cannot find any redeeming values to this book. I finished the drival hoping against hope for a smashing ending. Sigh. No such luck. Save your money reread _The Firm_.
Rating: 
Summary: The best I can say about this book is that it is mundane.
Review: Christopher Reich has picked a steroetypical lead; educated in the best schools, outstanding military service, American, a fiancee who does not understand him. Now the lead character chucks his life to discover who murdered his father. Voile! We need some bad guys! Throw in bankers and Arab terrorists. Since the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern European countries, we have had to have new bad guys in thrillers. Nowadays it is Arab terrorists. I got so bored with this book that I put it down a little over half way through it. Don't waste your time on this novel. There are too many well written books out there to read. Try "Memoirs of a Geisha".
Rating: 
Summary: Good mystery read, with somewhat cardboard characters
Review: The Swiss banking scene takes its hits when a young ex-Marine, ex-Wall Street, Harvard MBA protagonist seeks answers to his father's death. Some interesting insights into the secrets of the Swiss banking industry are coupled with the middle-East conflict, nuclear bombs, drug dealers, and covert US military operations. The author could should have edited down some some of the secondary plot lines while focusing more on the hero's pursuit of justice for his father's killer. It was somewhat implausible how all the loose-ends tied together in the end, but the reader's interest is sustained.
Rating:
Summary: Quite well done for a first novel and an unusual thriller.
Review: Give Mr. Reich credit for producing an interesting book on what you'd consider a dull subject -- Swiss banking or international banking. It has the ingredients:a rogue Middle Easterner (Turk, not Arab); a young man seeking his father's killer and determining WHY his father was slain; some neatly done sex scenes and the intrigue of financial manipulations that could impact banks around the world. And, with the revelations of Swiss bankers' dealings with the Nazis and the swindling of many Holocaust victims/families, it's a valuable guide to just how the Swiss banking system functions. A few cardboard characters, but -- overall -- good writing and clever plotting.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: I took this book with me on the plane to Paris. During the week I was there, I got so engrossed in the story that I was afraid I'd finish it before the plane trip back. So I divided the number of remaining pages by the number of remaining days in Paris, figuring I'd leave myself 150 pages to read on the plane home. All to no avail: I'd read late into the night and I finished the book 2 days before leaving Paris. On the plan trip back, my sister who accompanied me on the trip, began reading it and couldn't put it down... Is it a 10? Not in my book. But it's a dogonne good read. Buy it and you won't be sorry (or, alternatively, call my sister in San Antonio and tell her to send you the book when she's finished it...and you'll have better luck getting the book than I will!) The other remaining question is, why am I reading a book at night in the middle of Paris? THAT'S how good the book is.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, not great
Review: Numbered Account is about trust and betrayal. The book is an example of good story-telling but not great story, and there's a difference. Mr. Reich demonstrates that he's learned the rudiments from the best. He has a commendable talent with words. But my interest wanes at the 60-yard line when he dumps his one and only heroine and makes Nick hoof it alone the rest of the way. Nick's just not a strong enough character to pull it off. Look, you don't spend half the book leading your reader through a developing relationship, and then carelessly toss it aside. I'm supposed to be surprised, but I feel duped instead, and not by clever plot guise but by the writer's change of heart. Early on, he dispenses with Nick's old love as background to propel him toward his goal. The new love interest starts with conflict, then builds effectively on the powerful theme of two lovers locked in conspiracy fighting crime. Suddenly, six-tenths of the way through the book, we wake up to Nick and Anna on the phone--a beautifully crafted two-line exchange that graphically depicts the old intimacy. But I don't give a fig about Anna! She's a blank sheet, undeveloped. Sylvia's flaws up to that point are human and we empathize because of her strength of character in raising her brothers. Now the writer decides to dump Silvia by painting her as an amoral toady. From that point on she's as predictable as the plot, and the rest of the book is just Nick against the baddies. And I just can't develop sympathy for the guy anyway. So, I'm still on the hunt for a writer who understands story structure that grips you the way Crichton and Ludlum can do. Grisham will never get it, but I think Chris Reich is on the way. A very good first effort, Chris, but go sit at the feet of the master, Robert McKee. Learn what he knows, and then give us that great story lurking inside you.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting! Action-Packed!
Review: Wow! This book has it all. I couldn't put it down. You're going to Love it!
Rating:
Summary: First-Rate
Review: This is the best book I've read since Craig Furnas's thrillernovel THE SHAPE. If you want a page-turner, this does the job. (ReadTHE SHAPE first, though. It's actually better. You can buy it through Amazon.com)
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