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The Vulture Fund

The Vulture Fund

List Price: $16.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: GREAT READING
Review: BOOK WAS VERY FAST PACED. EXCELLANT CHARACTERS. CAN NOT WAIT FOR THE NEW BOOK HOPEFULLY SOON TO COME OUT

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Cheesy. Yep, that about covers it. Cheesy.
Review: Cardboard characters.
Cheesy plot.
Little or no basis in reality - like how would the CIA director (yet he's called "General" even though he's the Director of the CIA) who wants to run for President explain the hundreds of millions of dollars he wants to use for his campaign that he skimmed from his evil plan?

This book is a little Iran-Contra, a little Trading Places and a lot of silly garbage all rolled into one.

And - to make it all the worse, I heard it as a book on tape and the reader made nearly EVERY male bad guy voice the same - a raspy, impatient tone. Kind of like James Garner with a sore throat.



Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What happened?
Review: Did someone forget to edit this book? It was poorly written and lacked basic editing. The plot was unrealistic- to the point of being goofy. I caught myself rolling my eyes time and again throughout the book. Unfortunately, this is the first and last Frey book on which I will waste my time.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Only a Vulture Could Stomach This One!
Review: Having had the unfortunate displeasure of reading both of Mr. Frey's forays into writing, I have but one piece of advice for the author -- do not quit your day job, PLEASE!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sloppy writing spoils a promising premise.
Review: I appreciate good suspense fiction, and this is not it! The book starts out with a fine premise but less than laudable prose. And the writing style only deteriorates. The last third reads like a hastily composed first draft--a barely fleshed-out outline. I couldn't help but conclude that Frey was in a big hurry to get this one into print, and so was his publisher, because no one polished or edited it. If I read one more time that someone's hand was "large" or "huge," or that someone "hesitated for several moments," I was going to recycle my copy. I don't care how successful Frey is, he should be embarrassed by the quality of the writing he turned in here. It shows a lack of respect for his craft and his readers.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Okay nothing special!
Review: I found it okay but at times a bit boring. There was adventure e.t.c but the chracters didnt seem to develop into anything.I think this one by stephen frey is a big NO NO!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Lots of promise, but no delivery
Review: I just discovered Stephen Frey recently and really enjoy his books. This one, however, was a big disappointment. I read a few reviews and found I should have paid attention because they were right on the money. This book has a great beginning that really drew me in, but as it went on, the writing went downhill and the end really seemed to be slapped together. What could have been a fabulous final third of this book, had it been developed, just kind of fell apart. He must have been in a hurry to meet a dealine or something - totally unpolished.

I highly recommend The Day Trader, and The Legacy, but would not recommend The Vulture Fund at all.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Lots of promise, but no delivery
Review: I just discovered Stephen Frey recently and really enjoy his books. This one, however, was a big disappointment. I read a few reviews and found I should have paid attention because they were right on the money. This book has a great beginning that really drew me in, but as it went on, the writing went downhill and the end really seemed to be slapped together. What could have been a fabulous final third of this book, had it been developed, just kind of fell apart. He must have been in a hurry to meet a dealine or something - totally unpolished.

I highly recommend The Day Trader, and The Legacy, but would not recommend The Vulture Fund at all.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Grisham of Wall Street -- but is that a good thing?
Review: It would seem that Stephen Frey is attempting to become the John Grisham of Wall Street. His knowledge of the arcane world of the stock market and high finance is encyclopedic, and he's really quite adequate at coming up with clever plots and conspiracies. Furthermore, taking another lead from Grisham, his characters are the same cliched stock personages who inahbit Grisham's world. So Frey justifiably lays claim to the title of Grisham's financial counterpart. But that' isn't neccesarily something I'd want a thriller writer to be. Frey's second book, The Vulture Fund, is an entertaining read, and when it was over I thought I'd learned something about how the financial world operates. Frey doesn't stop at the nuts and bolts of money management and investing, though; he also explores the upper-class snobbery that plagues the financial community by making his hero, whiz kid Mace McLain, be the product of a Minnesota orphanage rather than the Eastern Establishment. Also, he creates an ingenious main conspiracy by having a presidential candidate finance his campaign by masterminding what could be the worst terrorist incident in history. But his research on things not related to finance is revolting. Would guards at a nuclear facility really carry outdated .30-caliber rifles? Why is the .44 Magnum the weapon of choice amongst assassins in Frey's world, when most other thriller writers would tell you that professional killers prefer smaller automatic weapons? When was the last time you saw a CIA director run for President against the Commander-in-Chief who supposedly appointed him? Sure, George Bush became President, but it was a decade after he'd been CIA chief. Could a President hand over all the nation's counterterrorism operations to the CIA? Without angering the FBI, the Secret Service, the Green Berets, the Navy SEALs, and the Marines? And while I'm beating the subject of the Chief Executive dead, what's the deal with President Bob Whitman? In Frey's last book, The Takeover, (skip this section if you've not read it), Whitman was the Republican Governor of Connecticut who defeated President Buford J. Warren, Democrat of Alabama, for reelection, after a group of Wall Street insiders artfully framed him for insider trading. Now, Whitman's a Democrat who's been in office for seven years. I could believe that Vulture Fund is set two presidential terms after Takeover, but why did President Whitman switch parties? Or is Frey just being lazy? And finally, who in the world has a name like Slade Connor, Mace's best friend who is the CIA's top agent (and who's mission briefings are an embarrasingly researched ripoff of James Bond)? As a final debit, the dialogue is some of the worst since recent Robert Ludlum. The Vulture Fund has enough of a clever plot and inside information to keep you turning pages. But the research, or considerable lack thereof, is enough to make you scream in pain.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Liked it when I first read it
Review: Ok, comparisons to the "Takeover" would be inevitable. Yet, Vulture Fund though failing to reach the heights of it predecessor does fairly well. Problem is the plot will not probably appeal to those familiar to dealings in the financial world as such but if you want a good story, its definitely worth the money.


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