Zero Coupon

Rating:
Summary: Good Book From Erdman!
Review: This book is about international banker Willy Saxon. He is brought down by the junk bond market and has to serve a three year prison sentence.Unlike Boesky and Milken he refuses to turn
state's evidence.He uses 74 million dollars that he has stashed in Europe to covertly purchase a San Fransisco investment house.
Saxon also purchases a Napa Valley ranch which he turns into a
high tech trading exchange.He makes use of bogus bonds(tax free
zero coupon bond) and runs into problems.He manages to escape this situation by accurately predicting the plunge of the
German mark.Willy also shows traits of becoming quite ladie's man with some of the wealthy women in San Francisco.This turned
out to be a very interesting book.

Rating:
Summary: Best financial thriller of all time!...
Review: A masterfully written book. Even though I read the book almost 4 years ago, I still believe it's the best I have ever read. Mr. Erdman crafts a wonderful story about the world of high-finance. He writes about an area of life that few understand and makes it easy to comprehend. The characters are solidly depicted and the hero is even more realistic due to his flawed and checkered past. The flaws in the hero just make him more believable and his goal in the story just reinforces human nature that "even though you're down, you pick yourself up and start over"; (by any means necessary) just makes Willie Saxon's character that much more exciting and real. One can almost imagine being in the character's place. Some may even wish to be where Willie Saxon was. Paul Erdman's characters are always strong willed and powerful. Mr. Erdman's portrayal of a riches-to-rags-to-riches character makes the story that much better. A great plot. A must read. For me, it's a must read "again".

Rating:
Summary: Best financial thriller of all time!...
Review: A masterfully written book. Even though I read the book almost 4 years ago, I still believe it's the best I have ever read. Mr. Erdman crafts a wonderful story about the world of high-finance. He writes about an area of life that few understand and makes it easy to comprehend. The characters are solidly depicted and the hero is even more realistic due to his flawed and checkered past. The flaws in the hero just make him more believable and his goal in the story just reinforces human nature that "even though you're down, you pick yourself up and start over"; (by any means necessary) just makes Willie Saxon's character that much more exciting and real. One can almost imagine being in the character's place. Some may even wish to be where Willie Saxon was. Paul Erdman's characters are always strong willed and powerful. Mr. Erdman's portrayal of a riches-to-rags-to-riches character makes the story that much better. A great plot. A must read. For me, it's a must read "again".

Rating:
Summary: Move over Gecko, Willy Saxton is in town!
Review: After reading Den of Thieves this books brings us over from reality to fiction by way of the Grisham / Clancy type drama and action of high finance and intrigue.
Beginning where Den of Thieves leaves off (in the real world) this takes us on a fast passed romp through start-up, cutting deals, leveraging coin, and turning up the heat to create a trading operation in the woods north of San Francisco.
The Willy Saxton character is perfect and handles the presure well.
This of course is not great literature, but it sure is a fast and great read. Books like this are like "Text Movies". They grab and entertain you.
If you like high finance, drama, and intrigue then this is it!

Rating:
Summary: There is something wrong with the plot
Review: I read this book about the same time "The Game" came out with Michael Douglas. I don't know, something about that magical city and high finance just gets me. I flew there and "Zero Coupon" and "The Game" were all I thought about. Excellent reading, I wish it were a movie, it would beat the hell out of Wall Street, the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Best Seller????
Review: Paul Erdman is to investment banking what Michael Crighton is to paleo-genetics. A wildly entertaining fiction with deep insight into derivatives, debt financing and foreign currency exchange. Only fiction I ever read that moved me to write the author.

Rating:
Summary: Character-driven story with a technical plot
Review: Something Paul Erdman does that many of his comtemporaries neglect to do is he gives his characters personality and life. The dialogue has some spark.

Besides good characters, Erdman is good with the technical details of finance. You get to dabble with offshore corporation, shell companies, underwriting and the like. It does not read like a textbook. It reads more like what you can imagine Micheal Milken doing in a meeting with his minions as he's setting up something - lots of charisma, some financial details, but not so much details that it would put us laypeople to sleep.

His other books are like this, too. Except for the Swiss Account (which reads like a history book) and The Panic of 89 (which reads like a Tom Clancy thriller).

Rating:
Summary: Fast Pace, Talented Author
Review: This book's release in the pre-internet days prevents it from getting its deserved recognition. Erdman has written well-received books since the 1970s. Snappy dialog containing factual information about the world of high finance both educates and entertains the reader.