Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: I have read a lot of boring books this year, but this one takes the cake. I didn't feel much for the main character...and I sure couldn't follow all the intricate twists and turns taken to set him up for a financial fall. I won't be reading any more of this author's work. I am simply not interested in the world of high finance. It's hard to drum up sympathy for someone whose net worth is around 29 million....
Rating: 
Summary: Another solid four stars for Erdman
Review: A great read! The writing is lucid, fast-paced, and well thought out though a couple of sub-plots are too coincidental. As a financial analyst, i can always learn something from his books and not feel reading some faking or hypothetical financial plots. I also admire his ability to apply (or improvise) nowadays' financial terms to develop a story. Generally, i feel my $7 is worth every dollar. A less coincidental development, especially the last 100 pages, will earn my fifth star. - R.C.L. -
Rating: 
Summary: One of Erdman's Best
Review: Along with the Billion Dollar Killing, definately one of Erdman's best. Great story, great settings, and moves quickly.
Rating:
Summary: One of Erdman's Best
Review: Along with the Billion Dollar Killing, definately one of Erdman's best. Great story, great settings, and moves quickly.
Rating:
Summary: Topnotch financial thriller that could've been even better..
Review: Charles Black, a former investment banker and a tough-nut chairman of the Fed quits his job in a struggle with the White House over rising interest rates. But he's persuaded to stay on for a while as a special envoy to represent the Fed at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Swiss-based institution that serves as the industrialized world's clearinghouse for payments and monetary information. So imagine Black's rude surprise when he arrives in Basel, Switzerland for one of the BIS's regular monthly meetings. Instead of the warm welcome he had been receiving for the past four years as a Fed chief, he is arrested, jailed, and charged with using his exclusive knowledge of U.S. interest-rate moves to mastermind the most audacious insider-trading scheme ever. Intrigued yet? As the conspiracy begins to unfold, Black finds himself no more than a fall guy for a shadowy Sardinian financier, a conniving Swiss lawyer with a desk full of secret bank accounts, and the real inside trader--a corrupt president of the Swiss National Bank. In this mix of characters lies the potential for a Hitchcockian drama of a victim mixing it up with his tormentors as he tries to clear his name. The Set-Up journeys from San Francisco and Washington to Switzerland, Sardinia, and the wilds of Alaska, where the plot against Black falls apart. On the good side, Erdman keeps things moving with his descriptions of shady Swiss dealings, and prison life. Big Swiss heads come off as men of impeccable social standing but a flexible moral character. That's an all-too-common shortcoming among the Swiss big-money set that Erdman seems to have studied closely during his life as a doctoral student and banker in Basel. But this is also my minor grouse with the book that is supposed to be more of a thriller than a treatise on global finance. Expect a fair bit of digressions into the minutiae of international banking including an introduction to the innards of derivatives markets. Which was great for me personally, but these are in fact slightly piquing in terms of the novel's flow. Nonetheless this is all worth the ride if you are in the market for a financially inclined thriller. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best financial thrillers to date!
Review: Erdman's style of storytelling is in itself unique and interesting, revealing the plot in a dynamic way not common to most writers. The plot is compelling, the financial thriller at its best! A solid Four Star book.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic, Wonderful Book......for the first 300 pages....
Review: Even though the ending seemed at times that Erdman had lost interest, or perhaps creativity, I enjoyed his work very much. Set Up gave the reader some insight as to what goes on in the world of high finance and the perils of deceit in this arena. The book was certainly good enough that I will try another of Mr. Erdman's titles....I just hope for an ending on par with the beginning!
Rating:
Summary: the set-up
Review: excellent, fast paced book that takes you all over the world. if you love reading about greed and power then this is for you
Rating:
Summary: Easy to read, yet taut and suspenseful!
Review: Having been a long-time Erdman fan, I found the "Set-Up" one of Erdman's better works. He keeps pace with changes in the golbal financial marke, writes a great mystery that keeps you gussing at how the protagonist will discover what is happening, yet it is easy to understand for those of us who are not well-educated in global financial matters. If there is a flaw, it is that it takes a long time to get the background of the nature of the charges against Charles Black, but after finishing the book, I realized why it was done that way. I got the book as a gift Christmas night, and read non-stop the entire weekend. WOnderful plot and superb character development. Bravo, Mr. Erdman!
Rating:
Summary: If you like financial thrillers, this is as good as it gets
Review: Heeeee's back. This book is in the same catagory as "The Billion Dollar Sure Thing" and the "Silver Bears". A first class easy read that you can't put down. Highly recommended.
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