Rating: 
Summary: A great read that goes a little overboard at the end
Review: Trust Fund grabbed me right from the start (a dead body in the beginning always helps). I have read all of Stephen Frey's books and this is one of his best, but one of his bad habits rears its ugly head again. Bo Hancock, the main character is an interesting character and I felt that I could relate with some of the decisions he made. The Hancocks are an interesting clan and they have a lot of problems, but they all seem to believe that money makes it all better, except our hero Bo of course. I thought that the story flowed very well until the last quarter of the book, when Stephen Frey fell into the habit of making everything huge and corruption everywhere. It ended up having a little too much conspiracy theory for me. But if you can accept that this is a great read.
Rating:
Summary: A great read that goes a little overboard at the end
Review: Trust Fund grabbed me right from the start (a dead body in the beginning always helps). I have read all of Stephen Frey's books and this is one of his best, but one of his bad habits rears its ugly head again. Bo Hancock, the main character is an interesting character and I felt that I could relate with some of the decisions he made. The Hancocks are an interesting clan and they have a lot of problems, but they all seem to believe that money makes it all better, except our hero Bo of course. I thought that the story flowed very well until the last quarter of the book, when Stephen Frey fell into the habit of making everything huge and corruption everywhere. It ended up having a little too much conspiracy theory for me. But if you can accept that this is a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointed
Review: A very quick read with a boring ending. I've read most of Frey's books and this one was way below average
Rating: 
Summary: Lesson Learned
Review: An easy read, "Trust Fund" is about greed, spies, disfunction, influence, and that glorious variable that gets so many in trouble: power. The story is told in increments but progresses nicely. The story is simple: who has the most information, who has the most power? This reader found the writing too simple, but the story unfolds nicely, bringing the reader to guess who is in control and who is behind the master plan that can destroy so many people and accrue ultimate power to a select few. The lesson learned by the main character is a nice one; and the epiloque denotes this nicely. I do plan on reading more books by Frey; there is something soothingly simple about his work.
Rating: 
Summary: If you like weak characters, you will love this book
Review: Because I liked what Frey did with the plot in the first book I read of his (The Insider), I was willing to forgive some very serious flaws in his writing and decided to read Trust Fund. Unfortunately this book is too flawed to even be saved by a decent plot. In both of the books that I read by Frey, he tries to use the dialogue of the characters to clue us in to what has happened in the past. It is a terrible strategy because it makes the characters completely unbelievable. Nobody talks like this. The other problem here is that we have a main character that we are supposed to like and see as the good guy, and yet Frey does a terrible job of making him likable. We are supposed to be touched by the goodness of his marriage and his relationship with his wife, and yet he drives around strippers and meets women in bars. Frey has created a womanizing drunk and we are supposed to believe that he is a good husband and that he is still being faithful simply because he doesn't sleep with these other women. The other characters are equally weak. The evil characters are almost ridiculous. They are so one dimensional that the reader has a hard time being outraged by their actions. We need more substance here. The plot in this book is once again passable and even entertaining at times. Frey just needs to spend more time developing his craft. His dialogue is very weak and his characters lack substance. It is too bad that we are willing to make authors best sellers before we make them earn it.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting family thriller
Review: Comparisons of his family are always to the Kennedy clan as the Hancock shares the same level of wealth, charisma, and political connections. There are five children in the family and their father, similar to Joe Sr. holds a taut reign on Paul, Tommy, Catherine, Bo, and Ashley even as he treats his two youngest as changelings. Paul is running for president and with his dad's backing easily will win. Bo runs the family's Wall St. brokerage firm. That changes when Bo's alleged drinking and philandering reaches the ear of his father who exiles his youngest son to Montana a la Hoover. When his father becomes ill, Bo returns home to retake control of Warbled Capital even though his siblings prefer he remain in Big Sky country. Bo fights for his position, but soon learns his opponent is an invisible cabal of powerful people running the country from behind the scenes. Bo realizes he has a difficult decision whether to challenge this Goliath or not. People not familiar with the intricacies of Wall St. probably will find this novel sells them short as it assumes full understanding of the financial markets. Yet, this does will not deter anyone from the full enjoyment of Stephen Frey's clever tale that obviously imitates real life. TRUST FUND will enhance Mr. Frey's reputation as one of the leaders of the political-financial thriller. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Smooth Style wins again
Review: Frey continues to deliver. This story was a bit over the top but is a great beach book.
Rating:
Summary: someone's watching
Review: Good premise, but a bit of a reach. Enjoyable reading
Rating:
Summary: A murder per minute
Review: Having read Frey's previous books and enjoying them all, I was disappointed by his latest effort. It was difficult to suspend disbelief as the silly and contrived plot unfolded. Paranoia about our political leaders and cynicism about the power of money in the political system are natural subjects for thrillers, but even the dumbest and most credulous members of the media would have figured something was up as the body count rose in this book. Frey's narrative and prose are not his strong point and the weakness of the story led him knock somebody off every time the suspense flagged. His obsession with plot twists and placing characters in physical danger became tedious and while I finished the book quickly, toward the end I was skimming to get to the end. I was surprised to see a good story teller write such an amateurish book.
Rating:
Summary: Aaaarrrggh!
Review: How the heck can Stephen Frey even put his name to this one? How can Fawcett even have agreed to publish this; oh, wait a minute, this is Fawcett Books. Stephen Frey sure as heck is not a John Grisham or Tom Clancy or Dan Brown, but come on... The writing is cheap. The characters are lacking, and their development (along with the story's) is reminiscent of "see dog run." "Trust Fund" had to have been a joke or a mistake. I started reading this book on a flight to LA, but found it more interesting and stimulating to put it down and stare at the seatback in front of me. I tried again at my hotel during my stay; no luck, anything was better than trudging through the "Trust Fund" muck with Bo & Co. Finally, before checking out, I made the decision to leave the "Trust Fund" in the hotel room. Good riddance.
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