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.
Rating: 
Summary: From Hot.........too Not
Review: I had this book sitting on my shelf for about a one year. I was saving it. I wanted to read all of my lesser books before I read this one because I expected it to be an amazing escape novel filled with fun characters and fast-paced action. Let me stress that that is all that I expected from this novel. Having read all of Frey's previous novels, I was hoping and expecting that he would return to his fine form in the late 90's. I was thinking terms of the days when "The Takeover" and 'The Vulture Fund" were devoured by myself in mere hours. Hence the reason why this book sat on my shelf for a year, it was just waiting to be enjoyed. I was saving the (alleged) best for last.
When I picked it up I immediately eased into the Classic Stephen Frey style. The flashback, the random situation, the flash-ahead. I found myself enthralled. For the first time in my Stephen Frey reading career his protagonist was deeply flawed with a severe drinking problem....(but fear not reader Bo still had the rugged goodlooks, and chiseled features that we have all grown to expect). As I was reading the book I found myself loving the sitution that the author had painted himself into. He was setting things up to be a fun filled read, with a hint of consipacy, and a dash of revenge. (Can a pulp reader ask for anything more!!!!)
Unfortunately the answer to that question is Yes. Soon the wheels fall of the wagon. I won't say how, or why, but what I will say is that things just go down the tubes faster then you can say......TRUST FUND.
As plot moves along, the reader continues to guess who pulling all the strings, but the holes in logic that are soon exposed in the plot are sad. Very sad.
One small example is that at one point in the book it is discovered that a character has a homing device on him at all times. I immediately started thinking that if this guy has a homing device on him then why wouldn't the evil powers that be put a homing device on characters that could actually do some serious damage. The average reader may not worry to much about that one, but the crux of the book is based on one character putting literally billions of dollars on a hunch. A hunch! I may go to Vegas and put 50 dollars on a hunch that the Leafs will win the Stanley Cup, but that is my problem.
I want to call a spade a spade. When I sat down to read this book I expected there to be cardboard characters, and moments of suspended disbelief and giant leaps of faith. However to encounter these gaping hole in logic, i felt that the reader was sold short. It is a shame that such a clever idea has been squandered so pathetically.
Feel free to read this book, but make sure you have a least a couple of beers in yours system. Trust me, you'll thank me later.
Rating:
Summary: From Hot.........too Not
Review: I had this book sitting on my shelf for about a one year. I was saving it. I wanted to read all of my lesser books before I read this one because I expected it to be an amazing escape novel filled with fun characters and fast-paced action. Let me stress that that is all that I expected from this novel. Having read all of Frey's previous novels, I was hoping and expecting that he would return to his fine form in the late 90's. I was thinking terms of the days when "The Takeover" and 'The Vulture Fund" were devoured by myself in mere hours. Hence the reason why this book sat on my shelf for a year, it was just waiting to be enjoyed. I was saving the (alleged) best for last.
When I picked it up I immediately eased into the Classic Stephen Frey style. The flashback, the random situation, the flash-ahead. I found myself enthralled. For the first time in my Stephen Frey reading career his protagonist was deeply flawed with a severe drinking problem....(but fear not reader Bo still had the rugged goodlooks, and chiseled features that we have all grown to expect). As I was reading the book I found myself loving the sitution that the author had painted himself into. He was setting things up to be a fun filled read, with a hint of consipacy, and a dash of revenge. (Can a pulp reader ask for anything more!!!!)
Unfortunately the answer to that question is Yes. Soon the wheels fall of the wagon. I won't say how, or why, but what I will say is that things just go down the tubes faster then you can say......TRUST FUND.
As plot moves along, the reader continues to guess who pulling all the strings, but the holes in logic that are soon exposed in the plot are sad. Very sad.
One small example is that at one point in the book it is discovered that a character has a homing device on him at all times. I immediately started thinking that if this guy has a homing device on him then why wouldn't the evil powers that be put a homing device on characters that could actually do some serious damage. The average reader may not worry to much about that one, but the crux of the book is based on one character putting literally billions of dollars on a hunch. A hunch! I may go to Vegas and put 50 dollars on a hunch that the Leafs will win the Stanley Cup, but that is my problem.
I want to call a spade a spade. When I sat down to read this book I expected there to be cardboard characters, and moments of suspended disbelief and giant leaps of faith. However to encounter these gaping hole in logic, i felt that the reader was sold short. It is a shame that such a clever idea has been squandered so pathetically.
Feel free to read this book, but make sure you have a least a couple of beers in yours system. Trust me, you'll thank me later.
Rating:
Summary: Neil of Worcester MA
Review: I have always been impressed to see Stephen Frey weave his Wall Street expertise into his usual interesting fiction. In the trust fund he did not weave and the novel is not interesting. In fact he really blows it in the end with his absurd,unrealistic potential global distruction. The plot was probably developed one evening and the book written over a weekend. Shame.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointed
Review: I have never finished a book so fast! In three sittings I read it from cover to cover!
Rating: 
Summary: A fast read
Review: I have never finished a book so fast! In three sittings I read it from cover to cover!
Rating:
Summary: Trust Fund
Review: I loved the book. Stephen Frey did not let me down. He grabbed my attention immediately and kept it all the way through the book. I could not put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Just Awful
Review: I picked this up off a used book pile in a bookstore, and luckily only paid 50 cents for it. Never read anything by Stephen Frey before, and never will again. Awful dialogue, superficial characterizations, completely unrealistic situations -- four or five members of this family get clipped in a week and no one seems to notice any pattern or react. The book seemed like one of those role playing computer games where none of the characters react at all to events -- a presidential candidate shoots himself, no reaction; the head of a billion dollar hedge fund gets killed, no reaction. It was laughable. Frey seems to be aiming to be Grisham for the financial set, which is aiming pretty low. Grisham is awful too, but at least grounds his stories in characterization as well as plotting. All Frey does is add an explosion or murder every 15 pages, trying to keep the story moving. Save yourself two hours of your life. Don't read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, even with low expectations
Review: I picked up this paperback at the airport, because I needed something to read on the plane, and I thought I remembered reading another one of Frey's novels (don't ask me which one) and being at least moderately entertained. I didn't expect all that much from this book, just a mildly diverting read. Still, I was amazed at just how bad this book is. Other reviewers have mentioned the implausibility of the events and the zero-dimensionality of the characters, so I need go no farther. One curious anomaly struck me, though: after the entire book is narrated in the third person, the "epilogue" is in the first. No apparent reason for it, but there it is.
Rating: 
Summary: Great!
Review: I thought this was an excellent read. This is the first novel I have read by Frey and it was great! The character Bo Hancock was very cool. He was witty and intelligent, yet Frey still applied his flaws making it more realistic. I thought the first-person ending was fantastic. Even though this was the first book I read of his, I thought it was a great financial thriller and I recommend this book to anyone.
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