Bancroft Press in the Media

In the era of Enron, Worldcom, corporate corruption and billions of dollars lost in the stock market, Ken Morris, described by the London Times as a Wall Street trading legend and a big time Master of the Street, unveils the scams, amorality, and ruthless dealings of the capital markets in his debut financial thriller, MAN IN THE MIDDLE.

In the tradition of professionals-turned-novelists like John Grisham, Steve Martini, and Robin Cook, Morris, who ran international equities trading at Morgan Stanley, Drexel Burnham Lambert, and Prudential-Bache, collapses the boundaries between an insider's deep knowledge of how the international markets really work and a novelist's talent for page-turning storytelling.

In the process, he takes the reader on a wild, gripping, but true-to-life ride that is credible to Wall Streeters yet accessible to Main Streeters.

I have always wanted Wall Street to listen to what I thought was wrong with Wall Street and the way business is done, says Morris who spent 20 years in the heart of the NY financial markets and was once known as the angriest man on Wall Street. The novel is a way in which I can reveal the insider trading, pump and dump tactics, the cut-throat, maniacal and often unethical culture of international trading in a way that is understandable to a lot of people.

Morris does this by bringing the reader into the trading world through the eyes of young Peter Neil, a decent, naïve kid who finds himself caught up into the vicious tactics, amoral dealings, and emotional wreckage of one of the world's most successful and high risk hedge funds. He is bombarded with a world of high stakes money transactions, brutal tactics, merciless greed, and personal emotional turmoil.

Peter Neil is dazzled by the accumulation of more wealth than he ever thought possible while his conscience is plagued by what he has to do to get there, including bending more than a few rules, sharing insider information, sleeping with clients, and ruining a country's economy. He is en route to becoming an international trading star, but his journey into the murky, shark-packed waters of Wall Street is plagued by obstacles – a long-buried family secret, a persistent Security Exchange Commission agent, and an illicit romance. The action and turmoil conspire to threaten not only his career, but his life and the lives of those closest to him. The reader learns about the inner workings of the capital markets, glued to the page by Peter Neil's increasing emotional, mental, and physical jeopardy that climaxes in a pulse-racing ending.

This book is infested with the type of people, language, incidents, and actions I encountered from the time I arrived on Wall Street until the time I left. Wall Street is not populated by the best and brightest. It is populated by the slickest, and often the most unethical, says Morris. Some people on Wall Street are great people. But a large number of people on the Street, at the very top levels, are not good enough or smart enough to make money without cheating.

MAN IN THE MIDDLE is a fictionalized account of events and corrupt practices that happened and continue to happen on Wall Street that leave the average investor holding the bag. It gives people who are angry at the headlines but don't quite understand them insight into how the system works and how it keeps the average person ignorant on how the system works. It is accurate, authentic, and most of all, a terrific read.

That's why Herb Greenberg, columnist for Fortune Magazine and Realmoney.com, says that MAN IN THE MIDDLE is a great, great book. While it was fiction, I could swear it was fact.