Grove O'Rourke Books
In a world that moves as fast as finance does, top producers have to think three steps ahead and make snap decisions. Theirs is a blurred version of reality, one that conceals moves as much as it rewards the bold ones. All too easily, scams can be disguised as success; plotting can be mistaken for killer instincts. And as Grove O’Rourke finds out, “Nothing obscures vulnerability like success. Nothing that is, except for friendships.” But this book isn’t about stocks and bonds—it’s about people. About Grove O’Rourke, top producer at the investment firm of Sachs, Kidder, and Carnegie, and about his best friend, Charlie Kelemen, whose spectacular murder is carried out in front of hundreds of horrified party-goers at the opening of the novel. It’s about Charlie’s widow, who comes to Grove for help after her husband’s death, even though she’s hiding a dark secret. And it’s about how money—vast sums of money—can cover up even the most glaring imper fections in relationships, and fool everyone. Well, almost everyone. With the ease of someone who has lived in the world of top producers, NorbVonnegut has crafted a sharp, dark thriller that will make you think—and then double-check your investments.
"Mr. Vonnegut dreams up diabolically elegant business crimes, then sends smart-talking characters to follow the money. He draws upon his own Wall Street experience (with Morgan Stanley, among other employers) to provide the sound of insider acumen.... There's enough novelty to this plot to set "The Trust" apart from garden-variety business thrillers, the ones in which Bernard Madoff stand-ins run Ponzi schemes. Anyway, Mr. Vonnegut is just getting started." - The New York Times Norb Vonnegut lends his unique insider's perspective and his darkly humorous writing to a fast-talking suspense thriller that takes readers inside the high-rolling world of global finance. One sultry morning in Charleston, South Carolina, real estate magnate Palmer Kincaid's body washes ashore, the apparent victim of accidental drowning. Palmer's daughter calls Grove O'Rourke, stockbroker and hero of Top Producer , for help getting her family's affairs in order. Palmer was Grove's mentor and client, the guy who opened doors to a world beyond Charleston. Grove steps in as the interim head of the Palmetto Foundation, an organization Palmer created to encourage philanthropy. Community foundations, like the Palmetto Foundation, are conduits. Philanthropists gift money to them and propose the ultimate beneficiaries. But in exchange for miscellaneous benefits-anonymity, investment services, and favorable tax treatment-donors lose absolute control. Once funds arrive, community foundations can do whatever they decide. For years Palmer showed great sensitivity to his donors, honoring their wishes to funnel funds into the charities of their choice-his unspoken pledge-and it was this largesse which made him a respected pillar of the Charleston community. But after Grove authorizes a $25 million transfer requested by a priest from the Catholic Fund, he discovers something is terribly wrong. He gets a call from Biscuit Hughes, a lawyer representing the people of Fayetteville, North Carolina, against a new sex superstore in their town. Biscuit has traced the store's funding to a most unlikely source: the Catholic Fund. Together, Grove and Biscuit launch an investigation into the fund, but the deeper they dig, the more evidence they find that the fund's money isn't being used to support the impoverished-it's going somewhere much more sinister. When someone close to him disappears and the FBI starts breathing down his neck, Grove knows he has to figure out who's pulling all the strings before the shadowy figure who will stop at nothing to keep the fund a secret gets to him.
What happens when greed collides with blind ambition? In this short story from Norb Vonnegut, available exclusively as an eBook, Grove O’Rourke discovers how far powerful adversaries will go to push their political agendas. The prize: the presidency of the United States. Nobody else knows what Grove knows. He unearths secrets about his clients, some close to home and some smoldering in the stacks of a Harvard library. He can keep quiet, pander to whoever comes out on top, and keep his thirty pieces of silver. Or he can do the right thing, destroy his career, and trash his personal reputation. It’s lose-lose any way you look at it. Who would have expected an unscheduled meeting to create this quandary? Grove was walking his dog, returning from Central Park. That’s when a professor from Harvard Business School rolled down the window of a black Lincoln Town Car and said, “Get in.” What a ride. Grove thought his industry was tough. But in Mr. President, he learns that Wall Street is a nursery compared to the power corridors of Washington, DC. MR. PRESIDENT includes an excerpt from Norb Vonnegut’s recent New York Times acclaimed financial thriller, THE TRUST.