The Silver Bears

Book excerpt: Eager to establish an efficient money-laundering organization, a Mafia family acquires a Swiss bank. But their almost-legitimate enterprise soon incorporates the schemes of a billionaire American speculator living in England, the hustles of a pair of smugglers running an illicit Iranian silver mine, and a scam that could topple the international monetary system. Paul E. Erdman, the Edgar Award–winning author of The Billion Dollar Sure Thing and creator of the financial thriller genre, returns to the world of high finance for this gripping, Edgar-nominated novel about a bold scheme to rig the silver market. Adapted into the movie Silver Bears, starring Michael Caine, Erdman's intricately plotted tale of how to make a fortune — legitimately or not — was hailed by Kirkus as "another assured jackpot for an unnumbered account of readers."