Walls of Silence

Book excerpt: The hero of Philip Jolowicz's astonishing debut thriller is an everyman who believes he has everything but soon finds himself inexplicably plunged into a world of unspeakable moral corruption. A world where, for its victims, death is most likely the preferred option. In his office off Wall Street, Fin Border surveys his future with confidence. He's a young attorney bound for partnership in a British law firm set to merge with its immensely powerful American cousin in Rockefeller Center. His client list is the envy of his colleagues, his already burgeoning bank account is about to swell. And he truly believes he has consigned to the past the shame and disillusion surrounding the death of his once-revered father, a founding partner of the firm. But an invitation from JJ Carlson, Fin's client and best friend and one of Wall Street's most mercurial investment bankers, proves just how fragile Fin's existence really is. After five shocking minutes, Fin is staring at a scene of carnage on the FDR Drive, as well as the wreckage of his own life and career in New York. Fin's clients are abruptly torn from him, his money is siphoned and replaced by crippling debt, and the prospect of crushing litigation and a criminal record loom large. Fin's friendships and connections count for nothing. Only Carol Amen, senior in-house counsel with Jefferson Trust -- JJ's former employer -- seems to offer any chance of survival, professional or emotional. She has a deal for him, a salve for his pride and something that will get him out of the United States for a while. But Fin has been booked on a flight to the last place on earth he wants to visit. A crackling, character-driven business thriller, masterfully spun by a true-life legal titan of global finance, Walls of Silence follows a fast-rising lawyer through a treacherous international maze of preying power brokers and deadly conspiracies.