The Crash by Robert Preston
As the world falls apart, a deadly conspiracy comes together . . .
London, 2007. It’s summer in the the economy is booming, profits are up and the stock market sits near record highs. But journalist Gil Peck is a lone voice worrying it can’t last. Deep in the plumbing of the financial system, he has noticed strange things happening which could threaten the whole economy. But nobody wants to hear not the politicians taking credit for an end to boom and bust, not the bankers pocketing vast bonuses, not even Gil’s bosses at the BBC, who think it’s irrelevant.
When Gil gets a tip-off that a small northern bank has run out of money, everything changes. His report sparks the first run on a UK bank in 140 years. The next day, Marilyn Krol, a director of the Bank of England dies in an apparent suicide.
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For Gil, it’s personal. Marilyn was his was his scoop connected to her suicide? Or is there something more sinister in her death? Gil is determined to find out.
The more he investigates, the more he is drawn into the rotten heart of the financial system, where old school ties and secret Oxbridge societies lubricate vast and illegal conflicts of interest. The whole economy has been built on a house of cards, and Gil is threatening to bring it down.
When simply reporting the facts can make or break fortunes, Gil has to ask is he crossing the line between journalist and participant? Are his own conflicts of interest making him reckless? And in a world ruled by greed where nothing and no-one is too big to fail, what price will he pay for uncovering the truth?
My Review
All the time I was reading, I couldn’t help wondering how much of Gil Peck is based on Robert Peston himself. Or is Gil a mish-mash of the people Robert has met during his illustrious career? I hoped (prayed) it was the latter. When I got to the end, the author informs us that ‘every character is both a figment of my imagination and an amalgam of people I’ve encountered and know.’ Phew! I would hate to think of Robert selling drugs at Balliol and …. well I can’t tell you any more.
I did struggle a bit to keep up with the financial jargon eg subprime mortgages, bonds, and hedge funds. Imagine if ‘you were telling your grandmother what’s going on, how would you put it?’ Peck recommends at one point, unless of course she’s been a hedge fund manager, which she wasn’t. And neither am I. In fact what I know about the world of high finance could be written on the back of a Bitcoin. But I still recognise corruption in finance and politics and often question how some of the people involved, supposedly Oxbridge clever, can be so stupid. Greed I suppose trumps (no pun intended) common sense.
This was a fascinating read, not high-brow or dry as one might expect (or fear), but fast, entertaining and sprinkled with sex, romance, intrigue and unexplained deaths. The characters are larger than life, and often based on actual politicians of the day, though I hope they didn’t behave the way this lot do. The Malmsey Club at Oxford, for example, reminds me of The Bullingdon Club (minus the pig’s head) and I can see subtle references to various politicians, Russian oligarchs, and members of the press and BBC. Most of them fictitious, but mixed with actual personalities of the time.
Oh and it’s a follow-up to The Whistleblower, which I haven’t read and didn’t realise until much later. The Crash, however, can be read as a standalone. It’s great stuff, well written (it would be) and I certainly didn’t expect the outcome. I’d go as far as saying I was shocked. But in the world of power, politics and finance, I guess anything is possible.
Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour and to NetGalley for an ARC.
About the Author
Robert James Kenneth Peston is an English journalist, presenter, and author. He is the political editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show Peston. From 2006 until 2014, he was the business editor of BBC News and its economics editor from 2014 to 2015.
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