Geheime rekening

by Christopher Reich

Paper Book, 1998

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Tags

Publication

Amsterdam De Boekerij 1998

Description

Set in the secret, labyrinthine world of Swiss banking, the harrowing story of a young man willing to risk everything--his career, his integrity, and even his life--to hunt down his father's killer. Former U.S. marine and Harvard Business School graduate Nicholas Neumann seems to have it all: a dream job, a beautiful fiance, a future bright with promise. But beneath the dazzling veneer of this golden boy is a man haunted by the brutal killing of his father seventeen years before. And when new evidence implicates the venerable United Swiss Bank in the crime, Nick finds himself willing to do whatever it takes to uncover the truth. Leaving behind everything he holds dear, Nick takes a job in Zurich with the United Swiss Bank, and is soon plunged into a world where everything--loyalty, power, even life and death--can be bought and sold for the right price. As the secrets of the venerable bank are laid bare, suddenly Nick knows far too much--about the offer he never should have accepted, about the money he never should have handled, about the woman he never should have loved. And as the darkness gathers around him, Nick is faced with a shattering truth: To catch the criminal who murdered his father, he must become a criminal himself.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member DavidCrawford
This novel has been around for awhile and a friend gave it to me to read and I'm glad he did. Mr. Reich has done a great job of plotting this novel with a strong emphasis on the military and the Swiss Bank. Don't let the banking theme turn you off, because this story is more than the boring debits
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and credits on a financial statement and Mr. Reich ensures that the reader becomes intrigued with the Swiss banking system.
The reader will find in the story Nicholas Neumann, a 28-year-old Harvard MBA graduate accepting a position with a Swiss bank for the sole purpose of trying to find out who murdered his father 17 years earlier.
Mr. Reich delivers a tightly controlled plot and pace, and the story comes together with no loose ends. Overall, I found Numbered Account a terrific novel and I highly recommend it and I look forward to reading another Christopher Reich novel. I would also like to add that Mr. Reich held his own with the likes of Clancy, Patterson and other well-known authors.
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LibraryThing member heidialice
Harvard Business graduate and ex-marine Nick Neumann gives up a Wall Street career to solve his father’s 17-year-old murder and gets mixed up in the international arms and drug trade.

My complaints are pretty much the same as the other Reich novel I read: flat characters, rather predictable story
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line, underwhelming love story. It certainly kept my attention, and it didn’t annoy me since I knew what I was getting into, and would read another when I needed a light, predictable action book.
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LibraryThing member jmcclain19
Impressive debut novel from Reich. I was turned onto Reich after reading his short story about Nick Neumann in "Thriller" - and Neumann is the main protagonist in Numbered Account. Swiss banking, corporate espionage, political intrigue, international terrorism all wrapped up in one entertaining
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book.
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LibraryThing member thebookladi
Although I enjoyed "Numbered Account" by Christopher Reich I found that this book did not have the grip of a good thriller. The suspense was mild and anti-climactic in a lot of areas. The writing seemed to be more matter-of-fact instead of dramatic.
LibraryThing member dspoon
Nick Neumann had it all: a Harvard degree, a beautiful fiancee, a star-making Wall Street career. But behind the dazzling veneer of this golden boy is a man haunted by the brutal killing of his father seventeen years before.

Now chilling new evidence has implicated his father's employer, the United
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Swiss Bank, in the crime. Nick doesn't know how. Or why. But he has a plan to find out: move to Zurich. Work for the same bank. Follow in his father's footsteps. Look for the same secrets ... and uncover something so shocking, so unexpected, justice may not be enough.

For as a circle of treachery tightens around him, as a woman with secrets of her own enters his life, Nick makes another chilling discovery. Not just about his father but about himself. And how far he's willing to go to find out what happened seventeen years before--when a man died and a conspiracy was born.
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LibraryThing member Bookmarque
Interesting but too long, far too long. The time it takes between nuggets of information is incredible. Does it really take that long for it to dawn on Nick that he could look up the old business acquaintance who introduced his father to his dangerous client? Incredible. For someone with a murdered
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father, a father murdered most probably by someone he knows from work, Nick is remarkably trusting of his co-workers. He starts an affair with Sylvia and tells her everything he’s doing. She helps him by getting confidential files out of storage and it doesn’t dawn on him that it’s very easy for her to do this. Not until the chairman of the bank slips and tells Nick something that Nick knows he didn’t tell the chairman himself, does Nick wonder about Sylvia (their affair has lasted years).

The bit about who was really taking over the USB through a rival bank was a surprise. I guess if I knew more about banking and takeovers, I would have seen it but it seemed unrelated to the ‘who killed Alexander Neumann mystery’. The person who killed his father is USB’s biggest account holder; Ali Nevlevi. A criminal from Turkey now gathering an army in Lybia or Palestine and he needs something like $800 million to buy a nuclear bomb from the now defunct Soviet Union. The only way he can make that kind of money is to take over USB through a rival bank. Up until now heroin smuggling is how he’s made his money. He brings it in and out of USB like clockwork and until now, no one has cared. In the background of this whole thing is a US CIA operation to catch Nevlevi and to stop his heroin from going out. To do that, they need to freeze his accounts and that is against everything the Swiss banking industry has stood for. Things change and he’s ultimately brought down by Nick who now knows that Ali Nevlevi is the man who murdered his father.
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LibraryThing member gpaisley
Ever read a book where you found your self speaking out loud to the protagonist--"No don't do that!" Or,"Just turn around a look behind you"? This is one of those books.
An intriguing insight into the workings of notoriously-secretive Swiss banks and a story of a son trying to learn about his
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father's death.
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LibraryThing member petrichor8
Fascinating tale woven around banking and a terrorist plot spanning several years

Awards

Edgar Award (Nominee — First Novel — 1999)

Language

ISBN

9789022523667

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