GARDEN OF BETRAYAL

Energy analyst Mark Wallace is a Wall Street legend.  Seven years ago, his son was kidnapped, and with no motive and no body, the case was never solved.  The same day a new Russian pipeline poised to revolutionise the oil industry explodes, Mark receives a lead on solving the mystery of what happened to his son.  Is his son’s disappearance linked to the pipeline attack?

 Author Lee Vance is a graduate of Harvard and a retired general partner of Goldman Sachs.  He clearly knows his stuff regarding the world of finance and energy trading.  However, to the uninitiated, the world of this novel can be difficult to penetrate.

 The “human story” I rather enjoyed.  Mark Wallace is a likeable and sympathetic character, and the pain he and his family have been living with since the disappearance of his son is well portrayed.  But this novel is not just a human story – it’s also a story about the cut-throat world of energy trading and global financial markets.  And that story is much harder to follow, at least for someone who’s not part of that world.

 I finished the book, but I’m still not entirely clear on “whodunit”, or why.  The insider references are so deeply embedded, it’s difficult for an outsider to pick them up.  Anyone who works in the energy industry is likely to find it far easier to follow this book than I did.  And they may well find they enjoy it.