Book Description
They say your personality is set at age seven. This is the year Helen Jenks's father left, the day after millions went missing from the bank where he was a director. Helen never gave up her belief in her father, the familiar figure, Proustian smells, his classic BMW she now owned with that familiar smell of aftershave on rainy days, but everyone has doubts . . . and everyone doubts her. Did her heritage drive her to become a major player in the City's dealing rooms, where derivatives players earn millions? The jungle of the City of London leads to the Machu Picchu trail in Peru, where Helen Jenks's heritage becomes entwined with the world's secret intelligence services and the biggest business of all, cocaine. Linda Davies takes you from the world's financial centres to the mountains and jungles of Peru, where the old Incas succumbed to the Conquistadores. And, if you want to know how the City works, read this book. 'A cracking, fast-paced thriller. Excellently researched. I thoroughly enjoyed it.'General Sir Peter de la Billière. 'Excellent depiction of Peru . . . well handled cliff-hanger ending.'' Daily Express. ... Read more

Book Description
When love goes wrong, death is the most final settlement of all - Morganna Hutton is a young artist, beautiful and rich. When she falls in love with Archie Edge, she thinks he is the answer to her prayers. But the love of money is the root of all evil, and wickedness in glamorous disguise stalks this compulsive book. From Long Island to the wilds of Scotland, we follow Morganna, first in her quest for love and then for justice... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

run away
If you've read Davies' wonderful thrillers -- Nest of Vipers, Wilderness of Mirrors, Into the Fire -- and are hoping for more of that here, run away.Run fast.This is a romance/chic lit mess.Entirely narrated in the first person (there is almost no dialogue) the book hits new lows, even for the genre of stupid women making bad choices.

Here's hoping Davies goes back to writing action adventures with strong, smart women.Perhaps this was written by her evil twin?

Art imitating life?
I haven't read this book, but in real life the author shortly after writing this book ran into some spy problems with the Iranians, while cruising with her boat off the coast of Iran.

Art imitating life?Or life imitating art? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

run away
If you've read Davies' wonderful thrillers -- Nest of Vipers, Wilderness of Mirrors, Into the Fire -- and are hoping for more of that here, run away.Run fast.This is a romance/chic lit mess.Entirely narrated in the first person (there is almost no dialogue) the book hits new lows, even for the genre of stupid women making bad choices.

Here's hoping Davies goes back to writing action adventures with strong, smart women.Perhaps this was written by her evil twin?

Art imitating life?
I haven't read this book, but in real life the author shortly after writing this book ran into some spy problems with the Iranians, while cruising with her boat off the coast of Iran.

Art imitating life?Or life imitating art? ... Read more

Book Description
Buy low.
Sell high.
Get out alive.

Money is Sarah Jensen's playground.  International markets.  She's one of the most successful foreign-exchange traders in London; brilliant, beautiful, unpredictable--the perfect undercover agent to infiltrate the cutthroat Inter-Continental Bank and investigate questionable trading practices for the governor of the Bank of England.  Her target is Dante Scarpirato, a smooth, arrogant highstakes trader who's making a killing in--and out of--the market. For Sarah, the ultimate risk-taker, he's the ultimate risk....

But the multimillion-dollar trading scheme she penetrates is only the tip of an international conspiracy, paid for in the currency of blood.  Now Sarah, the hunter, is hunted, dangerous prey, determined to bring down the officials who betrayed her--and the assassins who have her in their sights....

Sarah Jensen returned from lunch at two-thirty.  She took her seat at her trading desk and studied her four trading screens intently for five minutes.  Then she picked up her telephone handset and executed a quick trade, closing out a position.  It took thirty seconds.  It made half a million pounds.

With a smile and a flourish she switched off her screens, gathered up her handbag, and prepared to leave.  David Reed, her colleague who sat next to her, looked up in surprise.

"You can't leave now.  It's just two-thirty."

Sarah laughed and blew him a kiss as she headed off.

"Watch me." And they did.  Half the trading floor followed her progress as she crossed the room and disappeared into the lifts.

At twenty-seven, Sarah Jensen had all the trappings of a normal life, albeit at a rarefied level.  She was smart and beautiful.  She was one of the top foreign-exchange traders in the City of London.  She lived in a big house in Chelsea with her brother and her boyfriend.  She had looks, love, and money. But she also had fear. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

wonderful woman
In the opening pages of the novel, Linda Davies' character Sarah Jensen is pronounced "perfect" by the Director of the Bank of England.This means trouble.Smart and strong (physically & emotionally) women are Davies' speciality.See also Widerness of Mirrors with its Vietnam setting and Into the Fire, for a breath-taking trip to Manchu Pichu.

nb Get the Brit edition if you can, where the female hit-person is a lesbian.The American edition morphs her straight.Shades of Jerry Falwell?

Not so hot.
This book features Sarah Jensen, a young, gorgeous, exceedingly bright (When are we going to have a book about an ugly, old not-so-bright heroine?) currency trader who is asked by the British version of the Federal Reserve President to go undercover at a trading house and see if they are using inside information to make millions of pounds. Much trouble ensues.

The female lead is a little too well-connected (she always knows just the right person to help her when she needs something) and I was kind of bugged that the characters used dollars and pounds interchangeably in their financial wheelings and dealings. Maybe that's the reality of international currency exchange and the power of the United States. If so, "Go USA!"

Back to the book -It's better than reading nothing, but you might want to read an old National Geographic instead.

exciting and thrilling
great story line, couldn't guess the ending.A pleasure to read!

This is the worst book ever written.
Sarah Jensen is young brilliant and mysterious, just the sort of person the authorities need to penetrate a byzantine conspiracy involving the global currency market.However, the conspiracy is just the tip of a deadlier plot, one that will take any step needed to protect itself from disclosure.Okay.....

This has to be one of the worst books ever written.The author injects much experience into her character - perhaps too much.(like her heroine, author Linda Davies is a striking and apparently successful currency trader).The book is written not only for those who understand the dynamics of currency trades, but really care beyond the obvious implication that the millions at stake are really important.For the rest of us, Sarah is just a cardboard character, surrounded by jealous colleagues who desire her for her looks and envy her knack for amassing a lot of money in a short amount of time.The facets of the conspiracy are poorlydefined.The novel really never starts at all - just cuts between various shadowy characters who stand to make or lose fortunes, and will stoop to anything.Davies spends much time on telling us how unsavory some of these types are, but doesn't really care about what they do.What really stands out is how seriously Davies takes not only the premise but her storytelling skills.This is just another example of the sort of thriller we can thank Grisham for inventing - the guy who discovers that his lucrative but humdrum job actually veils something dark and interesting.Instead of lawyers, we have currency speculators.I suppose accountants are next (hey - CPA's sent Capone to Alcatraz!!).As long as readers are willing to believe that an author's experience on any subject is adequate substitue for storytelling - willing to accept minutiae in place of narrative - there will always be writers ready with books so enwrapped in meaningless technicalities that we won't realize how bereft of plot they really are.Absurdly pedestrian prose don't help.If I were in the business, I'd say this book was pegged to some defunct former east-bloc currency.

I'd suggest something lighter, like Po Bronson's "Bombardiers", a sort of M*A*S*H set in a San Francisco bond house where the most certifiably crazy brokers are also the richest.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I EVER READ!!
I read this book in a day, and I just couldn't put it down.I really enjoyed the female heroine.I used to be a stockbroker in Denver, and really enjoyed the female heroine, and the vicarious thrills of her life!!! ... Read more

Product Description
In the international money markets, how would you commit the perfect crime. Combines high-speed suspense with authentic financial detail.TWO CASETTES ... Read more

Book Description
Gorgeous short stories by established and emerging fiction writers. This issue includes the winners of Glimmer Train's 2001 Fiction Open and Very Short Fiction Award. ... Read more

Book Description
Word count: 581. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE EVER READ!
I read Nest of Vipers in one day, and I read this book the next day.I found it equally as good.I can hardly wait for Linda Davies next book!!!

Not as good as her previous work
I read this book after having read 'Nest of Vipers'. I was disappointed. The plot seemed to plod and did seem to be lost in some sort of Wilderness.

copycat
why did you use the same title that david c. martin did in his 1980 book?were you lazy or tired?

a little fuzzy in the beginning, but great
i loved this book. it was kinda hard to understand what was going on in the beginning, but after that it is great. it has everything, action, seduction, mystery, thrill.........

i am looking forward to reading her next book......... ... Read more

Book Description
Great new literary short stories by established and emerging writers. Unusual focus on the writer as well as on the writing. Perfect for writers who love to read. ... Read more

Product Description
Emotionally significant literary short stories. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A stimulating, thought-provoking, heart felt book!
Each story, written by a talented writer, is unique and thought-provoking. I love reading about the authors too and seeing their childhood photographs. One of the very best parts of Glimmer Train publications is the interviews. I especially enjoy Linda Swanson-Davis' interviews. She seems to have a special gift to be able to get right insde the author's head and gleen true feelings. I feel like I've been part of an intimate small gathering as thoughts are shared. Every issue of Glimmer Train is a special publication! I don't want to miss even one copy. ... Read more

Book Description
Beautifully written, emotionally affecting, literary short stories by established and emerging writers. ... Read more

Book Description
This textbook draws on systems theory and applied psychology and stresses the importance of human agency within systems. It presents a new 'Qualitative Systems Approach' to safety management, offering both greater safety and economic savings. It presents a series of methodological 'tools' whose reliability and validity have been shown through extensive work in the rail and nuclear industries and that allow organizational and systems failures to be analyzed much more effectively in terms of quantity, precision and usefulness. Safety Management is for undergraduate and graduate students in occupational psychology, human factors, ergonomics and HCI, and the sociology of disasters and risk. ... Read more

Book Description
Ann Beattie, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Bausch, and twenty-one other celebrated American writers contribute to this moving anthology of fiction, compiled by the editors of the Glimmer Train literary quarterly.

In the ten-plus years since Susan Burmeister-Brown and Linda B. Swanson-Davies founded Glimmer Train, they have introduced an astonishing array of talented and innovative authors to a growing readership hungry for inspiring fiction. The stunning stories in this anthology -- many of which have never appeared anywhere except in Glimmer Train Stories -- explore one of the most complex emotional and psychological ties of all: motherhood, and its many facets.

The writers in Mother Knows include established authors as well as up-and-coming talents like Junot DÍaz and award-winning writers like Robin Bradford, Nancy Reisman, Lee Martin, and Doug Crandell. Their stories demonstrate that motherhood is more than toilet training and tantrum control, as they portray the full, fierce, joyous, and frightening range of experience that marks this state of being.

Mother Knows is a thoughtful and powerful exploration of the most mysterious bond in life.

Download Description
"Ann Beattie, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Bausch, and twenty-one other celebrated American writers contribute to this moving anthology of fiction, compiled by the editors of the Glimmer Train literary quarterly. In the ten-plus years since Susan Burmeister-Brown and Linda B. Swanson-Davies founded Glimmer Train, they have introduced an astonishing array of talented and innovative authors to a growing readership hungry for inspiring fiction. The stunning stories in this anthology -- many of which have never appeared anywhere except in Glimmer Train Stories -- explore one of the most complex emotional and psychological ties of all: motherhood, and its many facets. The writers in Mother Knows include established authors as well as up-and-coming talents like Junot Diaz and award-winning writers like Robin Bradford, Nancy Reisman, Lee Martin, and Doug Crandell. Their stories demonstrate that motherhood is more than toilet training and tantrum control, as they portray the full, fierce, joyous, and frightening range of experience that marks this state of being. Mother Knows is a thoughtful and powerful exploration of the most mysterious bond in life. " ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Moving stories about real life.
All of our lives are inextricably bound with our mothers' lives. What I especially appreciated about these stories was that they told the truth--from all directions--about the complicated, but love-infused bond between mothers and their children. It's a meaningful, affecting, and hopeful collection. (And I've got some great new authors to follow now, too.)

Death, Grief, and Pain
I took this collection of short stories on vacation but put it down about half-way through.Most of the stories are about loss-- many of anguished mourning mothers berift and in unimaginable pain. There is no humor here. The writing is very obtuse and difficult to follow.I believe many of the "stories" are fragments of novels which might explain why they leave the reader with too many loose ends and unanswered questions and require a lot of work to understand, if they can be understood at all.I hoped that this book might have an inspirational quality or be uplifting in some way, but the first half was dark, a real "downer". I would recommend the collection of Best Non-required Reading edited by David Sedaris or the Best Short Stories of 2005.

A satisfying read!
Mother Knows presents a rich collection of emotionally meaningful short stories-some by writers I hadn't heard of before, but will be looking for now-about motherhood from all directions.

The opening piece, "What's Left Behind," is a deeply moving (but not sappy) story of a pregnant woman who loses her husband and children in a flash flood. Here are the first two lines: "He sweeps by me. My husband, Dizzy, rushes past me with his arms outstretched like a preacher at altar call."

There's the woman who's trying to take care of her small "determined" son and her equally stubborn father who, after a stroke, can only speak gibberish. The realism of this story is striking: the intertwining of love and dedication with exhaustion and a powerful, though passing, desire to flee from the obligations of family.

A remarkable range of authors and perspectives are included. There are at least five immigrants in this collection-wonderful writers with backgrounds and challenges very different from my own or my children's. (One author was born in China, another in Turkey, one in Puerto Rico, and one in Zimbabwe. I mean, wow.)

For me, the best fiction gives me a larger view of the world and yet reminds me that I am a part of it. And, although it sounds sentimental, these stories reminded me that it is the urge to love and be loved that keeps us moving through this world. This powerful collection of 24 (!) stories-by big names and soon-to-be-big names-has earned a permanent spot in my library.

Not just for Mothers!
I got this for my wife for Mother's Day and I think I'll actually read it when she's done! Unless she lets our daughter read it first.

Touching and Heartwarming book!
I loved reading this anthology of stories about Motherhood! Very touching. A fascinating and heartwarming read, for sure. ... Read more