The Protege

by: Stephen Frey

Published by: Ballantine Books

Reviewed by Bob Pike, CSP, CPAE-Speakers Hall of Fame

Christian Gillette is a billionaire investor who runs Everest, one of the most successful investment companies in the world. He has it all--including a pop star girl friend who is jealous of a beautiful heiress whose family has just invested five billion dollars in Everest, which makes her a managing partner.

Then there's another managing partner whose secret addiction has him feeding the mob information they can use against Christian, plus a shadowy government agency that promises to help Christian find out the truth about his U.S. Senator father's death in a plane crash.

And all of this in the first chapter!

This fast-paced book will have you turning the pages to see if Quentin Stiles, the man in charge of Christian's protection, can really keep him safe, whether Christian can really sort through all the people surrounding him to learn who really can be trusted--and who cannot! Frey paints believable characters that you can love one minute and hate the next. Christian is a powerful man who wants to do what's right--if he can only figure that out.

Frey allows you to feel the world Christian has so carefully built spin out of control as everything accelerates and those that he trusts most are isolated from him.

Armchair Interviews says: If you want to see good triumph over evil--even though there is a price to be paid--then this book is a must read.