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Louis Morgon #5
The Capitalist
Peter Steiner has thoroughly impressed sophisticated thriller mavens everywhere with his critically acclaimed novels featuring ex-CIA operative Louis Morgon.
St. John Larrimer was a well known Wall Street investment banker who had earned returns for his wealthy clients that exceeded even their fondest hopes. But it turns out that the returns existed only in St. John's imagination. By the time his staff and associates were detained and questioned, St. John had disappeared.
Louis Morgon, a long retired CIA operative now living in France, had a little money invested with a money manager who was also taken in by Larrimer. Louis thinks that he can figure out a way to bring Larrimer to account. Of course, some of Larrimer's victims were themselves villains, for instance the Russian mobsters whose wealth constituted the main holdings of the Swiss Eisener Bank.
So Louis, with a motley band of helpers and the Russian mob on his tail, sets out to find Larrimer and bring him to justice.
Compelling, arresting, and complex, The Capitalist is a thriller that will appeal to fans of John le Carre and Graham Greene.
St. John Larrimer was a well known Wall Street investment banker who had earned returns for his wealthy clients that exceeded even their fondest hopes. But it turns out that the returns existed only in St. John's imagination. By the time his staff and associates were detained and questioned, St. John had disappeared.
Louis Morgon, a long retired CIA operative now living in France, had a little money invested with a money manager who was also taken in by Larrimer. Louis thinks that he can figure out a way to bring Larrimer to account. Of course, some of Larrimer's victims were themselves villains, for instance the Russian mobsters whose wealth constituted the main holdings of the Swiss Eisener Bank.
So Louis, with a motley band of helpers and the Russian mob on his tail, sets out to find Larrimer and bring him to justice.
Compelling, arresting, and complex, The Capitalist is a thriller that will appeal to fans of John le Carre and Graham Greene.
- GenresThriller
304 pages, Hardcover
First published February 23, 2016
32 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Peter Steiner
11 books38 followersPETER STEINER is the author of five books in the Louis Morgon series, A French Country Murder (Le Crime), L'Assassin, The Terrorist, The Resistance, and The Capitalist.
A new novel The Good Cop will come out September 1, 2019. This book takes place in Weimar Germany in the 1920's and early thirties.
A New Yorker cartoonist, Steiner lives in Connecticut and spends part of each year in France, in a village not unlike the one featured in the Morgon novels. You can see more at plsteiner.com. and see his most recent cartoons exclusively at plsteiner.com/blog.
A new novel The Good Cop will come out September 1, 2019. This book takes place in Weimar Germany in the 1920's and early thirties.
A New Yorker cartoonist, Steiner lives in Connecticut and spends part of each year in France, in a village not unlike the one featured in the Morgon novels. You can see more at plsteiner.com. and see his most recent cartoons exclusively at plsteiner.com/blog.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 15, 2016
This is mostly an ongoing rant about capitalism. Too bad some of this conspiracy theories inspired rant might actually be true as it's entirely embarassing.
The author could have made a much better job to learn the ropes of investment banking as he is not speaking about it per se. And is doing a horrible job of it. The details are painfully underresearched as it often happens with this sort of books. The description of GS is plain ludicrous, basically the GS do business in a rather different way. For instance, GS don't do asset management. It is GSAM that do it. This info could have been googled, if need be.
PS Not sure why I'm reading it. The total misunderstanding of finance vastly expressed throughout this novel is really gritting.
PSS Ok, it's a DNF. I don't think me and this series will hit it off with each other. My BSometer simply wouldn't let me.
Q:
“By the same token,” said St. John, “the unfortunate must not be allowed to drag the economy down. Those unwilling to pull their weight, well, we can’t encourage sloth and dependency, can we? Forty-seven percent of the people of the world”—he may have made up the number, which caused him to repeat it for emphasis—“forty-seven percent, nearly half, expect their government to provide them with health care, clothing, food, you name it.…”
(c)
Q:
Even lending money for interest was, ipso facto, a larcenous enterprise. Laws and regulations had been put in place to keep banks and other lenders from charging more than was seemly. But what was seemly, and who decided what was seemly? Anyway, even with strict laws in place, banks found ways through and around the laws, thanks to teams of skilled money managers and lawyers, who behaved, in fact, not unlike Vikram Rob and Abdur Pandit and agents and factory owners and bankers and lawyers across the suffering world. They managed to charge preposterous interest rates on consumer debt and make it seem a benevolent and virtuous act.
(c) Incredibly simplistic...
The author could have made a much better job to learn the ropes of investment banking as he is not speaking about it per se. And is doing a horrible job of it. The details are painfully underresearched as it often happens with this sort of books. The description of GS is plain ludicrous, basically the GS do business in a rather different way. For instance, GS don't do asset management. It is GSAM that do it. This info could have been googled, if need be.
PS Not sure why I'm reading it. The total misunderstanding of finance vastly expressed throughout this novel is really gritting.
PSS Ok, it's a DNF. I don't think me and this series will hit it off with each other. My BSometer simply wouldn't let me.
Q:
“By the same token,” said St. John, “the unfortunate must not be allowed to drag the economy down. Those unwilling to pull their weight, well, we can’t encourage sloth and dependency, can we? Forty-seven percent of the people of the world”—he may have made up the number, which caused him to repeat it for emphasis—“forty-seven percent, nearly half, expect their government to provide them with health care, clothing, food, you name it.…”
(c)
Q:
Even lending money for interest was, ipso facto, a larcenous enterprise. Laws and regulations had been put in place to keep banks and other lenders from charging more than was seemly. But what was seemly, and who decided what was seemly? Anyway, even with strict laws in place, banks found ways through and around the laws, thanks to teams of skilled money managers and lawyers, who behaved, in fact, not unlike Vikram Rob and Abdur Pandit and agents and factory owners and bankers and lawyers across the suffering world. They managed to charge preposterous interest rates on consumer debt and make it seem a benevolent and virtuous act.
(c) Incredibly simplistic...
April 18, 2016
This is a terrible book, I'm embarrassed to acknowledge having read it. I was desperate for some diversion, and having started it wanted to see if the whole thing was as bad as I thought. It was. The author has only a glancing knowledge of the financial industry, law enforcement the intelligence community or the judicial process, which make up the components of the "plot". Characters are introduced which have a role in advancing the plot, then disappear without any explanation, let alone any development. Some have superhuman artistic or technical skills, which are assumed with only the slightest explanation as to how they might have been developed. I would give this zero stars but I don't think that's allowed.
February 9, 2018
'The Capitalist' is a bit of a departure for the 'star' of Peter Steiner's Louis Morgon series. Rather than bumping heads against his former CIA nemeses, terrorists, FBI agents, and local authorities, in this one Morgon needs to exact some revenge against a Madoff-style financial guy who's ripped off people close to him. Morgon has a strong sense of what's right and certainly doesn't let the legal system get in his way.
Louis Morgon is an ex-CIA guy, long retired from the Company under unfortunate circumstances, living, or at least trying to lead, a quiet life in a small village in France. He's in his 70s, in decent shape for a guy his age, with a close woman friend, a nice garden, and a painting hobby. Unfortunately for him, through the novels in this series he's often interrupted by ghosts from his past. This time, his ultra-rich enemy is someone less lethal physically but still very dangerous. The thief has absconded with millions in stolen funds to one of his many off-shore homes while his victims try to pick up the pieces and the authorities attempt to bring him to justice. Morgon hatches a plan to lure the miscreant back to where the legal system can do its work.
Steiner is a fine writer and has done a great job developing the characters in this series. His descriptions of the French village and Morgon's home life are wonderful. The only problem I've had with his novels is the elaborate nature of the solutions Morgon develops. Sure, he understands art, the legal system, the CIA, the FBI, human nature, and many other things, but when your approach to solving the problem of how to bring the swindler to justice involves aspects of every one of those things I think there is a relatively high potential for failure. In general, Morgon's a cautious dude but he comes up with some fairly fantastic plans that work well in a novel but I'd question in real life.
The Capitalist is a bit of a change of pace for the Louis Morgon character. Not bad, just different, and with Peter Steiner's great writing still a decent read.
Louis Morgon is an ex-CIA guy, long retired from the Company under unfortunate circumstances, living, or at least trying to lead, a quiet life in a small village in France. He's in his 70s, in decent shape for a guy his age, with a close woman friend, a nice garden, and a painting hobby. Unfortunately for him, through the novels in this series he's often interrupted by ghosts from his past. This time, his ultra-rich enemy is someone less lethal physically but still very dangerous. The thief has absconded with millions in stolen funds to one of his many off-shore homes while his victims try to pick up the pieces and the authorities attempt to bring him to justice. Morgon hatches a plan to lure the miscreant back to where the legal system can do its work.
Steiner is a fine writer and has done a great job developing the characters in this series. His descriptions of the French village and Morgon's home life are wonderful. The only problem I've had with his novels is the elaborate nature of the solutions Morgon develops. Sure, he understands art, the legal system, the CIA, the FBI, human nature, and many other things, but when your approach to solving the problem of how to bring the swindler to justice involves aspects of every one of those things I think there is a relatively high potential for failure. In general, Morgon's a cautious dude but he comes up with some fairly fantastic plans that work well in a novel but I'd question in real life.
The Capitalist is a bit of a change of pace for the Louis Morgon character. Not bad, just different, and with Peter Steiner's great writing still a decent read.
Read
July 14, 2019DNF. Not because it isn't wonderfully written, but this topic makes my blood pressure rise (the topic being amoral capitalists cheating hard working people like me) and makes me want to buy guns and shoot them and long for a guillotine in the town square, which I would totally sit in the front row in front and knit and cackle, and honestly, that's just not good for me. But a well-written book!
October 15, 2016
This is disappointing - my least favorite book of the series. There is relatively little of the French village setting that adds so much appeal to the earlier books. The opening piece about the fire in the garment factory in Pakistan sets thing off well, and the part of the narrative that connects that factory and those people to the Bernie Madoff like crooked banker is interesting, but the book as a whole is flat.
Morgon and his friends, usually engaging characters, are operating on autopilot, his attempt to recover the missing billions stolen by the evil banker plods along without much suspense or drama. And then there is the downright peculiar anticlimactic ending - the bad guy's change of heart and gestures at restitution -it all just seems dull and pointless.
Morgon and his friends, usually engaging characters, are operating on autopilot, his attempt to recover the missing billions stolen by the evil banker plods along without much suspense or drama. And then there is the downright peculiar anticlimactic ending - the bad guy's change of heart and gestures at restitution -it all just seems dull and pointless.
April 14, 2016
Seemingly all the authors I follow fail lately, and Louise Morgon is just a shadow of his old self in this book.
Well... he's hardly in it, is he? Neither is the charming french village and it's inhabitants we've grown to love.
It looks like Steiner is ready to abandon his character, and this test to see if he can write well plotted international economical crime is a total failure. The characters are mostly annoying, the plot is mainly drivel, and what happens just doesn't catch my interest.
Might give his next one a chance, I'm guessing he'll kill off Morgon in a book or two anyway...
Well... he's hardly in it, is he? Neither is the charming french village and it's inhabitants we've grown to love.
It looks like Steiner is ready to abandon his character, and this test to see if he can write well plotted international economical crime is a total failure. The characters are mostly annoying, the plot is mainly drivel, and what happens just doesn't catch my interest.
Might give his next one a chance, I'm guessing he'll kill off Morgon in a book or two anyway...
Read
February 24, 2016A very good addition to a very good series. This one is less about the quaint French village and less about Louis Morgon the man, and more about American culture in the post-Madoff/post 2008 world. It's got a Trollope "The Way We Live Now" feeling. If i could figure out how to post my ratings, i would give it four stars.
November 20, 2024
Having read the first four books in the Louis Morgon series, I thought I should read the final one. It was very weak: essentially, it is a story about a Bernie Madoff character, who rips off his friends and justifies his greed based on the capitalist system. Lots of innocent people are harmed, and the brother of Louis's girlfriend commits suicide for letting the crook manage the family wealth. Louis decides to investigate, but is competing with a Russian who invested his bank's money there, to find the crook: Louis wants to turn him in to the U.S. government while the Russian wants to torture and kill him. Nowhere near enough Louis nor the idyllic French countryside in this one.
November 27, 2025
peter steiner writes well enough that even when what he writes is not quite accurate, the story still is fun to read. this book centers on a Bernie madoff type of heist with consequences and effects reaching beyond wall street. all kind of scenarios are played out as the crime affects businesses, sweat shops,investors, all around the globe,making me think of the butterfly effect. it gives substance to the belief that an individual really does make a difference.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 4, 2017
I think it could have been more interesting. The climax was pretty disappointing.
June 11, 2019
OK story even though based on a very biased and misunderstanding about of the nature and fundamentals of capitalism and economics.
Read
March 17, 2020Terribly stupid.
July 3, 2016
The most thrilling aspect of this novel was the explication of the capitalist system and the amoral minds that believe achieving wealth by any means is the highest good. A take down of the investment banker/trader set, wherein their twisted mind set and wealth accumulation is juxtaposed with a character in Pakistan who is injured during a sweatshop fire. Their stories converge, in a way, but Steiner shows us the consequences of Wall St. that normally are hidden.
As a catch-'em-if-you-can thriller, it was fairly straight-forward, but I would recommend this for the economic ethics lesson.
As a catch-'em-if-you-can thriller, it was fairly straight-forward, but I would recommend this for the economic ethics lesson.
March 8, 2017
I was disappointed by the 5th Louis Morgan book. Came with the premise that "capitalism" is bad by definition, yet the villain commits massive fraud. Not sure what system the narrator would like. Government is seen as incompetent and corrupt. I liked the wide cast of characters.
Read
April 11, 2016Good understanding of the farce that is our economy and our system of justice.
August 25, 2016
Loved the first half. Felt the second half a rush to conclusion.
September 11, 2016
This is the first book that I have read in the series. As other reviewers pointed out, it is a little slow, and the characters lacked much depth. I really wanted to like it, but it was just okay.
January 18, 2017
Okay story. Interesting but could put the book down
Read
April 7, 2016Good read.................
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews