Bad Connection

by Michael Ledwidge

Penzler Pick, April 2001: Michael Ledwidge follows his exciting debut, The Narrowback , with another edge-of-the-seat thriller. Sean Macklin is a telephone repairman in New York City. While dealing with a problem on a line, Sean inadvertently plugs into a conversation that he should not be hearing--but he does. Sean's wife is disabled and they desperately need money, and the conversation is about a merger about to take place. Sean knows that inside information like this can pay off big, so he invests, making a handsome profit. But Sean can't leave well enough alone. He knows that he risks his job tapping into the line of a CEO in a large investment bank, but he also knows that if he does this just a few times, he will have enough money to move his wife to Florida. But then he hears something he really shouldn't. The CEO, in a conversation with an overseas associate, suggests something that Sean knows is more than illegal--it's immoral. Outraged, he contacts his brother Ray, who is a cop, and lets him listen to a tape of the conversation. Sean would like to see the CEO busted and out of a job, but Ray has other ideas for the tape and he's not about to share those ideas with Sean. He asks an old street friend, Scully, to help him out, and between them they place in jeopardy everybody they know. By the time this story is finished we have been treated to a fable about greed that is about as dark as it can get. --Otto Penzler

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Michael Ledwidge is the son of Irish parents and was born and raised in the Bronx. A graduate of Manhattan College, he is married and has two children.

As the co-author of a series of some of James Patterson’s most profitable books to date, Ledwidge has risen from an admired but, it’s fair to say, mostly unread author, to co-writing some of the most widely read books in the world. He’s made real money doing it, too, enough to change his life completely.

Reviews

[jewelofthecrowne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read with some interesting plot twists. Overall good use of accurate geography and place references that help propel the story and have stood the test of time.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm noticing a trend here. Michael Ledwidge's lead characters are usually Irish, are hard-working and have good hearts, but get themselves into dire predicaments when they try to "do the right thing" and it backfires on them. And he seems to always leave things hanging in the end (we don't know what became of the lead character), which is equally annoying and gratifying, when you realize it won't be a happy ending, anyway.

In this book, Sean is a telephone company worker with a severely mentally disabled wife. He wants nothing more then to take her back to FL where he met her, and care for her full time, but he has to work for a living. One day while working on the telephone lines in an office building, he accidentally overhears a conversation between a CEO and an investment firm bigwig about an upcoming merger, and realizes that he has happened upon his miracle. He invests in the company about to be taken over, and makes a good return on his investment, so he decides to keep on listening and investing until he has enough money squirreled away to retire. During one of these listening sessions, he unwittingly learns of a murder and massive coverup that has taken place in Guatemala, and despite the potential payoff of investing in the merger that he also learns of during the same conversation, he decides to turn the tape he has made into the authorities and forgo that particular investment. His predicament is that he can't turn it in himself, because he will lose his job if he admits to the making of the tape, so he calls on his brother, Ray, who is a (dirty) cop to help him out. What ensues from there is a non-stop, action-filled chase which heats up as it becomes evident that Sean is now on his own.

[Donald Peschken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story about a Manhattan telephone man who sees a way to make some money in the stock market. Lewidge's knowledge of the telephone underground in Midtown Manhattan is quite accurate. Was Ledwidge once a phone guy? I found the book very intriguing!

[Jim Maher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific. Keeps moving. Nice book for a diversion

[Pixiegirl105 · Rating 1 out of 5]

So I don't mind books that literally has no "good" character; however, I do want them to have some redeemable value. Basically, I finished the book to finish it. There really was nothing that pulled me in and a lot more that turned me off. Men referring to the women they are with as "owning" them. Racial slurs to Latinos. Characters that really added no real value to the plot line, but are giving their own chapters to try and make them a main character. Even Sean's disabled wife doesn't pull on the heartstrings like she is supposed to because you never see her until later and prior to that all interactions about his wife are regarding the nurse. I do not think I will be reading any more novels by this author.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book kept me interested. The phone part is very interesting!

[Jim Moffett · Rating 4 out of 5]

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