Leverage by Amran Gowani

Published by Atria on August 19, 2025

The best financial thrillers are about people who are forced into tight spots. Leverage isn’t among the best, but the protagonist manages to get himself into an unreasonable amount of trouble.

Ali Jafar works for a large, successful hedge fund. His billionaire boss, Paul Kingsley, is a master of the universe. Paul’s son Brad is the typical entitled son of a billionaire who can never live up to his father’s expectation (not that he makes much of an effort). He has his tech bro vibe working, meaning he belittles female employees and calls Ali (who usually goes by Al) Al Qaeda or Habib, among other unkind nicknames.

Ali is in charge of a fund he created called VICE. True to its name, the fund invests in businesses that rely on crime and weakness to earn profits — opioid manufacturing, guns, payday lenders. Ali is doing well until he makes an unfortunate investment that loses $300 million. Rather than firing Ali, Paul challenges him to make back the lost money in three months. If he fails, Paul will accuse him of insider trading that was conducted by another employee. Now, insider trading is rarely prosecuted and even more rarely results in a significant sentence, but some of the fund’s earnings were allegedly diverted to shell companies and used to fund terrorism. Ali would rather not go to prison for even a few days, so he’s willing to cut corners to meet the challenge.

Ali’s best friend is a lawyer who gives him an insider tip that helps him gain back some of the loss. The lawyer then puts him in touch with a client named Simon Hellstrom, a man who trades information for money. Taking advantage of contacts provided by Simon, Ali learns of companies that are about to fail (although they may need a push that Paul happily provides). Ali shorts the stocks and his fund makes a ton of money, but his problems are only beginning. His chances of going to prison — or of being murdered — seem to increase with every page.

Ali spends most of the novel fretting about his future. Every few pages he tells the reader that he wants to stop living. He even puts a gun to his head at one point but lacks the courage to pull the trigger. He spends so much time wishing he were dead that his suicide would have been a break from his depressing complaints about his misery.

It isn’t unusual for a thriller to be farfetched, but Leverage makes it difficult to suspend disbelief. A central tenet of the plot — one I can’t reveal without spoiling the story — is preposterous. Our government works in nefarious ways, but the consequences of its actions in Leverage are harmful to stock investors and thus would never be authorized. The government is fine with screwing over little guys, but causing institutional investors and wealthy people to lose money is beyond the bounds of law enforcement propriety.

Notwithstanding its failure to deliver a credible plot — a failure that is common in modern thrillerworld — and despite its whiny protagonist, Leverage makes some strong points about greed, financial markets that are easily manipulated by the greedy, and the intersection of race and property. Amran Gowani also illustrates the double standard that protects the wealthy from the consequences that less fortunate people would experience for committing financial crimes. Gowani writes: “When The Economist bloviated about adhering to the ‘rule of law,’ what they really meant were governments, corporations, courts, and other White-dominated institutions needed to protect White financial interests.” The novel illustrates that point with moral clarity.

Unfortunately, the ending seems far too easy, given the setup. I won’t reveal how Ali solves his problems, but the ending requires Paul to all but surrender, something a master of the universe is unlikely to do. Leverage benefits from strong prose, a steady pace, and some exciting moments, but those positives are nearly offset by the novel’s improbable plot and weak ending.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

The El by Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

Published by Vintage on August 12, 2025

The El takes place in Chicago during the summer of 1979, when VCRs were still a novelty. From the perspectives of young males who are trying to find their place in the world, the story illustrates the role that gangs, like any other social group, play in the evolution of cities and their inhabitants.

According to Wikipedia, the Simon City Royals were founded in Chicago during the 1950s as a greaser gang. In The El, the Royals are a diverse group, its members bound primarily by their gang identity. One or two are doing well in school or getting lucky with girls, but they devote most of their time together to petty crime and nonlethal violence.

Teddy, a Native American known to his friends as Midget, is the novel’s historian and central character. Teddy credits the Royals’ mid-century founder with understanding that the “whole white alliance thing was bunk, that the future was mixed, that their future, our future depended on cross-racial bonds, just like America if it wants to have a future.”

Chapters are narrated by different characters. Teddy’s chapters are the longest, but other characters — Miguel, Mikey, Mikey2, Walter, Henry, Lil Demon, and more — also contribute their perspectives. An occasional outsider — a cop or a transit worker — narrates a scene from his own perspective, but most of the story is told by gang members.

The chapters are not narrated in markedly different voices, but it isn’t surprising that members of the same age and social group would share the same speech patterns and vocabulary. It becomes clear, however, that Teddy is the smart one in the gang, the one who appreciates books and other art forms, who understands government and culture in the abstract. The others are more impulsive, although they might just be better at living in the moment.

The story unfolds over the course of a very long day. The novel’s first half leads to a meeting with members of other gangs (Latin Eagles, Imperial Gangsters) with a view to creating a unified Nation. Mikey is among the skeptics because he believes the “only Folks that got your back is your folks.”

Attending the meeting requires travel through territory controlled by hostile gangs — every station is like an outpost in a foreign war — while the destination has not been well explored by the homeboys. They rehearse stories to tell the police if they are questioned outside of their neighborhood and take note of exit routes if they need to flee from a violent confrontation.

The meeting goes well enough, but it’s followed by a clash at a subway station that leaves a character frying on the third rail, although not for sufficient time to delay the subway. “You’d think a dead kid on the third rail would hold things up, but I guess since it wasn’t a whiteboy they just moved on,” Teddy notes.

A spirit taking the form of a Coyote helps Teddy in the brawl after appearing at other consequential moments in his life. Coyote offers life rules on occasion, but — like the novel’s author — he encourages people “to think deeper about it all. At the end you knew way more than when you started.”

Teddy muses that Coyote might not be real, but understands that Coyote is part of Native American ancestral history and deserves to be part of the story. After all, “stories are truths we tell to keep ourselves sane, but they’re also lies we tell to keep others from losing it, too.” Teddy learned from his grandfather that he has a duty to tell his people’s stories because the stories keep them alive.

The story gains speed as the subway begins to move. The novel gives the impression of multiple lives flashing by in a city where neighborhoods are identified by strict boundaries — lives glimpsed and gone, something new occurring and forgotten in every instant. Clashes in the second half, with other gang members and with the police, combine the excitement of a thriller with the gritty realism of true crime writing.

Teddy’s story is to some extent autobiographical. The story rings with the powerful truths conveyed by lived experience. It presents its theme of racial division from the narrow perspective of a teen who only knows his neighborhood. It is easy to understand Teddy’s hope for a more harmonious future — his hope of gangs united against a common enemy, people who hold wealth and power — given his status as the only Native in his relatively diverse social group.

Toward the end, Teddy skips ahead and visits his future a few years down the road. Gang violence is on another level. “Humbugs and jumping each other in alleys mostly disappeared, drive-bys were the standard, and dealing had moved up to coke with lots of folks starting to hit the pipe.” Occupants of busses and subway cars are now “packed with Big Ten state school assholes who were gentrifying the neighborhoods farther north. They looked sweaty as fuck in their cheapish suits and power blouses with running shoes, uncomfortable in their own pale skins, lives of lame office hookups and hopes for big suburban houses already carved deep in their sad, doughy faces.” Harsh, but an understandable assessment from a person in Teddy’s position.

Future Teddy has served a hitch in the Navy to avoid serving time in prison. He took an entry level job at the Board of Trade, but he wanted more from his life than financial success. His laudable goal was not just to make art, but to live for it. “If we don’t have art, what do we have? What’s the point? To make money for some asshole?” This novel, he reveals, is a contribution to art, and indeed it is. While The El has a limited reach, its snapshot of young men in a particular social mileau at a particular time in American history is an insightful addition to the genre of gang fiction.

RECOMMENDED

Corvus by Marko Kloos

Published by 47North on August 19, 2025

Corvus is the second in a series of military science fiction novels called Frontlines: Evolution. The new series began with Scorpio [https://www.tzerisland.com/bookblog/2023/12/20/scorpio-by-marko-kloos.html] and is set in the same universe as Marko Kloos’s Frontlines novels.

In Scorpio, Alexandra “Alex” Archer was a colonist who survived her childhood by living underground on a planet that was occupied by Lankies. Lankies are really big aliens that like to stomp humans, as well as their vehicles and structures. The aliens are difficult to kill but humans, as well all know, excel at killing.

Having been rescued at the last moment from the Scorpio colony by the military, Alex decides to enlist. In Corvus, Alex has finished basic training and is assigned to a regiment that is traveling to the Corvus system to check on a colony that has gone silent.

The novel features the military jargon, command structures, and weaponry that appeals to fans of military sf. Alex and her squad are investigating abandoned buildings on the planet when, as the reader will expect, the Lankies attack. Battles ensue. Much of the regiment is wiped out, but Alex uses the knowledge of survival tactics that she gained in Scorpio to help most of her squad members avoid death.

During much of the novel, Alex and her squaddies are walking or using commandeered vehicles to reach destinations where they hope to dig in and await rescue. One of those destinations is occupied by friendly Russian soldiers who join the battle when their building (a terraforming facility) is attacked by the Lankies.

Like many military sf novels, Corvus features more than one “saved by the bell” moment. That’s not unusual in military thrillers, although it’s a bit more common in military sf, which tend to read like novelizations of mediocre military sf movies. While saved-by-the-bell moments make the story predictable, they also add to the excitement.

Alex is an agreeably modest and fast-thinking protagonist who has just enough personality to keep the reader rooting for her success. Kloos writes energetic action scenes and, if the story as a whole is predictable, he at least keeps it moving with a variety of ways to kill or elude the evil Lankies. Kloos is a capable military sf storyteller, and if there is little to distinguish Corvus from similar works, there is little reason to believe that the novel will fail to satisfy military sf junkies.

RECOMMENDED

Jump Tribe by Clive Barker

Published by Subterranean Press on July 31, 2025

The Jump Tribe consists of 240 creatures painted by Clive Barker and exhibited at a comic book convention in 2005. Barker’s plan was to turn the creatures into plushies that would be packaged with stories that Barker would write about them. A few plushies were manufactured. They are apparently something of a collector’s item.

In “Yaboo’s Tale,” Yaboo finds a hole. Twoth believes it is dangerous and wants to take it to the police. As Yaboo and Billum fight over the hole, they fling it into the air. It comes down on top of Yaboo, who disappears, only to reappear with wings that he grew after learning magic from the Jump Tribe. Yaboo explains the purpose of the holes, avoids a visit from Kungo Nah, and begins an adventure with his two friends.

The next story, “Tale of Kungo Nah,” explains the origin of a villain who puts greed ahead of family and loses himself as he jumps through holes. Twoth becomes an accidental hero in “Twoth’s Tale.” In “Billum’s Tale,” Billum meets a 7-year-old human (“They lived on a round world called Urt, and they were always fighting.”). The stories are rounded out by forgettable poetry from the Jump Tribe.

Subterranean packages the stories in a collector’s edition and a less pricey trade edition. Both are printed in full color. The signed limited edition has illustrated end sheets and comes in a slipcase. A digital edition provides access to the stories for curious readers who don’t want to spend money on the limited or trade editions.

No plushies come with the book. As I understand it, the plushies never made it into stores because the company that made them went out of business.

Without the plushies, neither print edition seems likely to entertain kids for very long. Barker likely envisioned a long and lucrative series of stories tied to more plushies but abandoned the enterprise when the plushie manufacturer failed.

The stories are imaginative but too short to be substantial. If there were more stories, kids might get hooked on them, but the series ends with (spoiler alert) Billum rescuing the human kid as members of the Jump Tribe, who seem to be experiencing a food shortage (apart from the grossly overweight Lady Zoxi), make a plan to open more holes so they can raid Urt and eat everything they find. Fantasy world addicts might find value here, but casual readers won’t miss much by giving the book a pass. There is simply too little content to make the volume anything other than a curiosity.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Kingfisher Seven by Shawn Klomparens

Published by Thomas & Mercer on August 12, 2025

The protagonist of Kingfisher Seven is Jake Moran because (take note, aspiring thriller writers) every thriller hero must be named Jake or Jack. Jake is a former Marine because all thriller heroes named Jake or Jack are former Marines unless they are former Navy Seals. Jake had classified military experience with rocket launches and now has his own business that provides services to companies that launch rockets.

Helena Nash (we are told) is a model for female entrepreneurs. Engineers and other tech-savvy people dream of working for her. Why that’s true is never made clear. Perhaps she generates the same enthusiasm as Elon Musk did when he was only seen as a tech entrepreneur, although we see none of that in the narrative. Helena operates Kingfisher, a company that might remind readers of SpaceX, except that Helena doesn’t dance around with chainsaws. Perhaps doing so would make her more interesting.

Jake’s company is providing Kingfisher with meteorological data to support its tests of a rocket that is carrying a nuclear generator. Helena’s son Dylan is among the environmental protestors who question the wisdom of sending plutonium into space, given the tendency of rockets (at least those of SpaceX) to explode before they enter orbit.

Jake’s helicopter crashes on its way to the island that houses Kingfisher. It is obvious to everyone that the helicopter was hit with a drone, but it takes the pilot and passengers a surprising amount of time to draw that conclusion. It takes them even longer to identify the specific target of that attack. To be fair, that’s part of the puzzle and the answer isn’t easily guessed.

Helena hires Jake to do a complete audit of the company and its security. This happens just in time for Jake to become an action hero and foil an attempt at sabotage. Russian criminals are carrying out a complex and improbable plot to hack Kingfisher’s systems and turn one of its tests into an actual launch, transforming the rocket into a weapon. They kidnap Dylan to further their goal. Their motive for attacking the US is again part of the puzzle that the reader and Jake must solve. The answer is plausible.

To save a city from radioactive fallout and figure out how to rescue Dylan, Jake enlists the usual sidekicks: the ex-Navy pilot who flew the helicopter that crashed; his beautiful and highly competent business partner Tamara Rinaldi, his genius tech employee Stu Gallagher; and Kingfisher’s flight director (another former colleague of Jake because Jake knows everyone) Andy Lang. All the central characters together have less personality than a bag of uncooked rice. A mild conflict between Stu and Andy fizzles away before it can add tension to the story.

Kingfisher Seven delivers the usual action scenes that justify its label as a thriller. The plot is unsurprising, but the action scenes are credible, in part because Jake isn’t required to be a superhero. He spends less time fighting and more time climbing launch platforms as he races to save the day before burning up in the rocket’s exhaust.

Shawn Klomparens apparently did a good bit of research into the mechanics of a private rocket launch. The detailed atmosphere helps the plot sustain credibility. While I can’t say that the characters are memorable, the story delivers just enough excitement to merit a recommendation.

RECOMMENDED