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The First Billion
by: Christopher Reich

Off The Bookshelf's Price: $7.99

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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780440234692
ISBN: 0440234697
Label: Dell
Manufacturer: Dell
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 608
Publication Date: July 29, 2003
Publisher: Dell
Release Date: July 29, 2003
Studio: Dell
Sales Rank: 346307

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Christopher Reich electrified readers with Numbered Account and The Runner, his first two international thrillers. Now the New York Times bestselling author whose work has been called “gripping” (Chicago Tribune), “chilling” (The Denver Post), “wonderful” (The New York Times Book Review), ratchets up the stakes in an ingeniously plotted story of nerve-jangling intrigue and hot-wired suspense. Using today’s cutthroat global economy as a backdrop, The First Billion explodes into a breakneck tale of betrayal, revenge, and redemption...

John “Jett” Gavallan is a former fighter pilot, now the high-flying CEO of Black Jet Securities, an investment firm that earned its first billion before the techno dream crashed and burned. Poised for an offering crucial to his company’s survival, Gavallan is banking on the riskiest gamble of his dazzling career. In exactly six days, he will take Mercury Broadband, Russia’s leading media company, public on the New York Stock Exchange. But rumors of fraud have suddenly surfaced that could send the deal south. Gavallan makes a preemptive strike by dispatching his number-two man--fellow Desert Storm fighter pilot Grafton Byrnes--to Moscow to penetrate the shadowy Russian multinational. When Byrnes fails to return, Gavallan fears the worst. But
the truth is even more diabolical than he can imagine.

Plunging into a desperate search for his best friend, the renegade top gun is suddenly fighting a different kind of war, where there is no safe harbor and no one he can trust. Not Konstantin Kirov, the elusive head of Mercury Broadband who may not be what he seems. Not the bankers and traders Gavallan does business with every day. Not the exotic beauty who has told him all her deepest secrets--except one. Suddenly Jett finds himself trapped in a conspiracy that could shatter the delicate balance between nations--and plunge the global economy into chaos. Hunted by the F.B.I. and a band of elite killers, Jett races from Palm Beach to Zurich to Moscow in a desperate search for answers. But for this brave ex-commando haunted by visions of war, the truth comes at a terrible price. With Mercury rising and the hours ticking down, he is moving closer to a place where murder and revenge are the currency of choice...and where the first billion is the ultimate insider secret--and the deadliest obsession of all.

With breakneck plotting, stunning realism, and a sense of danger that keeps the heart racing, The First Billion is a knockout of a novel that will linger long after the final shocking twist is revealed.

From the Hardcover edition.

Amazon.com Review:
Money makes the world go round for Jett Gavallon, a high-tech entrepreneur who's on the brink of bringing a Russian telecom startup to market with an IPO worth billions. But when his best friend and second-in-command disappears after Gavallon sends him to Moscow to make sure the new company is on the up and up, Jett begins to have second thoughts, which are exactly what his Russian partners can't afford. Beset by an FBI task force looking into Mercury Broadband's financing by Russian mobsters, rumors of fraud being circulated by a Drudge-like online financial gossip columnist, and the discovery that his former lover is not who he thought she was, Jett puts his fortune on the line in a desperate attempt to save his company--and ultimately, his life. An exciting, fast-paced adventure by an author who puts his experience in international banking to work in the service of this carefully plotted thriller. --Jane Adams

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Boring
Couldn't get into this book, I found the characters morally weak and the pace of the book very slow. It was so bad that I couldn't even finish, not worth my time. I started this book three times, in the mean time I read four others. Finally I decided that it wasn't worth my time, very dry

Rating:

- A RIVETING NARRATION

Actor and Audie Award finalist James Daniels gives a riveting performance of this globe spanning story propelled by rapid fire action and dark intrigue. His voice ably conveys toughness, compassion, and regret. He doesn't over-dramatize, allowing Reich's powerful words to carry listeners along.

As many know, Reich has earned an enviable reputation as a master of international intrigue. The First Billion, his third book, again mesmerizes with a tale of frightening possibilities.

Jett Gavalian is a former fighter pilot, having served in the Gulf War. What he saw there inspired him to begin Black Jet Securities, an international financial consulting firm. He intends to use his profits to help rather than harm, improve the possibilities for life ... Read More

Rating:

- Rather formulaic
I chose this book simply by spotting the spine while at the library. But once I got into it, it just seemed rather formulaic. Flashbacks occurred at predictable interviews. The major characters, at different times, all seemed to stop and look at themselves in the mirror. There just wasn't anything all that intriguing.

Rating:

- Skip This One
"The First Billion" is too long and slow-paced to be a truly effective thriller. Christopher Reich is a good writer, but he could really use a lesson in self-editing. He has a verbose writing style, and wastes page after page describing extraneous details that have little to no importance to the story.

This is one of those books you end up skimming, rather than really reading. I really wish this 600-page book had been more aggressively edited. This book could easily have been made at least 100-150 pages shorter without sacrificing much of the story. There is a subplot in this book involving the Alaska Pipeline that could have been completely eliminated, in my opinion.

This book also has some severe plot problems. The first 250-300 pages of this book are incredibly ... Read More

Rating:

- The First Russophobe
In this book Mr. Reich uses a popular method of getting ahead in literary life: scribble away a bunch of russophobic babble and hope for the best. Did it work? Well, with jewels like "cut Russian's insides before he drops like a sack of potatoes" who could be in the miss?!? Did he call himself civilized?

Did Mr. Reich have to pay to get this smeared toilet paper published? Will never know as it's probably privileged information. Right, Mr. Accountant?

While he ceaselessly tries to be just a little more like DeMille, Clancy, and even Wolfe (almost entire passages copied out of The Bonfire), he ain't it. Escaped crazy Russkies on their own fighter jet? Is that his biggest masturbation fantasy, or is it the one about a sack of potatoes? Shed some light on this in your next one, ... Read More

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