Book Review: The Crash by Robert Peston

As the world falls apart, a deadly conspiracy comes together . . .

London, 2007. It's summer in the the economy is booming, profits are up and the stock market sits near record highs.

But journalist Gil Peck is a lone voice worrying it can't last. Deep in the plumbing of the financial system, he has noticed strange things happening which could threaten the whole economy. But nobody wants to hear not the politicians taking credit for an end to boom and bust, not the bankers pocketing vast bonuses, not even Gil's bosses at the BBC, who think it's irrelevant.

When Gil gets a tip-off that a small northern bank has run out of money, everything changes. His report sparks the first run on a UK bank in 140 years. The next day, Marilyn Krol, a director of the Bank of England dies in an apparent suicide.

For Gil, it's personal. Marilyn was his was his scoop connected to her suicide? Or is there something more sinister in her death? Gil is determined to find out.

The more he investigates, the more he is drawn into the rotten heart of the financial system, where old school ties and secret Oxbridge societies lubricate vast and illegal conflicts of interest. The whole economy has been built on a house of cards, and Gil is threatening to bring it down.

When simply reporting the facts can make or break fortunes, Gil has to ask is he crossing the line between journalist and participant? Are his own conflicts of interest making him reckless? And in a world ruled by greed where nothing and no-one is too big to fail, what price will he pay for uncovering the truth?

GENRE: Thriller

PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Robert Peston is ITV News' political editor and presenter of ITV's Wednesday night politics show Peston. Founder of the education charity Speakers for Schools, and vice president of Hospice UK, he has written four non-fiction books. Robert has won more than 30 awards for his journalism, including Journalist of the Year and Scoop of the Year (twice) from the Royal Television Society. His critically acclaimed debut thriller, The Whistleblower, was published in 2021.

Review

I went into this book knowing nothing about the author and his books. I needed a well-needed break from all the fantasy I was reading (and writing), and thrillers often give me that fix (and horror, occasionally). Plus, as I have a bachelor's degree in accountancy, I also thought that the novel's focus on banking and finance would be interesting.

This book did not disappoint. It was thrilling and no doubt entertaining; I finished about three quarters of it in one sitting. There was a lot of tension and political maneuvering and danger and shady dealings and mystery. Was it based on real events and involved real people? I would have to look that up. It definitely read like something that could happen (had happened?) in real life.

I would've struggled to understand and appreciate some things if I hadn't been living in the UK for the past year and a half now, but the blurb says that it's set in London in 2007, so anyone reading should already expect that. And while the finance stuff got a little technical in places, I thought the author managed to use the characters, particularly the protagonist Gil, to simplify things without pulling the readers out of the story.

It was only after I finished that I read the author's bio, and having all that information now, I can say that this novel is a great example of writing what you know. It also didn't matter that I hadn't read The Whistleblower, even if this book was supposed to be some sort of sequel.

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️️