This is the first book I’ve read in the David Hart series
and it’s certainly entertaining enough to make me go backwards and catch up on
the previous ones.
The Ego's Nest (City 5)
is a short, sharp, funny book with a negligible
plot-line- Hart [literally] returns from the dead to try and win the heart of
the woman of his dreams, whilst making a few billion on the side during with
fantastical ease during the depths of the Great Recession- but that doesn’t
matter. David Charter’s books are
obviously Experiences, and on the strength of this one, I would imagine very
enjoyable ones at that.
The central anti-hero’s one-liners and sly observations of
the financial world and the characters in it are to die for and more than make
up for any predictable plotting or simplistic technique. The Ego’s Nest is about having a laugh whilst
at the same time having some astute observations about the sheer madness that
runs rampant in The City, suddenly hammered home to you from out of the blue.
In many ways, this makes Charter’s books probably more
effective than a shelf of more serious studies of our semi-criminal financial
system, and that must be seen as a laudable achievement.