Novelized form Many books have been written about this time period but I am not aware of any that capture the ethic of greed that permeated the culture of finance on Wall Street better than this work An entire industry subsumed by short term greed devoid of the constraints provided by concepts of valuing long term relationships and acting with care and responsibility for clients This was the world in which we lived It is stunning to return to this world and to view in retrospect the total disregard for consequences with which the finance industry operated The question will long be asked how this could have happened The answer is here When leadership abandons ethics and embraces greed as the only value of relevance.

Not just another book about Wall Street Decay Time offers a fresh perspective the human perspective about Wall St In part drawing on the social commentary tradition of Tom Wolfe and financial thriller style of John Grisham this novel will entertain and educate. The reader can relate on some level to the drama that unfolds with the characters It speaks to the struggle of the human condition itself Back Cover October 2008 New York City A dead man sprawled in a pool of blood is found in the penthouse suite of an opulent midtown Manhattan hotel Who is he Was he murdered or was it suicide and would it make yet another headline about the financial meltdown rocking Wall Street Chip Smith veteran investment banker at Smyth Johnston was looking forward to a comfortable retirement until he found himself an unwilling player in a changing Wall Street scene A new culture of money power and control dominated by a few in the banking business contributed to the financial crash When the grisly hotel death investigation lands on Smyth Johnston s trading floor insights into this new culture behavior business practices shadow banking lifestyle all come into play Decay Time is a story about people not products and illuminates the world of the Wall Street trading floor before during and following the 2008 financial crisis This morality tale invites the question as to whether behavior of the new Wall Street culture was really that different than what exists in other high profile professions or even in everyday life Scott Stevenson worked in New York and London for several global investment banks as well as boutique finance firms over the course of his 20 year career A graduate of Kent School he holds a BA from Vanderbilt University and an MBA Finance from the University of Chicago He left the banking world shortly before the financial crisis and now lives in Tennessee with his wife and two children Decay TimeA Wall Street Murder and Morality TaleI was intrigued by the idea of a Wall Street murder mystery and Scott Stevenson went above and beyond my expectations with this book With the help of a glossary in the back I had no trouble understanding the financial lingo though the logic of business and finance still tends to go right over my head The plot had it s ups and downs dips in excitement which was perfectly alright with me it made the flow of information seem a lot realistic I really enjoyed the characters and how Stevenson doesn t cover up his characters flaws The main characters aren t perfect people in fact several are far from it which isn t something you see often enough in my opinion I really really liked the back and forth of background explanation to present time investigation Stevenson s writing kept your interest even if something that wasn t particularly exciting was happening There were several little reveals that spiked my intrigue clues about the murder and characters that would make me pause and think I honestly wasn t expecting that Overall I was very pleased with the content of the book very original too I don t think I ve ever read let alone heard of a Wall Street murder mystery and I m glad my first Goodreads Giveaway win was such a great read. My thanks to Scott Stevenson for pulling my attention into a world I d previously just kind of ignored I was young when the Wall Street meltdown started and I ve never enjoyed economics or business and writing a mystery that I found refreshing and satisfying English I was there I participated in the creation of transactions supported by credit default swaps I remember both the euphoria of 2007 and the panic of 2008 as the street dissolved into panic and we all stared into the abyss of utter and complete ruin that was the start of the slow motion depression we today call the Great Recession Careers ended venerable institutions melted away before our very eyes lives were forever altered It is all here It was frightening to return through this book a modern day version of Augustine s Confessions albeit it in fictionalized those who work for emulate and otherwise follow that leadership operate in kind I strongly recommend this book as a written museum preserving the artifacts of the ethics of greed and a society that has lost its soul This is not to say that the book is without its challenges If you do not have a bit of background in finance the story can be difficult to traverse Nevertheless it is worth the effort The characters and the story may all be fiction but I can attest that the culture of greed the book recreates was very very real English