by Stephen Frey
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Product Description
“FAST-PACED . . . A TALE OF MARKET MISDEEDS AND MURDER.”
–The New York Times
Augustus McKnight senses his dead-end life is about to change when he makes a shrewd online investment and earns an impressive windfall. But before he can tell his wife about his success, she reveals an adulterous affair and demands a divorce. A day later, she is found brutally murdered– leaving Augustus as the sole beneficiary of her million-dollar life insurance policy. To escape his anguish, Augustus plunges into the world of the full-time day trader–and discovers that he has become both a pawn in a complex game of manipulation . . . and the target of a twisted quest for revenge. Now, he’s not only gambling with his fortune, but with his life.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 horrible, 2007-10-12
This book is chock-full of characters that are unbelievably stupid. So stupid and so unbelievable that you don't care what happens to them. In fact, it's annoying that they exist. It might be well-written, but who cares?
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Entertaining mystery sprinkled with day trading facts, 2007-08-23
I really enjoyed The Day Trader. I listened to the audio book and found it easy to follow and hard to put down. For someone who knows almost nothing about day trading, the information Stephen Frey provides is a good introduction. The mystery had plenty of twists and several suspects. I have read hundreds of mysteries by many writers and The Day Trader was just as plausable, if not more so, than most mysteries.
I was supprised that some of the reviews were so negative. They wondered how Augustus McKnight could be so dumb and yet a smart day trader. I know lots of people who are smart when in comes to money but quite gullible and naive in their relationships with other people. It seemed quite in character that Augustus didn't worry about being accused of killing his wife. He was innocent after all!
Stephen Frey wrapped up the ending quicker than I would have liked but did address all the loose ends in the story. I felt he wrapped up the ending of The Chairman too quickly also. That was my only disappointment with the book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 A Gullible Day Trader!, 2005-05-29
Straying somewhat from his Wall Street roots, Stephen Frey ventures in the murder mystery genre and almost pulls it off.
Augustus McKnight (don't call him Gus) is a tall personable attractive man in his late twenties or early thirties. He appears to be stuck in a dead end job as a salesman for a paper company but he has plans. He has been boning up on the stock market for the last six months and controls a small on line account.
Augustus is married to his high school sweetheart, Melanie who is a knockout and can manipulate him through sex. She works in a law office in order to stay ahead of the bills and has even been working late into the night, recently, to make more money. She has been growing impatient with Augustus and feels he does not do enough to be successful.
In a quirk of luck, Augustus runs into a $90,000 IPO (Initial Public Offering) windfall. He is so pumped after work that he goes on a binge and gets home after Melanie. He can't wait to tell Melanie the good news but before he can do that she admits to an affair with her boss and asks for a divorce.
The next day he quits after his boss tries to shake him down for half stock market the profits. Later that night the police come to his home and tell him his wife has been brutally murdered.
Summary
At two hundred and ninety pages, things move fast. Augustus is also in line for a million dollar life insurance policy so he decides to go into Day Trading with his new found wealth. An old buddy of his, Vincent Carlucci, takes a renewed interest in Augustus and sets him up with some investors and things are really starting to look rosy but there's a storm on the horizon.
Everything in Augustus' life going back to high school and beyond has been a sham. Almost nothing is as it had seemed. Many of those closest to him including his father had participated in deceit or held secret lives. Augustus and some co-workers are almost killed by an insane day-trader and eventually the police begin to look at him for Melanie's murder.
Conclusion
This is the third book I've read by Stephen Frey. The previous books I had read were what could be termed Financial Thrillers but I was surprised to see that this book contained only a smidgen of financial background. Frey has a nice writing style, is easy to follow and doesn't go off on tangents . He tends to be succinct and has an economy with words that I appreciate, which helps hold his stories down to manageable levels. His character development is excellent for the main character but not as thorough on subordinate characters.
The story itself was fairly well written considering this was his first venture into violent crime. There were enough surprises and twists to make things interesting but I thought the novel fell down with the timelines. I don't want to give too much of the story away so I really can't get into it but if you read the book, you'll probably see what I mean. I also felt that the investigation wasn't proceeding in a normal manner. This is part of the timeline I was talking about. When a woman is murdered, the husband is usually the number one suspect and yet weeks went by before they looked at Augustus and this despite a large insurance policy, her cheating and asking for a divorce and not really having an alibi. It is these problems and a couple others that induce me to give Day Trader a high three star rating
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
a novel of contradictions, 2005-02-10
Day Trader should not see the light of day.
Augustus McKnight resigns from his sales job to become a day trader. The turmoil in his marriage, and the fact that he'll be inheriting an insurance windfall, makes him the prime suspect when his wife mysteriously dies.
While making money and enemies, Gus must find a way to prove his innocence.
Stephen Frey does a nice job in explaining some financial terms. He infuses life into those dreary columns we glance at in our newspapers. This does little to curb the ennui that sets in from the first page.
It's seems Augustus McKnight had a split personality. How else can one explain that while Gus on one hand couldn't tell his wife was a stripper who had been sleeping with best friend, and her boss, he was nevertheless able to hint at Roger's, Mary's facade. Beats the unfertile imagination, I suppose.
Again how can the detective hint at an enraged sibling as a suspect without following it up.
The Day Trader raises more eyebrows than heartbeats, being unable to rise above its pathetic plot. Consider this insider tip: NOT WORTH BUYING (OR READING).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Stephen Frey demonstrates growth as a writer, 2005-01-02
I guess I never thought I'd say this, but I actually found something to admire in Stephen Frey's "The Day Trader." I can understand why so many readers in this forum are puzzled, because the book really is a departure from Frey's previous work. What I'm saying is that this is a good thing.
Let me put this in the form of a story: This last summer, when I was packing up the house and waiting for movers to arrive, I found a couple of his early novels in paperback form. These were books I'd picked up and read years ago, "The Takeover" and "The Vulture Fund." I had only the vaguest of memories, and since they were the only things to read in the house, I sat down and read them again. To tell the truth, they were pretty awful -- characters of cardboard, every one of them described in superlatives and adverbs; plot twists that weren't just implausible but rather incomprehensible. But okay, I kept turning the pages. Bad writing can be inspiring. You tell yourself you can do better, and you take comfort in knowing this guy got published.
So when I saw "The Day Trader" on a remainder table a few weeks ago, I figured I was in for another treat. But you know what? In the five years or so that had elapsed between those early novels and this one, Steven Frey seems to have done some maturing. He's getting better at it, okay? For one thing, the main character is more believable than any in those early novels. This one actually has flaws. (He's a brilliant stock-picker, but he can't see that everyone around him is a schemer and scammer, including his wife and best friend.) And Stephen Frey's use of the first person in this novel shows that he is willing to stretch himself stylistically, and he's trying to grow. The plot itself is human-scaled, and doesn't involve terrorists taking over nuclear reactors or wicked people trying to manipulate the entire American economic system. Nope, it's about a regular guy trying to take on the world.
Now, I'm not saying this book is terrific, not by a longshot. There are still some points that stretch my credulity -- like the rather mild sense of betrayal that the hero feels when he discovers everyone has been lying to him for so long. Or the fact that he doesn't really seem to start worrying about the murder investigation until late in the novel. I mean, anyone who understands the conventions of these types of stories knows that the hero is going to be the prime suspect, and I guess I like my heroes not to be completely blockheaded. The guy might have been more interesting if he'd squirmed a little.
I'm going to say something here that might seem a little embarrassing, but I actually like some of John Grisham's work. This book really doesn't approach the level of Grisham's best work. But let me say this -- Frey is about halfway there, and if he continues to show the same development as a writer in his future books, he may become someone worth reading. I mean, as more than a guilty pleasure.
Sometimes I wonder if authors read the reviews that readers post on Amazon.com. Well, if so, all I can say is keep it up, Stephen -- the growth you showed with this novel is an inspiration.
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