Book Review: Silent Partners
Silent Partners. Margaret Wiermanski, Aether Analytics, LLC, 28 February 2022, Paperback and eBook, 330 pages.
Reviewed by Greg Borzo.
Tax evasion, offshore bank accounts, money laundering.
Shady Russians, plodding cops, shrewd financial traders.
Cautious attorneys, consummate professionals, and even a loveable dog.
This murder mystery and story of financial crimes rolled into a family feud has it all. It’s engagingly told by Margaret Wiermanski, a savvy, longtime financial services executive. There are plenty of plot twists and the requisite number of suspects to keep you guessing as to whodunit.
This is Wiermanski’s first book. She described writing as a hobby, but she plans to pursue the discipline more vigorously as she writes a sequel to Silent Partners. That should be encouraged as Wiermanski displays many talents, particularly in portraying female characters in this book. That includes the murder victim’s girlfriend and Lane Daye, a character Wiermanski seems to have based on herself. Wiermanski also displays good technique, in alternating points of view between chapters told in the third person while the rest of the book is narrated in the first person by the heroine.
One technique that Wiermanski could polish in her forthcoming book, however, is the use of dialogue. Much of the dialogue in Silent Partners features long soliloquies that seem stilted and resemble lectures or courtroom statements rather than how people actually converse. And it’s often not clear who is speaking, as most quotes are not attributed, and the length of the quotes sometimes makes it hard to remember who’s speaking.
Silent Partners takes place in today’s world of electronic trading, which no longer features the frenzied buying and selling that once took place in the trading pits. Anyone with experience in the industry (or even harboring a desire to understand its ins and outs) will enjoy this book, which is full of realistic descriptions of how traders, investors, and regulators work. Other readers, however, might be put off by jargon, such as, “He consistently traded the eMinis versus SPX, and I wondered why he did that in a customer account.”
Anyone who knows and loves Chicago will feel right at home reading Silent Partners, as the book is full of references to buildings (Chicago Board of Trade, for example), restaurants (Ceres), businesses (Lake Shore Bank), modes of transportation (Da “L” and Da bus), etc. My favorite reference is to what Wiermanski calls the “horse plaza.” Adjacent to the Chicago Stock Exchange at Financial Place and Ida B. Wells Drive, the plaza is home to a majestic statue of a horse that was cast in Venice by accomplished artist Ludovico De Luigi in honor of the famous horses above the entrance to St. Mark’s Basilica. This handsome, surrealistic horse stands atop a loud, vigorous fountain. Together, the two dominate and define the plaza and are credited to the financial services industry for providing Chicago with such a welcoming public place. References to such Chicago sites and settings make the book seem especially realistic to Chicago readers and make its story particularly memorable.
Kudos to Wiermanski for using her book to support the Greenwood Project, a nonprofit organization that prepares minority college students for careers in financial services and information technology.
The bottom line: Silent Partners tells a vivid, fast-paced story. Readers will enjoy the gripping chain of events that drove the heroine to lament, “What I really want is to have a nice, boring, routine day.” We’re glad the author did not grant her wish.
Meanwhile, the financial problems and end-of-life challenges that the characters wrestled with throughout the book will encourage readers to keep all their affairs up-to-date and in order, be it a will, insurance policy, bank account, power of attorney, Real Estate Investment Trust – or secret, overseas, tax-free slush fund.