Comprador

The debt-ridden U.S. is floundering.
A near desperate President calls upon the Shang-Magan, a centuries-old group of five world-class traders for help. Joost VanSlyke, a Dutchman, and the head of the Magans decides that any possibility for a real fix depends on sacrificing the young American, Rushton Culhane, who, VanSlyke regards as the best trader (Comprador) of his time. Culhane is the Shang-Magan’s young star, their man who oversees the North American trading zone.
Courmaine, verging on financial catastrophe because the U.S. has reneged on paying him nine tons of gold it owes him—this, being part of the cabal mean to drive him to assist the U.S. as it totters. His wife’s mind has gone after the loss of a child...and he is in no mood to assist a government he disdains, if not despises.
But the force-play works. He knows Washington is his only way of recovering, so he goes, surveys the wreckage, and demands that he alone control the nation’s stockpile of strategic materials (his bank and his base of operations.
He bargains, maneuvers, conjures, deals and re-deals in the world markets. He stalks his adversaries (Russia, the Bank for International Settlements, other parts of Europe), using his God-given wits and skills. A born natural at trading and dealing, and, when in action, his single-mindedness is fierce. He doesn’t always succeed, but does when the big plays are “in play”... being the three or four-sided deals...all inter-connected and too sophisticated for most others to venture into.
Readers are taken to a world known only to a very few, and seen by even fewer.
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“Sardonic, sophisticated...this high-spirited tale is told with style, wit and economy. David Cudlip’s prose is a joy.” – New York Times Book Review
A review posted on Amazon