Peter Ralph - The CEO (Rating: 3+)
The CEO is a pacy business thriller reminiscent of Douglas Kennedy’s The Job and some of John Grisham’s books, but with a couple of major differences: it is set in Melbourne, and in those novels, you are always rooting for the hero. She may be flawed, but in the end she comes good. In contrast, the ‘hero’ of this book is almost without redeeming qualities. As the blurb states, ‘Douglas Aspine is a cold, calculating bastard.’ The CEO is the story of how this aggressive, greedy and ambitious man lies, cheats and manipulates his way to the CEO position of an underperforming public company, and what he does once he gets there. It’s a tale of mass sackings, intimidation, insider trading, infidelity and unscrupulous behaviour—and that’s just the start.
Populated by thinly veiled versions of Australia’s most notorious white-collar criminals, it’s a page-turner about the dark side of the corporate world, and it makes compulsive reading. As his enemies gather and the desire to see him get his comeuppance increases, it’s scary to see just how much Aspine can get away with. Although The CEO is patchy in parts, and I found the ending just a little unsatisfying, it shows strong potential.
Ath Book Club comments:
The CEO is a good story of good and evil that keeps the reader engaged with the characters right to the end. The name Aspine (a combination of asp and spine?) was a good choice for the main character who, unfortunately, was very believable, and who none of the Ath Book Club members would want to meet in real life. Many of the members did recognise real people and events behind the story.
The ending was disappointing to some members, although it was a suitable punishment for a thoroughly evil character such as Mr Aspine. The alternative would have been a court of law and a possibility of escaping punishment.
Unfortunately the book was lacking a sound proof reading and there were a number of grammatical errors which diminished the pleasure of reading such a good story.
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