About Blood Herring
Life is the supreme red herring, a fascinating non-elective journey, which is never as it appears for it is far too occupied providing camouflage for reality.
Christian Robinson Roos, forty-two years old and in need of reaffirming his faith in humanity, falls into a high stakes wager with Wall Street titan Charles “Mac” MacCormick to prove that the world has not gone mad. The bet: $25 million on whether he can complete a tour of thirty sacred sites around the world in twenty-five days. A successful businessman and accomplished value investor, Roos sets off on a daunting itinerary, accompanied by the exotic and enigmatic Katherine “Kat” Mandu. This modern day variation of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days begins across the pond from London's Reform Club at New York’s prestigious Winged Foot Golf Club, with Roos and Kat attempting to make their way through Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, India, Nepal, across the entire country of China, through North Korea and Japan before ending up back in New York. An enterprising Wall Street firm creates a derivative contract based on the wager that has attracted enormous interest from the hedge fund community—to the tune of a billion dollars. Russian mob bagman turned hedge fund maven, Alexei Romanov, and his firm Vengeance Capital take a “walk on the short side” betting heavily against Roos. It’s a wild race against time for Roos and Kat as they battle the elements in their quest for the finish and the spoils of victory.
Against a backdrop of an around-the-world adventure, the author weaves a captivating tale exposing deception and Wall Street greed, but also friendship and love. Through the heart of his protagonist Christian Roos, Blood Herring delves into the author’s understanding of man’s true essence – humanity’s ultimate juxtaposition -- imperfection and innate goodness.
Toggling back and forth between whimsical and reflective, the book examines the hearts and minds of people struggling to survive in some of the planet’s darkest corners, places like Somalia, North Korea and Cuba; while also illuminating almost otherworldly extravagance found in Hong Kong, New York City and Tokyo. During his circumnavigation of the globe, Roos meets a diverse cast of intriguing characters; many of whom are simply not as advertised. One needs to be on the qui vive while reading Blood Herring.
Roos, a trusting man who believes life is an angling adventure for the goodness in humanity, will find himself dangerously entangled with a red herring. As he and Kat attempt to travel the world in twenty-five days, Roos will be both hooked and setting the hook in a real-life deadly fishing expedition. Combining an around-the-world odyssey with high stakes Wall Street dealing, Blood Herring delivers a fast-paced read, an intriguing cast of characters, and an intrepid financial adventure, one which even sneaks in some romance. The only constant is mysterious red herrings appearing throughout the novel which explores both good and evil up close and personal.
