FTAdviser contributor and financial services industry veteran Andrew Clare has published the perfect book for your summer bank holiday reading.
Set in the City in the heady days of the early 2000s, against a backdrop of debates as to whether the UK should adopt the Euro, a conspiracy unfolds.
Weaving together the UK's political and fiscal history into a tale of subterfuge and political trickery, Professor Andrew Clare, a long-time contributor to FTAdviser and head of asset management at City University, centres his plot around the character of Sebastian.
Sebastian Oates, a senior economist at the Bank of England, finds himself having to fight back against "dark forces" of Europhiles and politicians playing dangerous games.
He is shocked to read, in a copy of the FT, of the "tragic" death of the chief economist of the BoE - a death allegedly involving "drugs and hookers".
However, the demise of pro-Europe Jan de Groot is soon investigated as suspicious and starts to draw more "big boss" figures into the subsequent investigation, especially as Sebastian, to his horror, receives a text message from Jan - seemingly after his death - that simply reads "Hi".
What follows is a tragic, but humorous, waltz through the City, to Westminster and over the Channel and back as Sebastian seeks to come to terms with not only his boss' mysterious death but increasing attention on him from people wanting to influence the BoE and push the UK to adopt the Euro.
He is even kidnapped (twice) by someone who is adept at playing different characters, before revealing their true selves: “Understand economics?
"You’re doin’ me head in soft lad,” said an angry and unmistakable Scouse accent. “You economists make me sick. Banging on and on about optimal currency zones, economic cycles aligning with other economic cycles, or with the cycle of the moon, or with your menstrual cycle.
"You Brummy blert! The Euro is not about economics. That’s what you don’t get, lad ... It’s about politics!” he shouted. “Politics! If we don’t join the Euro, we’ll be left behind, like the ugly bridesmaid at a wedding."
Even the chancellor is not immune from suspicion and manipulation as he finds himself, too, being played by eurosceptics and europhiles alike.
In words that perhaps echo the feelings of recent chancellors, Clare writes: "As the Chancellor spoke, the feeling of awe that initially overwhelmed him gradually gave way to irritation and anger.
"Had he been an expendable plaything for both sides? Who had really been pulling his strings over the last week? Did anyone actually care that public humiliation had been hanging over his head like the sword of Damocles?"
Who is responsible for the death of de Groot? What of a missing speech? Who is really paying the piper? Can the reputation of the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street be saved?
