Member Reviews
This is an intriguing novel, somewhat reminiscent of Faustus. Wealth manager Will is about to be fired. He isn’t making his numbers, and that just don’t do. Someone in his office offers him a ticket to a hockey game on Valentines Day, and his entire world changes. He meets Sam Abbadon and his girlfriend Eve at the game, and things seem perfect from that moment on. Sam is very wealthy, and his huge cash deposit into Will’s company puts Will well over the numbers he needs.
But nothing is perfect in life, and everything can change in a moment.
Solid read from Adam Mitzner. This is a fun, plot-driven book that keeps you engaged. Interesting combination of storylines. Keeps you guessing. I will continue to read books by this author, this was my first.
#AMatterOfWill #NetGalley
Thank you netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review/opinion. I'm a little torn on this title. I was truly enjoying the title and at the big plot twist, it began to feel rushed. I definitely recommend the book as it was entertaining, just wish there was more to the 2nd half of the story.
This book reminds me a little of the Wolf of Wallstreet. Will Matthews is a relatively new investment broker with his firm. He runs in to Sam and Eve at a hockey game (FYI - I almost wanted to give up on the book in the first chapter because it went in to too much detail about the game), and Will would do almost anything to get Sam as a client since he's barely meeting his goals and he is motivated to propel his career to the next level.
Then Will meets his date Gwen, who is just starting her career as an attorney with a high power law firm. Two individuals that are driven to be the best in their respective careers and have a lot of money. It felt like the drive for money and power in this book was a little over the top, but maybe I'm just out of the loop when it comes to those individuals in jobs like this... I also don't live in NYC where this behavior seems a bit more of the norm.
Parts of this book kept me reading because I was interested in the different relationships, as well as understanding how far Will and Gwen would go to succeed. I think it wasn't until the 50% mark where things really started moving and the criminal activity, twists, and thrill ride took off. It's definitely a book that will keep you reading!
Thoroughly Entertaining Read
Will is a struggling hedge fund trainee who is about to be fired. He lucks in when he is given tickets to a hockey game where he is seated in a prime location next to a charming couple Sam and Eve. But this is not a chance encounter. Sam sets out through a series of encounters to recruit Will to assist him in Sam's international financial business. Then he grooms Will to play the part of a charming financial executive.
Will meanwhile has a date with beautiful up-and-coming lawyer Gwen who becomes part of his life. Gwen gets involved in the legal defense of a Hollywood celebrity who is accused of murdering his wife. This is an interesting subplot unrelated to the story of Will and Sam.
Will is thriving in his new niche. He upgrades his lifestyle by purchasing a lavish condo in the building where Eve lives. Eve continues to show up at Sam's parties as hostess and her main function appears to involve living off Sam's money.
Then the plot takes a twist when Sam who is travelling a lot suddenly disappears and can no longer be reached. Shortly afterward Will is hired to replace Sam. One night Will witnesses a murder and realizes that Sam has been playing with some nasty characters. His business is actually international money laundering.
Faced with this realization, what will Will do? If he tries to walk away, will he be executed? He bares his soul to Gwen who devises a possible way out of the mess Will has become ensnared in.
This novel is a thoroughly entertaining read. And there is one big surprise awaiting you.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an Advance Review Copy of this novel via NetGalley.
I enjoyed this one a lot! The topic of the book honestly isn’t my thing, but I ended up enjoying it. It was awesome having a story about three people instead of the usual one. As far as movies go, it reminded me of Wolf of Wallstreet.
For me, A Matter of Will was sheer pleasure. I thought it was well-written with an entertaining plot and intriguing characters. Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.
This was the first time that I've ever read a book by Adam Mitzner and to be honest I was quite surprised by the quality of the plot and the twists and turns in this book. This was a page turner and it had me hooked from the word go. I enjoyed every bit of it and I was quite disappointed when I finished this book. I'll be looking forward for his other books and I'll also be going through his list of already published book and read some of them. I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a good book with a great plot. A big thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange of my honest review.
A Matter of Will by Adam Mitzner is thrilling courtroom drama and Wall Street dealing thrown into one great novel.
The main characters - sultry Eve, naïve Will, stoic Gwen and seedy Sam – are all completely engaging! Well developed through a fast-paced read, I felt like I was watching a John Grisham movie. A realistic plot with some twists and turns (although nothing too unexpected) keep you guessing and turning the pages.
The courtroom scenes also flowed easily – not always easy to do without a whole lot of jargon being bandied about, and it easily kept the book moving along.
I especially enjoyed Mr. Mitzner’s writing style. It is quick, witty and the dialogue is cleverly woven to reveal important facts without leaving me feeling like I’m being explained to.
The ending was all tied up really nicely and I’m not sure if I liked this or not. All in all, though, I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a quick legal thriller.
This book continued to surprise me. I had sympathy for the young stock broker who just wanted to do his job well enough to stay employed but quickly got in over his head. His actions affected his new girlfriend, his opinion of himself, and the world he found himself in. The con was magnificently crafted, yet with smart, dedicated people, even the worst can be put in their place.
If I could give this review 6 stars I would - absolutely loved it. Got so invested in to the characters of Will and Gwen that I finished the book under 48 hours. A great legal thriller that had your attention at every turn.
We are introduced to Will Matthews, a 27 year old wealth management trainee broker at Maeve Grant firm. He is down on his luck and close to losing his job if he doesn't reach his targets for the next quarter until he meets Sam Abbadon at a hockey game. Sam is a multi-millionaire who oozes confidence and control with skin in the game. He has investments in a variety of industries with a wealth of knowledge, but chooses Will to be his broker based on a gut feeling that Will is the guy for him.
Gwen Lipton is a 3rd year associate at a law firm who handles corporations and she barely sees a court room. Using a dating app she enters the life of Will Matthews.
Clearly it is too good to be true for Will - Sam is funneling money at an alarming rate in to Will's firm. But he is reluctant to see the reality of the situation.
What entails is a fantastic heart racing story that kept me gripped and rooting for Will & Gwen to overcome such difficulties.
I loved it and would highly recommend it.
This is first book I have read from this author. I loved the character of Will. He is so naive in beginning of story, wanting to believe in fate, and the good will of people in business and in life. He finds out, as time goes on ,that he should have never been so trusting I would definitely recommend this book to anyone enjoys a suspenseful story
The titular Will is a struggling stockbroker from Cheybogan, Michigan who meets a high-roller, Sam, who presents a financial opportunity. It's impossible not to be seduced by Sam's lifestyle, wealth, and his glamorous partner Eve Devereux; but Will soon finds himself in trouble when Sam dies and the FBI is interested in his role in Sam's financial empire.
The is the first title of Adam Mitzner's that I have ever read and I will be sure to read the rest of his catalogue. A Matter of Will is gripping, well-written and fun. Its subversion of common tropes - spoiler: the relationship between Sam and Eve - makes it fresh and modern. Mitzner's a talented and witty writer - this isn't quite a spoiler, but I loved the quip about the Bechdel test between Eve and Gwen. I initially found Gwen's side plot drawn out, but ultimately appreciated her role in apprehending Sam's murderer. A Matter of Will is the best thriller I read this month - I would definitely recommend it.
A Matter of Will by Adam Mitzner
4 Stars
Don’t take people at face value!
Will Matthews has managed to get a prize ticket to watch a hockey match at Madison Square Gardens. He’d jumped at the chance to accept the ticket, especially as his salary in his present position as a broker-trainer in Wealth Management with a very prestigious company, Maeve Grant, would not have covered the cost. He finds himself seated next to Sam Abaddon and his lady friend Evelyn Devereaux. He soon realises that Sam Abaddon could be the answer to his prayers and save his job, by becoming a client.
Sam Abaddon not only appoint Will Matthews to be his Wealth Manager but introduces others to him. Soon Will has his own office and is handling millions of Abaddon and his associates’ money. But is the money legitimate?
Gwen Lipton is a young lawyer working for a huge law firm. She’s desperate to get up through the ranks and when she’s offered a chance to be part of a murder trial, she jumps at the chance.
Will and Gwen seem set to have the perfect relationship, both in high-flying positions. Both hungry for success, but will their futures really be straightforward?
A very interesting book covering money laundering and the people at the top of the chain running these organisations often with the intention of backing terrorists. I think where Adam Mitzner has succeeded is portraying these people as being simply very wealthy businessmen, who are able to fool not only young people like Will but also his company that their money is legitimate. Unfortunately, cracks always appear with such organisations and soon Will finds himself asking himself about “accidental” deaths that seem closer to murders.
Imbali
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
Adam Mitzner continues to be one of my "don't miss" authors -- meaning that if he wrote, I'll be rushing to read it. And, A Matter Of Will continues this author's streak of writing very fast-paced, hard-to-put-down thrillers/mysteries, with well-developed characters.
Without describing its plot, which can be read about in the Book Description above, A Matter Of Will shares many of the same qualities I felt were characteristic of each of Mitzner's six previous highly recommendable books: 1) excellent pacing, which starts off slow and steadily builds to a level that will have you turning the pages at a rapid pace to find out what happens next; 2) creating realistic flawed, yet sympathetic, characters; 3) providing such true-to-life prose that makes you feel you are actually hearing the characters speaking their words; 4) having the main character be so fully dimensionalized that you forget you are reading a book and not right there with him as he is experiencing his personal and professional life turn to shambles; and 5) providing some interesting plot twists.
I enjoyed A Matter Of Will and I think you will too; although it has one factor that caused me to deduct one star from my rating. This is that despite Mitzner's ability to keep the plot moving at a brisk pace, the plot itself requires the reader to suspend disbelief a bit too much..Despite this minor flaw, which is far outweighed by its strengths mentioned above, A Matter Of Will is a book I'd recommend to any reader who enjoys thrillers/mysteries. The same recommendation applies to each of Mitzner's other books.
#A Matter Of Will, #Net Galley
This had a bit of a slow start, and the characters had to grow on it. The whole plot seemed somewhat similar to the Firm, another too smart, but not necessarily savvy young guy who finds himself in trouble. Salvation comes to the door, and as usual, if it seems to good to be true, it is.
There are several levels of betrayal and a certain amount of anxiety of who will inevitably turn on whom. The simultaneous levels of manipulation and deception, especially in the law firm and trial confirm all the cynicism we have acquired.
At first I wasn't too jazzed about this book but I did begin to really enjoy it once it picked up some steam.
I did really love how the bad guys were dispatched at the end, you go girl!
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas&Mercer for the electronic advance copy.
Before I go in, a side note: this is an uncorrected proof. I'm not sure if whoever edits these titles reads the feedback, but please, for the love of anything you hold holy, correct the instances of "shelf company" to "shell company". I've never read anything else by this author, so have no comparisons to earlier works of his.
Will Matthews is a not-so-successful broker (or "wealth manager") at a finance company - so unsuccessful that he gets dumped on by his boss on an almost daily basis and worries he will be fired at any moment. Enter Sam and Eve, who he meets at a hockey game. Before he knows what has hit him, Sam is sweeping Will off his feet, taking him to lavish dinners, tuxedo-required parties, and parking tens of millions of dollars with him for investing. He basically buys Will a ten million dollar apartment, and makes him sign off as a director of or participant in various shell companies.
Meanwhile, Gwen is a young attorney added to the team defending a Hollywood star, who has allegedly killed his wife. Will and Gwen meet up via a dating app, have a dinner, and another date. They wind up as a couple - it's true love for both of them.
There's no real way to go through the rest without spoilers, so I'll leave it at: everything is not as it seems, and soon after that, Will and Gwen have to start thinking about their very survival, both professionally and personally.
The good: it's easy enough to read. The author doesn't wander off into incomprehensible jargon associated with his own profession (law) when some courtroom/lawyer scenes come up. Will is given a fairly good backstory. There's some infodumping, given as dialogue instead of a wall of text.
The bad: I'm sorry to say I found it to be a weird mashup of The Firm and Wall Street and When Harry Met Sally. Will is so naive as to be implausible, and apparently it doesn't sound any alarms to him that some random guy he meets wants to invest a fortune with him. .Even worse, the first 50% of the book is very dull throughout this. Not once does Will question anything, and the first half is just Will and Gwen going about their respective businesses.. It looks like the author couldn't decide on what kind of book it should be, so included everything, and that swamped the entire book. Also: using the actual John Yoo in this? Not good.
The remainder of the book involves some murders, a bit of cat and mouse, and asks the reader to believe that the kingpin of a gigantic criminal organization would tell even the new nominal leader of it about plans, the evidence being held over their head, or allow that person to remain alive, knowing that person is not all in and is hesitant about roping in another young broker, among other things. We then get swept over once more to the legal bit playing out on Gwen's side, which does nothing for the story. She, too, winds up appearing to be a tad too naive, and the ending is simply far too convenient, wrapping up all the details.
If this book were by an as yet unpublished author, and they submitted it as it is, that author would remain unpublished. It would be fine as a plane or beach read, but I would not recommend it.
Will Matthews was a regular guy until he met Sam and Eve at a hockey game. The need for new investment clients drove Will to continue to associate with Sam. Eventually, Will became rich. A combination of not knowing how to be rich, his love for Gwen, and the need to keep working, does not bode well for Will. Lots of suspense, great characters and an overall super read!
Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for a fun read!
Have read several books by Adam Mitzner and have enjoyed all of them. They're easy to read and fast paced. I recommend this book and all of his other books as well.
A solid thriller with a nice writing style that will please fans of other Wall Street focused novels. I liked the strong, likable players in this interesting mix of money murder, intrigue, action, conspiracy, racketeering, along with romance. A fun, quick read. Recommended. I really appreciate the free advanced copy!