Author: JB GATES

Publisher: Synergy Books

ISBN 0-9755922-0-3

The following review was contributed by: SHELDON (SHELLY) WAXMAN & click to view Shelly's reviews

This book starts out on a very good note. We know that the story is going to take us into the soul of a corporation and high-level corporate life. We soon realize that we are going to learn about the dark side of the corporate world, as the principals of Magnetize Corporation are locked in a battle for control.

The husband and wife duo—John and Betsy Gates—combined to form JB Gates, have the credentials. John was a high placed executive of Sunbeam Corporation when it was taken over by Al “Chainsaw” Dunlop. Sunbeam had been an old, staid, and long-standing successful corporation, making kitchen equipment. Chainsaw proceeded to destroy the company. 

But what starts out with the expectation that we will learn a lot about the corporate world bogs down near the middle. The good writing and story line in the beginning of the book starts appearing stilted in language with too many story elements, too many characters, and too much talk (one monologue is a full page without a paragraph).

The founder of the Magnetize dies and the Board names his derelict son as the new Chairman. The son—a real no-goodnik—hires another no-goodnik as the CEO. The two then consort to rape the corporation and increase the size of their offshore accounts too the detriment of the corporation. 

Two other executives are highly annoyed by the takeover, which they thought they deserved. The two powers compete and, inevitably, there is murder in the wings. The good guy is a mid-level executive moral guy who although he wants to climb the ladder doesn’t want to do so wrestling in the mud. He fights the evil on both sides and is eventually successful—transferring to the life of a rancher on a spread nestled beside the mountains.

There is a surprise at the end and I won’t give it away. We already know how the murders occur twenty pages before the end. But the surprise comes when we learn how the killings actually happened. 

There are many absurd parts to the tangled plot, such as the purported killers confessing on a TV talk show. Also, it seems that the CEO is hired without any checking into his past or significant vetting. Therefore, the fact that he is a psycho with an extensive criminal record, who is on a five hundred thousand dollar bond awaiting trial for manslaughter and who was fired from his previous job under suspicious circumstances, goes unnoticed until much later after he was hired. This could never happen.

On more mundane matters, the tight binding of the book, which made it difficult to keep open, annoyed me. Also, the title makes little sense and is not at all descriptive of the story. 

Still, although it requires concentration, the book is a good first novel and worth the read.