Bottom Line

British writer Harman ( Money for Nothing ) treads familiar ground with pedestrian results in this novel about big business run amok. Beautiful American businesswoman Madeleine Weybourne has survived two lecherous bosses en route to the top of the U.S. banking world. An ocean away, ruthless Richard Hoecheck has become the head of Manney-Rowpit, one of England's grandest multinationals. Hoecheck and his minions pursue shareholder value through such dirty tricks as insider trading, corporate espionage, blackmail and murder. When Madeleine joins the firm, she and another new employee, PR expert Tony Oldbridge, find exhilaration in the company's frenetic, results-oriented pace, and in each other, as they begin a torrid affair. But disillusionment with the firm soon sets in, and the couple determine to expose the criminal activities of their rapacious chief. After the go-go 1980s, a novel set on the cusp of the acquisitions boom seems quaint rather than cutting. Harman's predictable narrative is further diminished by stock characterizations and by his cloying sense of wonder at the evil deeds men do to burnish the bottom line. (Nov.)