The Street

Gruenfeld's latest thriller (after The Expert) reads like weak Grisham: good old boys slaving away, trying to nail millionaires who are ripping off the American public. Only now it's the Information Age, and the good guys are chewing nicotine gum instead of smoking cigarettes, and their enemies aren't old school financial corporations, but startups with no tangible products. Despite lengthy legal and financial descriptions, the story is relatively simple: James Hanley has started a company (Artemis-5.com) and attracts some of the nation's most influential investors to sign on to his endeavor. Anticipation builds, and although the investors don't really know what it is they've bought into, the company's launch is one of the most talked about in Internet history mainly because of the high-profile names and the secrecy surrounding it. SEC enforcement officer Jubal Thurgren smells a rat, though, and the bulk of the book plays out the high-stakes investigation Thurgren mounts in an attempt to nab Hanley, who seems to know the SEC's charges aren't unfounded yet insists on dodging rules. Gruenfeld offers some classic thriller sequences, with car chases and shootings, but most of the pages are taken up by windy conversations. His reportorial style is heavy on phrases like ""prospective competitive reflex,"" although he gives understandable definitions of terms such as ""IPO"" for those who don't read the Industry Standard. This commentary on the crazed world of new technology lacks originality, but will interest those who read market charts the way others read sports scores. (Mar.) Forecast: What an odd collection of blurbs decorate the dust jacket of this book. There are raves from Nelson DeMille, Stephen Frey and Christopher Reich, but also from profs at Harvard Business School and a law school, and one from an investment banker. The financial crowd is Gruenfeld's obvious market, and they'll make the book a hit, but more generic thriller readers won't flock to this title.