Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe

Tett's complex and well-written narrative of J.P. Morgan's role in the financial meltdown lends itself awkwardly to the audio format, in part because general readers who are not specialists in the workings of financial derivatives will find themselves lost in a sea of acronyms and specialized terminology without the useful glossary at the back of the print book. Stephen Hoye's talents don't shine here, with an on-again/off-again British accent for one of the key players and a plodding delivery of some portions of the labyrinthine story. An abridgment could have helped to retain listener interest without becoming ensnared in intricately detailed descriptions of events; such descriptions were the lifeblood of Tett's sophisticated print book, but they slow the audio version significantly. A Free Press hardcover (Reviews, June 8). (Aug.)