Revealing the dealer’s secrets

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Sex and scandal: it's just life as usual in Paul Kilduff's new financial thriller, The Dealer. Kilduff's second novel is set in the City, amid a multi-billion-pound takeover of a bank that unearths a handful of characters related through a web of corruption.
The inner-workings of the City are familiar territory for Kilduff, who spent six years in London working for companies such as HSBC and Prudential before returning to his hometown of Dublin to work for Merrill Lynch, where he is a vice president in derivatives operations.
Kilduff differs from whistle-blowing financial writers like Michael Lewis who quit Salomon Brothers to write Liars' Poker and Frank Partnoy who wrote Fiasco about his time at Morgan Stanley stiffing derivatives buyers. Kilduff plans to keep his career in banking because of its security. However, he admits that he has signed a confidentiality agreement with Merrill Lynch. In his first book, The Square Mile, "certain colleagues recognized themselves", says Kilduff. He insists: "The second book is much more my imagination. I felt more competent to take risks on the plot."
Kilduff describes the book as "character-driven, with complicated lifestyles, characters leading double lives." Greg, the main character, is a highly successful American equities dealer. "Americans chosen to go out and work in Europe are the best of the best," says Kilduff, the loyal Merrill man. Greg is a composite character based on people Kilduff has met in the industry.

Even though Kilduff admits that "there is a bit of scandal out there in the big bad world", he says that the role of the banking industry in his fiction is just "a background to scandal, a place to waste, invest, and burn money."
Kilduff claims that the lifestyle he depicts - dinners at the poshest restaurants, frequent trips to St Lucia, Sarah, the dominatrix with the executive clientele - accurately describes the lifestyle of the City.
It also appeals to readers. "People I've talked to have described it as the 'Dallas' syndrome because they like to read about a more glossy lifestyle," says Kilduff.
There is plenty of soap opera appeal in The Dealer, as lust, greed and secrets run rampant. "There must be poetic justice though," says Kilduff. "The bad people pay and the good people come out okay in the end." Therein, perhaps, lies a distinction between fiction and reality.

No. 6: If you don’t give it to me you’ll only lend it to someone else and look where that got us

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Revealing the dealer’s secrets

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