Declan Collins is a man who is never satisfied with status quo. He is a high priced and ambitious criminal defense lawyer who seeks to prove to everyone around him about why he will be the best in everything be it shooting guns, complex schemes or even writing a screenplay about a hypothetical situation that involves money laundering scheme which gained interest of Blackpool Studios, an obscure film company. However, when he and his friend/agent, Matt Esposito are invited to Mexico to discuss the screenplay further, little do the two men know that a local mafia will be after them, and that it will take all of Declan Collins' ingenue to outwit them plus USA law enforcers and also help rescue Matt Esposito's sister who has become caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to know whom to trust. Can Declan Collins succeed in his goals and ambitions or will he drag himself and others deep into the quagmire of death and debt?
PHANTOM MONEY by S. Alexander O'Keefe is definitely a novel for the niche readers and writers that find finance thrillers to be fascinating as well as the backdealing and scheming Declan Collins has to tiptoe when it comes to law that he knows and to bend rules just enough to rescue his friend's sister. Despite the lengthy explanations about how debt and money laundering schemes work, I admit that a lot of it went over my head, although I still found the tale enjoyable and couldn't wait to see how Declan Collins would get out of these predicaments as well as seeing the dark and shady parts of the world of being a high priced lawyer.
For readers that are seeking old fashioned thrillers that involve government, life and death decisions as well as the role of finances, then look no further than PHANTOM MONEY by S. Alexander O'Keefe, which is guaranteed to make one's head spin and to make one root for Declan Collins and his entourage.
Declan Collins, the brilliant criminal defense lawyer at the center of Phantom Money, is the author of a screenplay woven around an ingenious money laundering scheme. The script is nothing more than an artistic dalliance for the busy lawyer until Matt Esposito, Collins’s best friend, gives it to Blackpool Studios—an obscure film company with an outsized acquisition budget. A week later, Collins and Esposito are on a private jet to Mexico. They’re supposed to be meeting with an investor who is interested in making the screenplay into a movie. In fact, the meeting is with Ramon Cayetano, the head of a powerful Mexican drug cartel.
Collins and Esposito are about to enter a world of intrigue, violence, and mortal danger. To survive, they will need to secretly launder a mountain of money in an impossibly short time, deceive an FBI strike team, and outwit a drug lord whose minions are watching their every move.
Phantom Money is a high-intensity thriller with an intricate plot, a fascinating cast of characters, and an explosive climax that will leave readers spellbound from start to finish.