Ken Follett - Paper Money

Table of Contents

It would make a powerful government official risk his reputation--and career--in one unforgettable night.... It would set the stock market spinning in a bold move to take over a giant corporation.... And it was worth any gamble for a corporate raider who used illicit information as his tool--and deadly violence as his weapon....

Paper Money

An explosive novel of high finance and underworld villainy from Ken Follett, the grand master of international action and suspense.

PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF KEN FOLLETT

JACKDAWS

"[A] celebration of uncommon courage and unlikely heroes."

-- People

"Great entertainment."

-- The Baltimore Sun

CODE TO ZERO

"Gripping."

-- The New York Times

"This spy thriller is Follett at his best."

-- People

THE HAMMER OF EDEN

" Hammer will nail readers to their seats."

-- People

"Follett ratchets up the Richter scale of suspense."

-- USA Today

THE THIRD TWIN

"Follett really knows how to tell a story."

-- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"His scenes whip along. And his ending is absolutely smashing."

-- The Virginian-Pilot

A PLACE CALLED FREEDOM

"An altogether entertaining reading experience."

-- Minneapolis Star Tribune

A DANGEROUS FORTUNE

"A terrific page-turner. Careening thrills... telling historical detail... genuine surprises."

-- Los Angeles Times

"Relentlessly suspenseful."

-- The New York Times

NIGHT OVER WATER

"An excruciatingly taut drama on the aerial equivalent of the Orient Express... thoroughly satisfying... his best since Eye of the Needle ."

-- Publishers Weekly

THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH

"An extraordinary epic buttressed by suspense... a monumental masterpiece... a towering triumph from a major talent."

-- Booklist

"A seesaw of tension... a novel that entertains, instructs, and satisfies on a grand scale."

-- Publishers Weekly

LIE DOWN WITH LIONS

"Sheer suspense."

-- The Washington Post

"Vintage Follett.... This is his most ambitious novel and it succeeds admirably.... Tense, vivid, exciting... satisfies on deep levels."

-- USA Today

ON WINGS OF EAGLES

"Absolutely electric with suspense."

-- San Francisco Chronicle

"A marvelous, rare, terrific read... A superb edge-of-the-seat true story that is as exciting as a novel."

-- USA Today

THE MAN FROM ST. PETERSBURG

"Ken Follett has done it once more... goes down with the ease and impact of a well-prepared martini."

-- The New York Times Book Review

THE KEY TO REBECCA

"A topflight adventure thriller... violence, intrigue, and exotic passions... a vivid page-turner."

-- The Washington Post

"The most exciting novel in years."

-- The Cincinnati Enquirer

TRIPLE

"One of the liveliest thrillers of the year.... Follett is a master of crafty plot and incredible detail... a sizzling narrative."

-- Time

EYE OF THE NEEDLE

"Really thrilling."

-- The New York Times Book Review

ALSO BY KEN FOLLETT

The Modigliani Scandal
Paper Money
Eye of the Needle
Triple
The Key to Rebecca
The Man from St. Petersburg
On Wings of Eagles
Lie Down with Lions
The Pillars of the Earth
Night over Water
A Dangerous Fortune
A Place Called Freedom
The Third Twin
The Hammer of Eden
Code to Zero
Jackdaws

SIGNET
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand,
London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road,
Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads,
Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Published by arrangement with the author.

First Signet Printing, October 1987

Copyright (c) Zachary Stone, 1977

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK--MARCA REGISTRADA

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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eISBN : 978-1-101-04385-1

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INTRODUCTION

This book was written in 1976, immediately before Eye of the Needle, and I think it is the best of my unsuccessful books. It was published under the pseudonym Zachary Stone, as was The Modigliani Scandal, because the books are similar: they lack a central character, but feature several groups of characters whose stories are linked and share a common climax.

In Paper Money the links are less fortuitous, for the book is supposed to show how crime, high finance, and journalism are corruptly interconnected. The ending is rather somber by comparison with The Modigliani Scandal --in fact it is almost a tragedy. However, it is the differences and similarities between Paper Money and Eye of the Needle that are most instructive. (Readers who want the cake, not the recipe, should skip this and go straight to chapter 1.) The plot of Paper Money is the cleverest I have ever devised, and the small sales of the book convinced me that clever plots satisfy authors more than readers. The plot of Eye of the Needle is of course very simple--in fact it can be written down in three paragraphs, as indeed I did write it when I first thought of it. Eye of the Needle has only three or four main characters whereas Paper Money has a dozen or so. Yet with its complex plot and large cast, Paper Money is only half the length of Eye of the Needle. As a writer I have always had to struggle against a tendency to underwrite, and in Paper Money you see me struggling in vain. Consequently the many characters are painted in brisk, bold brushstrokes, and the book lacks the feeling of detailed personal involvement with the private lives of the characters that readers demand of a bestseller.

One of the strengths of the book is its form. The action takes place during a single day in the life of a London evening newspaper (I worked for such a newspaper in 1973 and 1974), and each chapter chronicles one hour of that day in three or four scenes describing both what happens at the news desk and what happens in the stories the paper is covering (or missing). Eye of the Needle has an even more rigid structure, although nobody to my knowledge has ever noticed it: there are six parts, each with six chapters (except for the last part, which has seven), the first chapter in each part dealing with the spy, the second with the spy catchers, and so on until the sixth, which always tells of the international military consequences of what has gone before. Readers do not notice such things--and why should they?--but still I suspect that regularity, and even symmetry, contribute to what they perceive as a well-told story.