Bad Connection

How does it feel being twenty-six and about to become a multimillionaire? In a city fueled by money lust, a powerful CEO and an ordinary working man come together by a twist of fate to go head-to-head in a heart-pounding scheme of greed and deadly corporate conspiracy. New York City telephone repairman Sean Macklin has a good enough life, but he wishes he could get his hands on some extra dough and move with his disabled wife to Florida. So when he inadvertently taps into a secret conversation between an investment banker and a dot-com entrepreneur, and before his conscience can tell him otherwise, he turns his insider information of an imminent merger into a tidy profit through day trading. As his penchant for subversive stock deals grows, so do the risks. But the day he taps into the line of a chemical company's CEO, a man with the power to order a clean merger -- at any cost -- Macklin's get-rich-quick plan starts to spiral desperately out of control. Hearing more than he should, he calls on his brother, NYPD officer Ray, for help. In a world where nothing is as it sounds, the Macklin brothers become the bait in a cutthroat game of blackmail, corruption, and violence. And Sean Macklin's dream of a better life becomes a fatal nightmare.... In the suspense-charged, noir tradition of Richard Price and Jim Thompson, Michael Ledwidge's electrifying thriller pulses with raw, urban energy. From Manhattan boardrooms to Bronx streets, Bad Connection traces the evil depths to which men will sink to protect their business interests.