Working on Wall Street is not for the faint of heart, but for a writer, the cutthroat nature of the business provides the perfect setting for murder. The traders are extremely intense individuals, basically a breed unto themselves. They often resort to bullying if they don’t hear what they want, and have no qualms about publicly chewing someone up and spitting them out with a string of obscenities hurled in the process. There’s a good reason most are under the age of forty. Like fireworks, they flash bright and burn hot, but then fizzle.

Back in the eighties, when I was a young research analyst, their idea of a fun birthday celebration sometimes included a stripper performing on the trading floor. As a woman, I didn’t exactly appreciate their choice of entertainment. That said, Wall Street is one of the few places I’ve found that’s a true meritocracy. No fancy pie charts or schmoozing the idiot boss. Your worth is measured in dollars—how much you contribute to the company’s bottom line. It’s merciless. You either add value and are paid a huge bonus in return or you’re shown the exit door. End of story.

It’s the type of place where anyone can start anywhere and end up at the top. Take Donna, one of the characters in my novel. She’s based upon someone I worked with in real life. Never without a cigarette in hand and generally enough makeup to be performing in a Broadway musical, her clothes appeared to have been purchased from the ultra-final clearance sale rack, the ones that absolutely no one else was willing to buy. She would never have been hired at a regular Fortune 500 company or promoted in a department where customers occasionally visited and polished appearances were important. But on the rough and tumble of the trading floor, she was a highly paid and well-respected analyst because she was good at what she did.

The same is true of Anne Scott, the protagonist in my novels. She’s a blend of women I worked with over the years: smart, tenacious, and determined to succeed. As a research analyst, she spends her day gathering information about bonds the traders want to buy and sell. She has to make sure they know more than their competitors do. So, she’s really good at asking questions and noticing when something is off, which is how she stumbles upon an illicit money-making scheme that ultimately leads to murder. It’s a case of Murder Over Broken Bonds (aka the first book in my series), loosely based on a fraud I investigated when I worked at Lehman Brothers, except in real life, no one actually died.

You might think that investigating (and ultimately solving) one murder would be more than enough for this plucky, thirty-something heroine. But as luck would have it, she attends a lavish wedding in the Hamptons, hosted by her future in-laws, where the CEO of a Fortune 500 company is murdered. Shortly before the man’s death, he blames her publicly for causing the share price of his company to plummet. Browbeating. Threatening. These sorts of tactics are commonplace in the financial world she inhabits. What isn’t normal is for a high-powered businessman to turn up dead, just feet away from where hundreds of guests are happily partying. In the end, his untimely demise is a direct result of him Not Accounting for Murder (aka the title of the second book in my series) when he made the fateful decision to monkey with the ledgers and pocket the returns.

I’m in the midst of writing the third book of the series. This story takes the reader out of New York City to the Rocky Mountains where a huge gold deposit has been found. Investors provide capital to get a mining operation up and running and Anne’s firm provides some of the initial funding. When she starts digging into the details, she finds inconsistencies. Then fraud. And of course, murder. Because after all, a lucrative goldfield provides A Golden Opportunity for Murder.

By now, you probably see that a single theme runs through my Wall Street Mystery series: greed can drive people to murder. Yet, just like a car wreck, you can’t stop looking. It’s too great of a chance to get a close-up view of the dealmakers who reside in the world of the one percent. Pick up a copy and see for yourself.

Rebecca Saltzer’s mysteries:

Murder Over Broken Bonds – Back Cover Copy

Anne Scott always knew that working on Wall Street wasn’t for the faint of heart, but she never expected to see a senior investment banker storm out of a meeting and then turn up dead in his office a few minutes later. As she unravels the man’s financial shenanigans, she encounters a web of by shady partners, colleagues who would do almost anything to climb the corporate ladder, and a well-endowed secretary with whom he was having an affair—all had secrets and any might have wanted him dead. With senior management breathing down her neck, she edges closer to the truth. And the killer. But will she become too much of a liability?

Not Accounting for Murder – Back Cover Copy

 Fraud. Deceit. All cloaked in clever financial wizardry.

Anne Scott is a rising star on Wall Street who navigates the ever-changing seas of finance with deft precision. But in the high society inhabited by her boyfriend’s family, she feels like a fish out of water. These two worlds collide when she dumps the stock of a highly regarded company and its CEO blames her for causing the share price to plummet. At a lavish wedding in the Hamptons, he chews her out in front of the well-heeled guests, mortifying her boyfriend’s parents who become even more certain she’s not good enough for their son. Things go from bad to worse when the happy newlyweds depart for their honeymoon and the bride trips over the CEO’s lifeless body. With Anne’s boss questioning her judgement and her future in-laws expressing doubt about her suitability at every turn, she must thread her way through a complicated game of financial and social deception. She is sharp and skillful, systematically exposing the lies.

 But has she failed to account for murder?

Her Biography:  Rebecca Saltzer worked as a bond analyst on the trading floor at Lehman Brothers in New York City in the financial heyday of the eighties. Like the protagonist in her novel, she sometimes encountered fraud and other questionable business practices, except in real life, none of it led to murder. In 2021, Rebecca received the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant for unpublished writers. When she’s not writing, she enjoys hiking with her two rescue dogs and exploring the great outdoors.

Rebecca’s Website: www.saltzerbooks.com

Book Purchase Links for Amazon and Barnes and Noble

 Not Accounting for Murder   Amazon                Barnes and Noble

ISBN 978-1-68512-676-6 (pb)       ISBN 978-1-68512-677-3 (eb)

Murder Over Broken Bonds      Amazon            Barnes and Noble

ISBN 978-1-68512-291-1 (pb)     ISBN 978-1-68512-292-8 (eb)