The Informant: A True Story (Kurt Eichenwald)

I'm not one to read these sort of books, but I have to say that this book is incredible. Once the story takes off, you can't put it down. The author has done a great book laying out so much information & exposition in such a way it's very easy for the reader to digest. I only discovered the book due to the up and coming movie and was a little skeptical that the book might be a boring court room style story, but I was gravely mistaken.

One of a series of fantastic books by Kurt Eichenwald.Any of his books are a must read for both the entertainment and the business value. The story of both the ADM price fixing scandal, as well as a deeply personal story of Mark Whitacre and his demons. The writing style is very approachable, and the story like is fast paced and reads like a Grisham novel. For the business value, there is alway the not so subtle reminder that things are not always as they seem, and as a reminder that fraud can happen at any time. I put The Informant at the top of the heap as far as non-fiction business thrillers - if that is even a literary category.

This book was both a page-turner and en eye-opener. It was incredible to read how much money these corporate leaders stole from their shareholders, how easily they did it and how long they concealed it. While this subterfuge likely goes on in major corporations much more than we "little people" know, it was sad to realize how completely personal greed had replaced the Golden Rule for so many, both in America and abroad. Eichenwald is an excellent and engaging writer and captured this reader's interest from the first page and never let go.

One reads repeatedly that this work of non-fiction reads more like a novel. Unfortunately, it is an assembled like a novel, but written like a script. As a prolific reader of NON-fiction, I find it feels a bit too much like Grisham. In this, the author may have taken a trait from his main character. As a financial professional, especially as one involved in the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) profession, I found the final creshendo of apparently true-to-life plot components laughably parochial. The only shock to those readers from the financial industry will be that the main character and others fell for such rediculous scams as the Nigerian email scam. In fact, according to this thesis, one could argue that the Nigerian email scam nearly brought down a Fortune 500 company, or at least that it cost ADM the [...] pilfered from its coffers by their sucker employees who fell for the scam. The early 90's were a different time in the anit-fraud and AML industries. Still, characters ... Read more

Wow. If this book were a novel, I think it might be dismissed as implausible. Yet sadly, the account of the meteoric rise and staggering demise of an executive at one of America's largest companies is all too true. The twists and turns are incredible! Very, very well written and painstakingly researched. If you are looking for a book for a hard to please fan of whodunits or suspense fiction, this will serve you well. I wish there were more than five stars!