Debut author JOHN GAPPER might be new to fiction but he's a seasoned, award-winning journalist and co-author of a non-fiction book. I think you'll enjoy his guest blog!
John Gapper is chief business commentator and an associate editor of the Financial Times. He writes a weekly column on business and finance, focussing on the media and technology industries and innovation. He also writes editorial and features on a range of business topics.
He has written extensively on Wall Street and the financial crisis; the troubles of the US auto industry; the future of digital media and entertainment; innovation and venture capital; PR crises such as the BP oil spill; and software and open source.
John is based in the New York, where he helps to lead the FT's expansion in the US. He was formerly comment page editor of the FT, and was in charge of introducing and editing the paper’s award-winning op-ed page.
He was named best business columnist in the 2011 Comment Awards in the UK and gained best columnist awards in the 2011 and 2012 Society of American Business Editors and Writers awards. He has received the technology writer and best communicator prizes in the the UK Business Journalist of the Year awards.
In the US, he has been shortlisted as best commentator in the Gerald Loeb awards. He was named one of the 100 most influential men in Britain by GQ magazine in 2009.
John won an open scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford University, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to study at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Before the FT, he trained as a journalist with Mirror Group Newspapers, and worked on papers including the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph.
He is co-author with Nick Denton of All That Glitters, the definitive account of the collapse of Barings, and has written a novel, to be published by Random House in 2012. He makes appearances on television and radio, including on the BBC, CNBC and CNN and has written articles for publications including New York magazine.
John lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Rosie Dastgir, the writer and author of A Small Fortune (Penguin) and their two daughters.
Ben Cowper, an attending psychiatrist at the prestigious New York–Episcopal Hospital, is stunned to learn the identity of the emergency patient he’s just been assigned to treat: Harry Shapiro, a Wall Street colossus and one of Episcopal’s most prominent donors. But a high-profile reversal of fortune has left the once powerful investment banker jobless, bitter, and possibly desperate—judging by the handgun his wife finds him clutching.
In Ben’s expert opinion, Shapiro is a suicide waiting to happen. But when the headstrong financier balks at an extended stay in the hospital psych ward, Ben reluctantly releases him, bowing to political pressure from Episcopal’s chief administrator, who’s more concerned with the patient’s money than his mind.
Days later, the shocking news breaks: There’s been a shooting death in Harry Shapiro’s Hamptons mansion. But even more shocking is the identity of the victim. A tragedy sets in motion an explosive chain of events that turns Ben Cowper’s life upside-down.
As hard-nosed cops close in with harder questions, the hospital closes ranks to protect its own interests. But with colleagues freezing Ben out, innocent circumstances conspire to incriminate him. Hounded by a DA who’s out for blood, and haunted by the specter of a shattered career, Ben has no choice: He must delve into the hearts and minds of the people who know Harry best, uncover the secrets they’d rather die—or kill—to keep, and expose the truth behind a web of malice disguised as madness.
