You can trust a banker with your money.

Right? Even bankers start off believing that.

But at a certain time, the pressures of mak-

ing a gigantic killing erode the traditions of

trust and make a banker a cohort of the

papermoney hucksters with whom he has a

shady deal and a promise of a huge, quick

killing. That s when his ego gets involved,

and hc doesn t want to appear to be a hick,

years behind the last talk artists who are

cleaning up on Wall Street.

Howard Adler, the hero of Bruce

Ducker s cutting yet compassionate novel

has ncvcr given much thought to his own

vulnerability. But, as a laconic, somewhat

innicent loan officer at The Mission Trust,

he becomes involved in the totally bogus

scheme of Marry Laughlin, an invesunent

capitalist who is slowly raping the staid old

Mission Trust.

The tactics Laughlin uses are a casebook

study of how these things are done today in

banks and on Wall Street. Ducker s cxper-