Ridpath, Michael

(British, 1961– )

Ridpath was born in Devon, and educated at Oxford before becoming a bond trader on the London stock exchange. He has been a full-time writer since 1995. Begin with Free to Trade (1995), in which a young man in a high profile firm of stockbrokers penetrates a web of corruption after the death of a female colleague. In Trading Reality (1996) an advance in virtual reality technology threatens to put big firms out of business. Its discoverer is murdered and his stockbroker brother begins piecing together an explanation. A disillusioned academic turns to bond trading in The Marketmaker (1998). He comes up against the power of the one man who seems to control the entire South American market.

John Grisham, Ross Thomas  DH