Hostile Target

Stuart Wilson thinks hes seen it all in the high-stakes world of corporate mergers and acquisitions. As general counsel for a notorious Phoenix Arizona-based corporate raider he has more money than he can spend and after a nasty but successful hostile takeover of a large industrial company things are just about as good as they get for him professionally. Of course his personal life is a mess but his job doesnt leave him time for that anyway. All of this begins to change when Wilsons employer chooses a financial holding company based in Geneva Switzerland as its next target. The target turns out to be a front for a vicious politically influential international criminal cartel and the unsolicited bid and the scrutiny it could attract if rejected threaten to expose its operations. Its chairman moves quickly to crush the would-be acquirers sparing none of the vast resources and influence at his disposal to defeat the threat trusting that the connection to his enterprise will be forgotten in the spectacular diversion of the American companys collapse. Stuart finds himself engulfed in the resulting firestorm of regulatory and media pressure fighting a bewildering onslaught of accusations the focus of a deadly new game he does not comprehend. His fight to save himself and his way of life takes him across the United States and to Switzerland where he must defeat his enemies on their own terms and turf. Liz Rice a beautiful young attorney believes in Stuart and together they learn that real happiness doesnt necessarily come from the things we count as most precious.