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The Umbrella Men - Book Tour and Giveaway

4/4/2019

42 Comments

 
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The Umbrella Men
by Keith Carter
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

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A witty and acerbic novel for our times about corporate greed, the hubris of bankers, contradictions of the clean energy economy and their unintended consequences on everyday people.
Finance, environmentalism, rare-earth mining and human frailties collide in a complex of flawed motives. We follow Peter Mount, the self-made Chief Executive of a London-based rare-earth mining company as he and his business are buffeted by crisis-torn Royal Bank of Scotland and by his own actions, real and imagined. Meanwhile in Oregon, Amy Tate and her group of local environmental activists do their contradictory part to undermine a component of the green economy, unwittingly super-charged by the Chinese state. The repercussions of events in pristine Oregon are felt in the corporate and financial corridors of New York and London with drastic consequences. This is a deeply involving novel about the current workings of capitalism, miscommunication, causes and unexpected effects, love and survival.


Goodreads * Amazon

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​Jolene’s Apartment, Mount Hood, Oregon, August 2008


Jolene heard them on the stairs, stamping their nasty booted feet as they laboured up, foreclosure papers in hand. She knew they would come, these heavy, mean men, red-faced and breathless from the three flights to her front door. She had received enough threatening letters, horrid impersonal things signed by a computer, warning her of the consequences if she remained in default, calling her “delinquent”. She had looked it up. She was not a delinquent, she wanted to pay, but how could she when the bank was asking for $1,100 a month and her gross take-home pay, even in a good month when tips were plentiful, amounted to less than $1,300? She wanted to pay, she wanted to keep her apartment, her furniture, her independent life. Her dream.

She had tried calling Brad, but he never answered his cellphone and the woman at the number on his card seemed unable to decide whether Brad had been promoted out of the area or Millennium had gone out of business. Or both. Jolene had always known, deep down, that as soon as her mortgage was arranged Brad would be back out of her life again, and so it had been. She had always known, but still it was another disappointment added to the accumulating catalogue of disappointments that weighed down her spirit and subtracted from her previously sunny disposition. She sadly concluded that Brad saw her only as a piece of business like any other. Stupid of her to dream anything else. Stupid.

But she remembered his reassuring words in answer to her worries about what would happen once the two-year “introductory period” was over. He was so convincing, so clever. He always had been. Surely he would not let her down, he would help her now that they were threatening to come to her apartment and evict her, warning her she should not attempt to detach any fixtures or fitments, “properly the property of the mortgagee”? She looked that up too. It was the bank, although she did not recognise its name at the head of the threatening letter. Did they mean that she could not unscrew the scales from the kitchen wall? Her mom had given her those as a housewarming present, visiting soon after she moved in, her dad proudly closing the front door with a flourish saying, “Who would have thought it, our little Jolene, a place of her own! Man, ya gotta love America.”

Brad did let her down though. He was gone. He had sold his house, fearfully cashing in when prices looked like they were softening. Unlike Jolene, Brad got out at a nice profit, before his own mortgage exceeded the declining value of the house. As the red-faced, heavy, out-of-breath men with their foreclosure papers were banging angrily on Jolene’s Oregon door, Brad was sitting on his father-in-law’s sunlit Florida porch drinking beer and telling his teenaged brother-in-law how he had become a dollar millionaire before he was 30, had made the most of it whilst the party lasted.

Jolene had been sold a dream and it was beyond her means. She was not a delinquent, she wanted to pay. But she couldn’t. Not in money. She paid in shame, in bitter tears, in sleepless nights. She paid in stress, in worry. She paid a heavy price but it was not enough for them. The mean, meaty red-faced men evicted her.

Her failed mortgage joined the stream down the river network to the reservoirs of Wall Street, where her delinquency mingled with thousands more, apparently surprising all sorts of people even cleverer than Brad.


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Keith Iain Carter was born in Scotland in March 1959, second son of Marian van Westendorp and Ralph Carter. He attended a variety of bog standard state schools in northern England and in 1978 went up to Cambridge to read Economics, taking a First in 1981 when he was elected a Scholar – too late to enjoy the privilege of walking on the grass.

Other than corporate annual reports, he has not previously been published, unless you count a letter printed in Business Week deploring the widespread use of the word ‘wannabe’ and this quote in Investors Chronicle: “I used to be a banker, then I went straight”.

As an investment banker Keith worked for three now-disgraced institutions - he denies that any causation is associated with this correlation - Lloyds, Drexel Burnham Lambert and NatWest (RBS). A corporate financier, he ended up by specialising in pharmaceuticals and, in 1998, was part of a team acquiring a small vaccine business from GSK. As CEO he took the company public in 2004. Since 2010 Keith has worked as a business consultant to healthcare companies and as a writer, which he prefers.

Keith lives in London, Yorkshire and aboard a boat currently in Greece. He is a French-speaking Europhile who also loves America, travel, politics and economics, reading and writing, music, sailing of all kinds and food and drink.


Website * Twitter * Amazon * Goodreads ​

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42 Comments
Bea LaRocca
4/4/2019 03:21:59 am

A well-written and intriguing synopsis and excerpt. I am looking forward to reading this book.

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James Robert
4/4/2019 04:11:53 am

Thank you for sharing your book with us. I always look forward to finding out about another great read.

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Janet W.
4/4/2019 07:33:43 am

I cannot wait to read this. What a unique cover!

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Kelly D
4/4/2019 10:52:22 am

I like the cover, it is a work of art.

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Rita Wray
4/4/2019 11:58:52 am

Sounds like a good read.

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Calvin
4/4/2019 12:14:37 pm

Cover design makes me smile for some reason, delightful

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Wendy Jensen
4/4/2019 01:05:45 pm

This sounds like a very interesting book.

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Debbie P
4/4/2019 02:50:46 pm

This book sounds like a great read and it is now on top of my TBR list.

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Keith Carter link
4/4/2019 02:58:39 pm

Gosh, I hope what's inside the book is as pleasing to you as the cover!

Feel free to message me with questions or comments as you read The Umbrella Men. And thank you for doing so; happy reading!

Keith

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Kelly Nicholson
4/4/2019 03:42:36 pm

What do you think of the book or the cover?

well..i like the song umbrella man by the tv bird group

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heather
4/4/2019 03:49:19 pm

I am so loving the cover of this one and it sounds like my kind of read. Good luck on the tour.

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heather
4/4/2019 03:50:54 pm

I follow silver dagger book tours on twitter as @myway070

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wendy hutton
4/4/2019 04:46:39 pm

love how you use an umbrella in the cover, very unique

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Marcy Meyer
4/4/2019 06:41:13 pm

I like the cover. It looks very unique and interesting.

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Victoria
4/4/2019 08:37:34 pm

Cool cover, thanks for sharing :)

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Dale Wilken
4/4/2019 11:47:54 pm

The excerpt was great.

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Beyond Comps
4/5/2019 04:53:59 am

Great looking cover!

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Amy F
4/5/2019 08:08:30 am

Fascinating cover design and excerpt!

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Barbara Montag
4/5/2019 10:43:33 am

The Umbrella Men - that sure sounds interesting.
And I like the cover.
thank you

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Lavender P.
4/6/2019 06:18:41 am

I started university in 2008, fresh with the idea that a degree could get you places. Then the 2008 economic crash happened. I saw images on tv of people living in tents. Houses abandoned still with remnants of families that once lived there. Now you see the trend of "minimalism" and "tiny houses", but that only came about because we are poorer than the earlier generations who made do without a college education. Wages have stagnated whilst the CEO's have profited and exploited in every way they can. I truly feel for Jolene. And Brad deserves a smack in the face with a digging spade and shovelled over the edge of a cliff.

I am not a violent person, just one with a creative imagination.

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Keith Carter
4/7/2019 05:39:16 am

Hi Lavender
The crash (a.k.a. the Bankers' Crisis) had many long-term consequences including the ones you mentioned. You could argue that the current chaos in politics across the Western World is due to the Bankers' Crisis.
I'm glad the excerpt incited in you, as a non-violent person, so imaginative a participation with the characters in the book. I hope you read the whole thing and find many more opportunities to share the emotions!
Keith

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Ann Fantom
4/6/2019 08:15:38 am

I love the cover. It is very creative!

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bn100
4/6/2019 11:58:24 am

nice cover

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Terri Quick
4/6/2019 09:33:51 pm

Thanks for this giveaway

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Mary Cloud
4/6/2019 09:57:08 pm

No questions - the cover is interesting

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Denise Higgins
4/9/2019 05:36:50 am

Love the cover

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Robin Abrams
4/9/2019 12:30:59 pm

The cover is interesting

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Jessie Redding
4/9/2019 08:55:28 pm

I think the cover's cute and fitting!

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lynn clayton
4/9/2019 10:16:02 pm

love the cover looks like a great read

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Lisa Ellison
4/10/2019 05:29:45 pm

I like the cover, it caught your attention

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Daniella Bonagura
4/11/2019 05:33:54 pm

Interesting book

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Devon Pickford
4/11/2019 07:26:10 pm

I enjoy the writing style

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Abigail Gibson
4/13/2019 01:40:21 am

The cover looks amazing!

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Mood Reader
4/14/2019 06:59:37 pm

Sounds like a good read. Thanks for the excerpt. Love the cover! :)

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Jason Cullum
4/17/2019 11:32:14 pm

Definitely an intriguing cover!

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Kathy Cozzarelli
4/22/2019 08:38:18 pm

The cover is cool. The story sounds interesting.

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Heather
4/25/2019 12:50:16 pm

The story sounds good.

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Angela Saver
4/25/2019 11:03:33 pm

I enjoyed the excerpt and learning about this author!

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tiago rosado
5/2/2019 06:02:40 pm

What do you think of the book or the cover?
its pretty original and cool,i like it
THX

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Daniel M
5/3/2019 04:16:07 pm

like the cover

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Bridgett Wilbur
5/4/2019 11:29:14 am

I would love to read your book.

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Jerry Marquardt
5/4/2019 11:32:17 pm

I would like to give thanks for all your really great writings, including The Umbrella Men, and wishing the best in keeping up the good work in the future.

Reply



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