Let’s just get it out of the way. Cristina Alger has the pedigree to write "The Darlings" (Pamela Dorman Books, $26.95), a novel about a family at the summit of Manhattan's social/financial hierarchy caught up in a scandal of Madoff proportions. Alger is a former Goldman Sachs analyst whose father was a prominent financier. One of her closest friends from childhood is Tom Wolfe's daughter, and no one sniped at him for putting his insider knowledge to use.
The year is 2008, and the carnage on Wall Street is underway. Paul, whose powerhouse Wall Street firm went under in a barrage of indictments, finds work as general counsel with his billionaire father-in-law's seemingly scandal-proof hedge fund. He knows better, believing "the only way to be part of a family as powerful as the Darlings is never to take anything from them." But being the unemployed, and possibly unemployable, son-in-law is an even less attractive option.
Paul's wife Merrill is as earnestly worthy as he is but in thrall to her father, Carter, whose wife is the steely dominatrix of society, lashing outliers with an icy glare. Pride, derived from position, comes before the fall in "The Darlings," and the nuances of old money are spelled out. Nantucket red is the novel's theme color.
The hedge funds' phenomenal returns are generated by one man only, a reclusive money maker who, it is revealed, has been running a Ponzi scheme. The scandal strips the Darlings of both their standing and fortune. Carter retreats with a corrupt attorney to plot his way clear of the most punishing consequences. Paul has to choose between the family and his conscience.
Well, we all kind of know how this going to turn out. Nevertheless, there's legitimate tension in "The Darlings," as family loyalty crosses swords with the law. And while the demise of the Darlings is hardly tragic, Alger reaches beyond the obvious morality tale to portray their loss with feeling.
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