Fat Cats on Thin Ice

Every day thousands of small businesses fail and peoples lives change forever. Statistics that don't make the morning's news. After all, who is interested in the fate of a few small businesses? But behind the statistics lies another story. Its the story of those who don't do but advise. Those who feed off the fortunes of those who design, make or sell things. In his new novel Harry Moore removes the lid off the professional sector, banks and government business support agencies. This is not the ‘ivory tower’ world of high finance in the city but the story of what is happening at grass roots level. It is a world where to be a qualified accountant carries more weight, and a far bigger pay packet, than to be a designer, an engineer or a manufacturer. In his story, based on personal experiences, he shows how many banks, lawyers, accountants, work together in a world that feeds off those who create the wealth; those who do things and convert raw materials into products and turn ideas into reality. He shows how EU and UK Government funding schemes designed to help small businesses are used to create self-perpetuating quangos that manage the funds. The story starts dramatically with the suicide of a businessman. He has a connection with the remainder of the story which not apparent until the end of the novel. It then centres around Gerard, an upcoming professional in the world of financial reconstruction, and the professionals that surround him. Gerard is ruthless. He and the other professionals in the story are driven by the quest for fees as they surround a struggling business and its directors, who are desperately looking for help to keep their business alive. Gerard meets an adversary - Tony - who is trying to turn the business around and the two do battle in the boardroom. However Gerard is not aware of Tony's other agenda until a secret is revealed. Gerard’s wife is also an accountant but she has her secrets which unfold as the story progresses.