The regular cast of characters from the Sloan Guaranty Trust is less central to the action of this novel than in earlier Lathen works. Everett Gabler and Charlie Trinkham, Thatcher's able assistants, serve here largely as a chorus, commenting on the action whenever they drop by Thatcher's office.

Even Miss Corsa, Thatcher's invaluable secretary, is all but invisible here, only once confining Thatcher to his desk and his Sloan duties. Tom Robichaux appears again, this time representing ASI in the merger and providing much opportunity for comedy; when he learns, for example, that Alan Frayne has stayed in the family firm for fifteen years, even though divorced from the Eckers' daughter, Robichaux, who has been married so frequently that he goes through "in-laws like boxes of Kleenex . . . regarded Alan Frayne's tenure in the Ecker family as a record-breaker."

Following the pattern of several of the earlier books, Thatcher...