The Takeover

All four were against him, and four were all it took. A bogus hunting trip on a sweet windy range of a Texas ranch was used to get the gang together and, as they sat around the campfire, the jaws of the trip snapped shut. Fifty-two year old Jed Basco, president of Basco and Western, was fired. The reason? Trumped up charges and phony losses according to Jed, or, according to the board's quorum, the boss was a contemptible old coot and the under-forty crowd wanted him out. Jed Basco doesn't take it lying down. Oh no. He has to get the company back. All he has worked for has been taken over, so he calls in favors of an old school pal who is now a Supreme Court judge, secures the necessary shareholder votes of his ex-wife and children, tries to recapture his youth by getting involved with the folk-singer daughter of an old girlfriend, and even borrows money from the mob. When all is said and done, he has taken over too, damn right.

A fast paced drama about the corporate world where billions are at stake, honesty and integrity are reserved for sourpusses and party poopers, and, if one builds too many sand traps, long vacations or new careers on foreign soil are best planned in advance.


Genre: Mystery

"As up to date as this morning's headline news. A fast-paced, spellbinding story, Niven Busch's finest book so far." - Arthur Hailey