Shell Game: Inspired by Actual Events

＂Banking has never seemed so dirty as it does in SHELL GAME, the pulse-pounding new thriller from Joseph Badal. The author brings a lifetime of business experience to this tale, which shows how banking regulations can ruin lives and how a villain can manipulate such rules for his own gain. Don’t miss it!＂
-Steve Brewer, author of ＂LOST VEGAS＂

SHELL GAME is a financial thriller using the economic environment created by the capital markets meltdown that began in 2007 as the backdrop for a timely, dramatic, and hair-raising tale. Joseph Badal weaves an intricate and realistic story about how a family and its business are put into jeopardy through heavy-handed, arbitrary rules set down by federal banking regulators, and by the actions of a sociopath in league with a corrupt bank regulator.

Like all of Badal’s novels, SHELL GAME takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of action and intrigue carried on the shoulders of believable, often diabolical characters. Although a work of fiction, SHELL GAME through its protagonist Edward Winter, provides an understandable explanation of one of the main reasons the U.S. economy continues to languish. It is a commentary on what heavy-handed federal regulators are doing to the United States banking community today and, as a result, the damage they are inflicting on perfectly sound businesses and private investors across the country and on the overall U.S. economy.

SHELL GAME is inspired by actual events that have taken place as a result of poor governmental leadership and oversight, greed, corruption, stupidity, and badly conceived regulatory actions. You may be inclined to find it hard to believe what happens in this novel to both banks and bank borrowers. I encourage you to keep an open mind. SHELL GAME is a work of fiction that supports the old adage: You don’t need to make this stuff up.

Joseph Badal’s thirty-eight years in the banking and financial services industries provide a solid foundation for the storyline in ＂Shell Game,＂ a thriller that uses the financial meltdown that began in 2007 as a backdrop for murder, greed, corruption, and mayhem. His roles as a financial consultant and as a senior executive in banking and mortgage organizations give him unusual insight into the capital markets meltdown that continues to impact economies and markets to this day. Prior to his finance career, Joe served as an officer in the U.S. Army in critical, highly classified positions in the U.S. and overseas, including tours of duty in Greece and Vietnam. He earned numerous military decorations. Joe’s first suspense novel, ＂The Pythagorean Solution,＂ was released in April, 2003. His next release, ＂Terror Cell＂ (#2 in the Bob Danforth series), was published in July 2004. The paperback version of ＂The Pythagorean Solution＂ was released in 2005. His books ＂The Nostradamus Secret＂ (#3 in the Bob Danforth series) and ＂Evil Deeds＂ (#1 in the Bob Danforth series) were released in 2011. All of his books are available in paper and digital formats. He was recognized in 2011 as ＂One of The 50 Best Writers You Should Be Reading.＂ His short story Fire & Ice will be included in the anthology Uncommon Assassins,＂ which will be released in Fall 2012. To learn more, visit Joe’s website at www.josephbadalbooks.com. You can see Joe’s blog at http: //www.josephbadal.wordpress.com.