Coco’s Gambit

About the Book

Murder, sex, and money intersect in this Southeast Asian thriller as Coco executes a strategy to get back an embarrassing painting, avoid being murdered by her enemy, and become really rich in the process. Ian Blakely, aged fifty-nine, a Singapore-based American expat and billionaire hedge fund manager, buys a painting of a near-nude Chinese girl. The painting until then had not been available to the public, and Ian has no idea who the model is. Ten years after posing for the painting, the girl, Coco, aged thirty, a Brown Phi Beta Kappa, a former Wall Streeter, but also somewhat of a fashionista, is now the respectable wife of the much older former head of the Army of Myanmar. The painting’s existence is a threat, and Coco wants it back. Coco starts by getting Ian to invest in a natural gas project in Myanmar that she is involved with. Once he is an investor, getting the painting back from Ian will be easy—and pleasurable. But along the way Coco will have to confront family intrigue, attempts to poison her and survive a jungle gunfight with a Major from the Myanmar army. Along the way, her elderly husband dies from a stroke, and she initiates a torrid relationship with Ian. Ian, who thought investing in a gas project in Myanmar was risky enough, finds himself drawn into Coco’s world of Myanmar intrigue and danger. To make matters worse, the American tax authorities are threatening him with rendition back to the United States.

About the Author

Peter T. Treadway is a former successful Wall Street stock analyst and investor and former adjunct finance professor at the City University of Hong Kong who has been overcome with the urge to write fiction. For the last ten years, he has spent half his time in the United States and half in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. He likes being jetlagged! In 2008, Peter published a thriller called “A Father’s Love.” It was set in Hong Kong and involved the same hedge fund manager who is the protagonist in “Coco’s Gambit.” Unfortunately, the publisher went broke in the 2008–09 crisis just as the book was launched. Peter has also published quite a lot in the nonfiction area. Until very recently for the last five years, Peter published an e-mail monthly called the Dismal Optimist, which offered an analysis of global macro and investment trends. He also, in 2013, coauthored a book, “Investing in the Age of Sovereign Defaults: How to Preserve Your Wealth in the Coming Crisis” (John Wiley, Singapore). He has also published a number of articles involving finance and Asia in the last ten years. Finally, in 2011 he assisted a friend in publishing a book, “Learning 300 Chinese Proverbs: Talk the Wisdom.” This book, by the way, was featured in the Amazon 2013 Christmas Black Friday promotion. She insisted on listing him as coauthor, but alas, he claims no expertise in this subject! Peter has a BA in English. He admits to an MBA and PhD in economics and finance.