Leverage by Amran Gowani

Published by Atria on August 19, 2025

The best financial thrillers are about people who are forced into tight spots. Leverage isn’t among the best, but the protagonist manages to get himself into an unreasonable amount of trouble.

Ali Jafar works for a large, successful hedge fund. His billionaire boss, Paul Kingsley, is a master of the universe. Paul’s son Brad is the typical entitled son of a billionaire who can never live up to his father’s expectation (not that he makes much of an effort). He has his tech bro vibe working, meaning he belittles female employees and calls Ali (who usually goes by Al) Al Qaeda or Habib, among other unkind nicknames.

Ali is in charge of a fund he created called VICE. True to its name, the fund invests in businesses that rely on crime and weakness to earn profits — opioid manufacturing, guns, payday lenders. Ali is doing well until he makes an unfortunate investment that loses $300 million. Rather than firing Ali, Paul challenges him to make back the lost money in three months. If he fails, Paul will accuse him of insider trading that was conducted by another employee. Now, insider trading is rarely prosecuted and even more rarely results in a significant sentence, but some of the fund’s earnings were allegedly diverted to shell companies and used to fund terrorism. Ali would rather not go to prison for even a few days, so he’s willing to cut corners to meet the challenge.

Ali’s best friend is a lawyer who gives him an insider tip that helps him gain back some of the loss. The lawyer then puts him in touch with a client named Simon Hellstrom, a man who trades information for money. Taking advantage of contacts provided by Simon, Ali learns of companies that are about to fail (although they may need a push that Paul happily provides). Ali shorts the stocks and his fund makes a ton of money, but his problems are only beginning. His chances of going to prison — or of being murdered — seem to increase with every page.

Ali spends most of the novel fretting about his future. Every few pages he tells the reader that he wants to stop living. He even puts a gun to his head at one point but lacks the courage to pull the trigger. He spends so much time wishing he were dead that his suicide would have been a break from his depressing complaints about his misery.

It isn’t unusual for a thriller to be farfetched, but Leverage makes it difficult to suspend disbelief. A central tenet of the plot — one I can’t reveal without spoiling the story — is preposterous. Our government works in nefarious ways, but the consequences of its actions in Leverage are harmful to stock investors and thus would never be authorized. The government is fine with screwing over little guys, but causing institutional investors and wealthy people to lose money is beyond the bounds of law enforcement propriety.

Notwithstanding its failure to deliver a credible plot — a failure that is common in modern thrillerworld — and despite its whiny protagonist, Leverage makes some strong points about greed, financial markets that are easily manipulated by the greedy, and the intersection of race and property. Amran Gowani also illustrates the double standard that protects the wealthy from the consequences that less fortunate people would experience for committing financial crimes. Gowani writes: “When The Economist bloviated about adhering to the ‘rule of law,’ what they really meant were governments, corporations, courts, and other White-dominated institutions needed to protect White financial interests.” The novel illustrates that point with moral clarity.

Unfortunately, the ending seems far too easy, given the setup. I won’t reveal how Ali solves his problems, but the ending requires Paul to all but surrender, something a master of the universe is unlikely to do. Leverage benefits from strong prose, a steady pace, and some exciting moments, but those positives are nearly offset by the novel’s improbable plot and weak ending.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS