The basic lesson which comes out here is that there are people who count, but they are a small minority of the people in the world. It's an elitist view of things, which endorses a sort of libertarian rugged individualism as the highest calling of human nature. On the one side, we have the benevolent dictator figure of Grayne, who provides wisely for his employees. On the other, there is Jimmy Skinner, labor agitator and later venture capitalist, who only wants to milk as much money as he can out of other people.
As ideology, I don't agree with this very much; many of the characters and their motivations seem as unreal as those in an Ayn Rand novel. But as a suspense story, it's rather readable. Katz's prose needs some polish, but the plot is intriguing enough to keep the pages turning. Though the happy ending is telegraphed well in advance, the exact route by which it comes is more than a bit of a surprise. (272 pp. tpb)