The Castro Gene

by Todd G. Buchholz

The Castro Gene is seamless, suspenseful and shocking. After killing a man in the ring, Luke Braden quits boxing. While toiling as a security guard and yearning to reinvent himself, Luke is swept up... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933515066
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.1" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

The Castro Gene

Interweaving the seamy and steamy worlds of high finance, professional boxing and big-time conspiracy, THE CASTRO GENE moves with the speed of light. With an intricate and compelling plot that has its David v. Goliath elements, THE CASTRO GENE and Buchholz bring to mind John Grisham at the top of his form. Sizzling, top-notch entertainment.

Absolutely worth the read!

Todd Buchholz's THE CASTRO GENE is a sprawling, yet engrossing thriller that weaves together disparate strands like high-stakes, cutthroat finance, professional boxing, and conspiracy theory into a quick and satisfying read. Buchholz's pedigree is impressive: former director of economic policy at the White House, as well as a managing partner in the $15 billion Tiger hedge fund. He navigates the arcane world of Wall Street with an insider's ease and eye for detail, then applies that acumen to a story that starts with a professional boxer who's beaten a man to death in the ring who is suddenly whisked off into a world high in the financial stratosphere. But nothing comes for free, especially in the boardroom of megacorporations, so the erstwhile boxer finds himself a pawn in an expertly plotted game with the future of an entire country as the prize. A twist at the end slips in like a knife to the ribs, or in this case, a shot from a high-powered rifle that may or may have not hit its intended target.

Five stars for Buchholz's first fiction book!

Being a sucker for a good conspiracy theory, I had a ball with Todd Buchholz's The Castro Gene, which wraps professional boxing, Wall Street and Castro up into a fast read that delivers the goods with a plot that blows up like an exploding cigar from the CIA. Buchholz comes from the world of high finance and seems to know what he's talking about: the boardroom is like the jungle, except the jungle doesn't have a sauna where Thai call girls get murdered in...very creative ways. Buchholz gives us a real S.O.B. in villain Paul Tremont, a super-rich guy who's been playing by his own rules for so long that he's forgotten the actual rules completely. Using every trick he knows, he forces a young boxer into an elaborately plotted scheme to assassinate Fidel Castro and essentially take over the Cuban economy. The fun is watching the strands of the net come together around the young boxer and how he uses his fighter's mentality to wriggle his way out of it. For fans of Oliver Stone's Wall Street and JFK.

This is one knock-out of a book!

From boxing to the Bay of Pigs, Todd Buchholz's The Castro Gene attacks with a fast-moving plot that features double agents, nasty villains, money that flows like water and an ambitious young man caught up in the middle of it all. Buchholz knows the world of financial intrigue well, having managed a massive hedge fund and worked in economic policy in the White House, and paints a convincing picture of wealth run amok. With short, cliff-hanger style chapters, he keeps the plot moving at a breathless pace towards the unraveling of a decades-old conspiracy, held together by money and shared secrets. His best creation is Oriana, an aging gangster's moll who wields the power once held by the men in her life. Having outlived them all, she has wealth and few scruples and ably proves that hell, indeed, hath no fury like a woman scorned...

Thank you Mr. Buchholz!!

I read this book on a recommendation from a friend and will follow all of her suggestions from now on!! The Castro Gene took me on a whirlwind journey through a wonderful story. I loved the characters and really cared what happened to them. In addition, I got an interesting education about hedgefunds, Cuba, and the boxing industry. It is hard to believe that this was a first time effort by this author. I will be eagerly awaiting his next offering.