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“A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.” – Robertson Davies

Gold Street by Kathy T. Kale

A Thriller with a Message – 4 stars

Gold Street cover image

Jill Madison has just been informed that her son, Tyler, was a victim of a hit-and-run accident in New York City near the financial district and has been lying unconscious for two days in a hospital. She makes immediate arrangements to fly to NYC, but her husband is in the middle of a close re-election campaign for his Senate seat and will be unable to accompany her. After talking with her son, Jill learns that the hit-and-run was deliberate and that her son is involved with a group trying to inform the American public about the Federal Reserve banking system and their dirty deals before the coming presidential election. Those activities have made Tyler and his friends targets for a whole bevy of alphabet agencies and private financial companies all trying to keep that message from getting out.

There are really two books here: one is a political thriller complete with hackers, bugging, covert surveillance, and international plots, and the other is a primer on the somewhat clouded past and present of the Federal Reserve System, gold reserves, and national economics. The author uses the premise of Tyler’s political activism as a platform to educate his mother along with the reader about how the Fed goes about its business of financing the United States government. If you’ve listened to Ron Paul or the alternative media over the past few years, this is probably old news to you. If not, be prepared for an education along with the thriller.

The main character, Jill, seemed extremely naive for a politician’s wife. She was an educated woman, but a total wimp who was bullied by just about everyone she dealt with. I found it very hard to believe that in the modern day United States she would not even have her own bank account or credit card, only joint accounts. For all of her faults she was still one of the very few characters in the book at all likable. Her husband was a self-centered control freak, her sister was a self-centered harridan control freak, and both of them seemed to enjoy taking their frustrations out on poor, pitiful Jill as did every federal agent and policeman in New York and DC.

Despite the side trips into economic education, the thriller portion is a good one and entertaining. I would have liked for the story to have gone on longer to see what would happen after the election. The economic tutorial sections of the book are needed in small doses to understand the motivations of the plot, but it may be more than some readers will care to learn about or to tolerate depending on their interest in economic matters or their personal political leanings.

Recommended with the caveat that some readers may find the economic education distracting from the thriller.

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