From the Publisher
In Dark Towers, David Enrich tells the story of how one of the world’s mightiest banks careened off the rails, threatening everything from our financial system to our democracy through its reckless entanglement with Donald Trump. Darkly fascinating and yet all too real, it’s a tale that will keep you up at night.” — John Carreyrou, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author of Bad Blood
"Enrich compellingly shows how unchecked ambition twisted a pillar of German finance into a reckless casino where amorality and criminality thrived." — New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice)
“Riveting. … A cracking read. … Devastatingly accurate. … This is an important book because it reveals how one bank, with questionable business practices to put it mildly, made it possible for Trump to bounce back from multiple bankruptcies, cast himself as a business visionary, and eventually run for president and win.” — Sunday Times (London)
"A revelatory book about the rise and fall of the world’s biggest bank. … Has all the elements of a page-turning mystery novel" — Washington Post
"Dark Towers is a devastating tale of a big bank gone bad. ... Enrich draws the reader in by focusing on the people in his story, displaying an Arthur-Miller-like eye for the worn-down Willy Lomans of today's Wall Street." — Financial Times
“A jaw-dropping financial thriller.” — Philadelphia Inquirer
"Enrich delivers a master class in financial sleuthing. ... A first-rate read." — The Guardian
“Exposes chaos and corruption at the bank that holds Trump's secrets.” — NPR.org
“In this case, ‘epic’ is right - Dark Towers is a mystery, a thriller, a father-son drama. Did I mention Donald Trump? It’s a distinctly American drama of greed, hubris and power that kept me racing to the finish.” — James B. Stewart, Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Den of Thieves and Deep State
"In this masterful account of a bank gone bad, David Enrich turns financial journalism into gripping, page-turning crime reporting. Tracking the sordid history of Deutsche Bank—from financing robber barons, Nazis, and rogue states to laundering Russian money to underwriting Donald Trump to threatening global economic security — Enrich deftly delivers a compelling narrative that intertwines harrowing institutional corruption and engaging personal tales. It’s a wild ride and a great read." — David Corn, co-author, Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump
“A deep-reaching look at the inner workings of Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump's lender of choice.” — Kirkus Reviews
"Part expose, part mystery, Enrich’s account is important because it illuminates Deutsche Bank’s excesses and Trump’s business practices. Readers of Andrew Sorkin’s Too Big To Fail, which unveiled vulnerabilities in the financial industry, will find Enrich’s more focused account equally compelling." — Library Journal (starred review)
“New York Times finance editor Enrich’s immersion in this shadowy world of monetary malfeasance shows how the disreputable world of big-stakes banking could topple an equally unscrupulous president.” — Booklist
“Propulsive, richly detailed…Enrich writes with verve…This journalistic tour de force hints that plenty of shocking secrets are yet to be revealed.” — Publishers Weekly
"[An] excellent, deeply reported book" — NPR
"The framing of responsibility versus complicity drives Enrich’s subtle and exhaustive exploration of a critical question for today’s politics: Would Donald Trump be president without Deutsche Bank?" — Barron's
“The surprisingly thrilling story of how Deutsche Bank, which loaned billions to Donald Trump, the Kushner family and Jeffrey Epstein, left a decade of destruction in its wake.” — Evening Standard (London)
The Guardian
"Enrich delivers a master class in financial sleuthing. ... A first-rate read."
NPR.org
Exposes chaos and corruption at the bank that holds Trump's secrets.
New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice)
"Enrich compellingly shows how unchecked ambition twisted a pillar of German finance into a reckless casino where amorality and criminality thrived."
Sunday Times (London)
Riveting. … A cracking read. … Devastatingly accurate. … This is an important book because it reveals how one bank, with questionable business practices to put it mildly, made it possible for Trump to bounce back from multiple bankruptcies, cast himself as a business visionary, and eventually run for president and win.”
James B. Stewart
In this case, ‘epic’ is right - Dark Towers is a mystery, a thriller, a father-son drama. Did I mention Donald Trump? It’s a distinctly American drama of greed, hubris and power that kept me racing to the finish.
Financial Times
"Dark Towers is a devastating tale of a big bank gone bad. ... Enrich draws the reader in by focusing on the people in his story, displaying an Arthur-Miller-like eye for the worn-down Willy Lomans of today's Wall Street."
Philadelphia Inquirer
A jaw-dropping financial thriller.”
David Corn
"In this masterful account of a bank gone bad, David Enrich turns financial journalism into gripping, page-turning crime reporting. Tracking the sordid history of Deutsche Bank—from financing robber barons, Nazis, and rogue states to laundering Russian money to underwriting Donald Trump to threatening global economic security — Enrich deftly delivers a compelling narrative that intertwines harrowing institutional corruption and engaging personal tales. It’s a wild ride and a great read."
John Carreyrou
In Dark Towers, David Enrich tells the story of how one of the world’s mightiest banks careened off the rails, threatening everything from our financial system to our democracy through its reckless entanglement with Donald Trump. Darkly fascinating and yet all too real, it’s a tale that will keep you up at night.
Washington Post
"A revelatory book about the rise and fall of the world’s biggest bank. … Has all the elements of a page-turning mystery novel"
Evening Standard (London)
The surprisingly thrilling story of how Deutsche Bank, which loaned billions to Donald Trump, the Kushner family and Jeffrey Epstein, left a decade of destruction in its wake.”
NPR
"[An] excellent, deeply reported book"
Booklist
New York Times finance editor Enrich’s immersion in this shadowy world of monetary malfeasance shows how the disreputable world of big-stakes banking could topple an equally unscrupulous president.
Barron's
"The framing of responsibility versus complicity drives Enrich’s subtle and exhaustive exploration of a critical question for today’s politics: Would Donald Trump be president without Deutsche Bank?"
Financial Times
"Dark Towers is a devastating tale of a big bank gone bad. ... Enrich draws the reader in by focusing on the people in his story, displaying an Arthur-Miller-like eye for the worn-down Willy Lomans of today's Wall Street."
Booklist
New York Times finance editor Enrich’s immersion in this shadowy world of monetary malfeasance shows how the disreputable world of big-stakes banking could topple an equally unscrupulous president.
Washington Post
"A revelatory book about the rise and fall of the world’s biggest bank. … Has all the elements of a page-turning mystery novel"
Barron's
"The framing of responsibility versus complicity drives Enrich’s subtle and exhaustive exploration of a critical question for today’s politics: Would Donald Trump be president without Deutsche Bank?"
New York Times
Compelling… Enrich has given us a thorough, clearly written and generally levelheaded account of a bank that lost its way.
Harlan Coben
Dare I say it, but The Spider Network will snare you in its web of deceit, lies, corruption, manipulation and colorful characters. David Enrich’s brilliant investigative expose will reverberate from Wall Street to Main Street.
Marcus Brauchli
David Enrich has written an incredibly entertaining, globe-straddling inside account of how one trader turbocharged a greedy cabal that scammed savers and borrowers everywhere. A must read if you want to understand how big banks and traders really work.
Jonathan A. Knee
Mr. Enrich effectively uses the unique access he secured to the mildly autistic UBS trader, Tom Hayes, who became the fall guy for the unfolding scandal, to produce a surprisingly human narrative....
Paul Ingrassia
So how did a socially awkward English math whiz mastermind manipulation of lending rates on a global scale? … In David Enrich’s gripping tale, the characters have nicknames worthy of the Mafia, and their ethical compasses aren’t much better.
Andrew Lo
This dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scams in the history of markets.
Kurt Eichenwald
With an unerring eye for detail, Enrich shows in this masterful work how a toxic stew of greed, arrogance and a lust for power led to a criminal scheme of unparalleled dimensions. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the dirty underbelly of the financial world.
William D. Cohan
[Enrich’s] impressive reporting and writing chops are on full display in The Spider Network… From the start, the book reads like a fast-paced John le Carré thriller, and never lets up.
John Helyar
A damning look at the culture of trader chicanery… Enrich has sidestepped the temptation to slip into author-as-prosecutor mode, instead going the wry tour guide route to lucidly (and often hilariously) usher readers through the Looney Tunes world that wrought l’affaire Libor.
Washington Post on The Spider Network
A feat of reporting, and much of it reads like a novel. . . . Enrich’s unfettered access to Hayes and his keen eye for detail make for a compelling portrait of a gifted but troubled man.
Iain Martin
A thrilling tour de force of reporting, revelation and reasoning. For anyone who wants to understand what really went on inside a scam of epic proportions, The Spider Network is unmissable.
New York Times on The Spider Network
As entertaining as the colorful character portraits are, what makes The Spider Network truly memorable are the portraits of the various institutions that made the scandal not just possible but inevitable.
New York Times on The Spider Network
As entertaining as the colorful character portraits are, what makes The Spider Network truly memorable are the portraits of the various institutions that made the scandal not just possible but inevitable.
Washington Post on The Spider Network
A feat of reporting, and much of it reads like a novel. . . . Enrich’s unfettered access to Hayes and his keen eye for detail make for a compelling portrait of a gifted but troubled man.
James B. Stewart
In this case, ‘epic’ is right - Dark Towers is a mystery, a thriller, a father-son drama. Did I mention Donald Trump? It’s a distinctly American drama of greed, hubris and power that kept me racing to the finish.
Library Journal
★ 02/01/2020
New York Times finance editor Enrich (The Spider Network) weaves a cautionary tale out of Deutsche Bank's rise and fall, and its long, strange relationship with Donald Trump. Over the years, the bank made billions in risky loans to Trump, a repeat defaulter, with mixed results. Enrich traces the bank's 20th-century history, beginning with its collaboration with the Nazis during World War II and continuing with its transformation into an investment bank in an attempt to pursue Wall Street riches, its spurious weathering of the 2008 financial crisis, and its ultimate unraveling. For decades, Enrich says, the bank subordinated ethics, customer loyalty, and even lawful behavior to maximize short-term profits. In a twisting subplot, Enrich follows the revelations of the bank's misdeeds from the perspective of the son of a Deutsche Bank executive who committed suicide. VERDICT Part exposé, part mystery, Enrich's account is important because it illuminates Deutsche Bank's excesses and Trump's business practices. Readers of Andrew Sorkin's Too Big To Fail, which unveiled vulnerabilities in the financial industry, will find Enrich's more focused account equally compelling.—Lawrence Maxted, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA
Kirkus Reviews
2019-12-22
A deep-reaching look at the inner workings of Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump's lender of choice.
At the heart of this aptly titled book is the suicide of a Deutsche executive in 2014 and the subsequent quest of his son to find out the reasons for it. That story, well rendered by New York Times finance editor Enrich (The Spider Network: How a Math Genius and Gang of Scheming Bankers Pulled Off One of the Greatest Scams in History, 2017), takes many twists and turns, but its outlines are familiar: A corporation with a dodgy history (including financing the construction of Nazi death camps) goes straight for a time, guided by people of conscience who are eventually overwhelmed by executives willing to let ethics slide in the quest for profit. The latter category includes a banker who sat onstage at Trump's inauguration—and without whose legally problematic help, Enrich suggests, Trump would never have attained office. While many financial institutions refused to lend to Trump because of his habit of reneging, Deutsche was "the only mainstream bank consistently willing to do business" with him—and at the time of the presidential election, he owed the bank $350 million. But did he really, or was the bank merely a front for funding from other sources headquartered in Moscow? The author works his way through a spaghetti tangle of leads with all sorts of unsavory connections, including the family of Trump's son-in-law, members of whom "were moving money to the Russians at the same time that Russia was interfering in the American presidential election." The implications are more than suggestive. What is inarguable, by Enrich's account, is that Deutsche suffered through a clash of corporate cultures by which one side strived to comply with such things as financial stress tests while worrying that a newly elected Trump would default, leaving it "the ugly choice between seizing the president's personal assets or not enforcing the loan terms," even as the other continued corrupt practices for nearly two decades.
Following the money becomes easier in this thoroughly researched, if dispiriting, work of investigative journalism.
