Headhunting takes a violent turn
In 'The Headhunter', published this month, the search consultant protagonist stabs random bankers in the heart with a sharpened letter opener while filling vacancies for foreign exchange traders.
Like many real life headhunters, 'Henry Simpson' has an army background.
He believes he is too clever to start at the bottom and work his way up. Apart from killing people, he finds time to conduct a sadomasochistic affair with a power hungry female banker from New York, who heads the FX team at an investment bank.
At first London-based Simpson restricts his use of the letter opener to continental European financial centres. But by the end of the novel, he is turning on victims closer to home, including some of his own recent hires.
The book features plenty of other unpleasant characters too, including some misogynistic FX traders who rely on a scam involving the European Central to make money.
An HR department is populated by simpering females unwilling to tackle discrimination on the trading floor.
Despite what comes across as a jaded view of investment banking, Kilduff has no intention of leaving the profession. He says: 'Writing is a hobby, a creative outlet. It's not a job.'
Headhunters will be able to draw some solace from the novel.
Simpson sells his search firm to a rival for 3.3 million. In the current climate, this alone would identify the book as a work of fiction.
