Play Money: A Novel

Praise for Play Money:

"Play Money is an authentic, detailed portrayal of life and ambition in the late '90s financial games, when we knew better but couldn't resist."-Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do with My Life?

"In the spirit of Michael Lewis's Liars Poker and Wolfe's A Man in Full, Allen offers a peek at Wall Street's money-making machine in the gilded age of the 1990s. Here is a full cast of characters-venture capitalists, corporate bankers, entrepreneurs as well as various hangers on-waiting for their turn to milk the IPO machine. A wonderful chronicle of the heady internet years. I could not put it down; I loved it."-Aleksander Rozens, Senior Editor, Private Equity Week, IPO Reporter

Tim Fletcher is at the top of his law school class and assured of a comfortable berth in the best firm in Virginia. But the senior-most partner urges him to acquire some New York Experience before joining the firm. Tim agrees to the apprenticeship in the Big Apple, which is roaring with dot-com investments and the accompanying deluge of corporate legal work. It is lucrative albeit grueling labor with endless hours and little down time, even as all around him traders and investors are exuberant with stupendous payoffs from gravity-defying market gambles. Ambition rules. An opportunity appears, a shortcut to the top. It's irresistible and Tim becomes COO and general counsel of a dot-com startup, preparing to launch its stock into the heady stratosphere with an initial public offering.

Venture Capitalist Alan Goldberg, who has made millions in the past but is in disfavor with his new partners at their private investment bank, is intrigued by this startup. Rebecca Bartlett is a young, celebrated stock analyst whose every utterance moves the market. She, too, casts her eyes on Tim's IPO. With a little help, these three are going to write another wild page of stock market lore and change their essential selves forever.

Phillip Allen, a thirty-year-old Wall Street lawyer, is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and of Duke Law School. This is his first novel.