Paul Erdman is the author of two best-sell-

ing novels about high finance, international

intrigue, sex and money: The Billion Dollar

Sure Thing and The Silver Bears.

His new novel, The Crash of 79, is even

more exciting--a book so real that its plot

reads like today s headlines. The central

figure is that world traveler, playboy, des-

pot, and winter-sports enthusiast His

imperial Majesty the Shah of Iran, whose

grandiose and megalomaniacal dreams,

nurtured in secret and financed by oil

money, engulf the lives of Erdman s char-

acters, each of whom, unknowingly, is con-

tributing to the event that will bring about

the Crash of 79 and the demise of the

industrial West.

Bill Hitchcock, the hero, is a successful

banker, divorced skirtchaser, confirmed

cynic and financial genius. It is Hitchcock

whom the Saudi Arabians pick to manage

their vast hoard of accumulated oil profits

(an estimated 400 billion dollars today)

and to fire a warning shot across the bows

of the Western financial community.