"Lehman Brothers, the oldest partnership on Wall Street, was always a brilliant but cursed child. Its life, and death, tells us why it was a magnet for talent, and why it was toxic. There have been a slew of terrific books on how Wall Street brought the economy to its knees, but in The Devil?s Casino , Vicky Ward does something unusual. She takes the reader inside. Not just inside the financial instruments, but inside the culture that sired them; inside the families, including the spouses and children that enjoyed lavish riches; and inside the internal rivalries and mismanagement that speeded the fall. Readers of this remarkable tale do not stand outside looking in, their noses pressed to the glass; we are inside looking out. We feel the seething greed and jealousies—the stuff that makes novels come alive. In the end, the child dies. But because of the way Vicky Ward unspools the saga of Lehman, its life and death will both instruct and forever sear your memory." — KEN...