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"These subprime loans are going to take the country by storm. If you stay small, it will only be a question of time before the big players enter the picture. And once they do, the competition will become so fierce they'll run you out of business."

Matt was devastated. Instead of praising him for his accomplishments, Gardner told him he'd end up on a scrap heap if he didn't get into high gear. "How much money do you think I'll need?"

"I'd say a million should do it."

Matt swallowed hard. "That much?"

Gardner's voice hardened. "And that may not be enough. You're out to corner a national market. If Opus doesn't become a household word in six months—"

Matt finished Gardner's sentence for him: "Then someone else will."

"That's right. Your long term success will rest in your ability to provide the required infrastructure so you can fund 1,500, maybe 2,000 loans a month."

A knot formed in the pit of Matt's stomach. "Go on. What else must I do?"

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Subprime provides the reader with a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the highly charged and unscrupulous world of mortgage lending, the very instrument that precipitated the economic meltdown.

Set against the backdrop of greedy investors who bilk credit-blemished borrowers, the book delves into a toxic mix of character traits portrayed by an uncle and his nephew. One is elderly, rich, inflexible and jaded while the other is young, poor, pliable, and naïve.

The conflict between the two manifests itself as the nephew struggles with a sense of morality while his uncle weaves a cancerous web of extortion and deceit. Once the nephew extricates himself from his uncle's grasp, he falls into an abyss of his own making as power, lust and ambition continue to cloud his vision.

As senior vice president of a mortgage banking firm, my experience in the exciting and often disloyal world of subprime lending provided me with the impetus to write this book.

Although Subprime is a work of fiction, a number of incidents and events described in the book are loosely based on actual events. The characters in this novel are not that far removed from the people I dealt with.

Michael Cole