The Week in Meep: The Mortality Thief, St. Matthew the Apostle, Some Walks in the Park
An actuarial thriller!
Deaaaaaath! But fun and intriguing death!
As with earlier Week in Meep posts I did, I’m keeping comments open to all.
The Mortality Thief
Before I give my review, let me share the promo I received with my review copy of The Mortality Thief:
Death hides in the detail. He hides in plain sight.
Pencil-pushing risk-analyst Luke Smith finds himself with a bounty on his head, the police, the public and a paid assassin on his tail. A file accidentally sent to him in a high-stakes Initial Public Offering (IPO) transaction is his only clue. Inside lies the secret his client will kill to keep hidden.
On the run, he has no choice but to make London's underbelly his refuge. With nothing but the clothes on his back and his own wits, he must solve the file's mystery before he becomes just another mortality statistic.
Inspired by a litany of financial scandals, The Mortality Thief is a razor-sharp and authentic thriller.
Oooh, a thriller! I was definitely looking for a little something to distract…
Some info on the author:
Mark W. Griffin, debut author of The Mortality Thief, is a Chartered Financial Analyst, actuary and EMT. Working as a Chief Risk Officer, he has been responsible for not just a lot of analysis, but telling stories about what has gone wrong, what could go wrong, and serving as the corporate incarnation of cop, investigator, and crime reporter.
He is passionate about ice hockey, and just about any outdoor activity, particularly uphill skiing. He has split his career between the UK, the US, and Canada. He lives in New York State with his family and their rescue dog Ollie.
Gotta boost my fellow New Yorkers… and fellow Fellow (of the Society of Actuaries)!
Still, he’s not kidding about that EMT part… write what ya know, and he drops you right in the middle of it at the start, splattered in blood.
I laughed at this particular line:
A sharp auditor might have caught that, but as Braun expected, their auditors were fast asleep. Maybe ‘sharp auditor’ is an oxymoron, he thought.
Also:
There was no one there, no one to hear him swearing at an Excel spreadsheet.
Oh, there have definitely been loads of people, including my kids (and Stu (RIP)), to have heard me swear at spreadsheets.
There were a few other lines that made me guffaw in recognition.
But let me get back to the story.
Luke Smith is an actuary on the run, in possession of a laptop full of death claims transaction records… which would normally be no big deal in doing a due diligence review for an IPO of an insurer. Heck, I’ve done death claims reviews for a life reinsurer….
….but as all FSAs know, sometimes there can be iffy financial records…. [or you can look at my recent post on Financial Shenanigans, the text]
The book is rapidly paced, and once I got started, I had to keep going.
I don’t know London too well — I’m a New Yorker. But obviously, in the age of Google Maps, I started looking up locations as they were mentioned. I’m pretty sure the author, Mark Griffin, has actually walked over the paths he’s written about in the book (and almost definitely grabbed the buses mentioned).
Details that went [ping] in my brain when they were mentioned in the novel:
Post Office scandal — plays a big part as an analogy for the characters. I cannot remember if I ever touched upon it here, but I discussed it with other groups I’m in. Recent piece from BBC, July 2025: Post Office Horizon scandal: Why hundreds were wrongly prosecuted.
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) - Simon and Garfunkel song - starts as “Slow down, you go too fast…”
Building Society problem - I believe they were referring to this: BBC, 2024 Failed trust fund families to get full payments - note: there were multiple Building Society failures in the UK at different times
Demutualization - there were waves of demutualizations in both the U.S. and UK, in which mutual insurers went public. MetLife and Prudential, for instance, were once mutual insurers. Lots of insurance companies in the U.S. have remained mutuals, though. Might want to think about that one.
Here, have a William Morris wallpaper pattern from the Met — no, not all those Mets, the Met Museum of Art in NYC:
The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions.
— John Ruskin
There were other details in the book that touched directly on my day job so…. I’m not going to comment on those. [evil grin]
[very evil grin]
Bottomline (and we finance folks are all about the bottomline): while there are actuarial/finance/risk-related details in the novel, it’s a thriller set in the heart of London.
Luke is being chased by multiple people, primarily Manny, a hitman, but there are multiple other characters (who are easy to keep track of). The multiple threads come together at… well, I’ll let you find out for yourself. [I laughed when I realized what the target was.]
[Stu memorial moment: there was a particular point of the plot where I yelled SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM NOW! But Blighty, yannow?]
I found it a thoroughly enjoyable read — it went by very quickly, very well-paced.
Had a nice little actuarial mystery (what was going on with those death claims?) but you don’t need to necessarily worry about that bit, and try to figure out how Luke can keep ahead of the people trying to nab him. I highly recommend!
St. Matthew the Apostle
Yesterday, 21 September, was the memorial of St. Matthew.
I thought I’d drop him in, because, though he is known as one of the gospel-writer, he was also the tax collector.
Given St. Matthew’s prior career, he’s often seen as a patron for those in the area of finance.
Last year, I did the work of finding some good artwork for St. Matthwe, so let me pick my favorite:
As I noted last year, St. Matthew being called by Jesus from his profession as tax collector (which had untoward connections, for collusion with the Romans and often involved all sorts of corruptions) was often depicted in contemporary garb. Sometimes there was a mix.
The readings for the Sunday Mass yesterday were very money-centric, with the central theme of warning against those who make wealth and, specifically, the love of wealth their god… because that will not serve for eternity.
Some Walks in the Park
And just a few more pictures, without commentary.
They were not necessarily all from the same day - just recently from walks in Lasdon Park, Arboretum, and Veterans Memorial.
Comments are open.
The author Mark W Griffin enjoys uphill skiing? I had never heard of such a thing. I had to look it up to see if it was real. I can barely downhill ski, let alone ski uphill. Learned something new today. Thanks for what you do.
Pretty pics! Love the St. Matthew angle(s). More to say there