The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld

Great book! It's got everything you want in a story: a pretty girl, a manly hero, violence, love, mayhem, intrigue, conspiracies, science and history. Jed (the author) has taken a historical event (the bombing of Wall Street in 1920) and woven a wonderfully complex tale around it. I wouldn't be surprised if it was on it's way to being made into a movie with Ben Affleck as the stoic Dr. Younger. I don't know if stoic is really the right word here, but Ben is who pops into my mind when I picture some of the scenes. Collette, the slim, young, pretty, brave and intelligent woman, is a key character. Funny how often that seems to be the case. How often do you run into a story that revolves around a fat, old, ugly, cowardly, stupid man? If you do run across such a story, that character is probably used as a bad example, not someone to be emulated.