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The Fear Index is an unexpected book from Robert Harris who is associated in my mind with historical thrillers like Pompeii and Fatherland, but it definitely doesn’t disappoint. I couldn’t put this book down which is surprising given the financial focus which usually sends me to sleep.

The book opens with Dr Alexander Hoffman receiving a first edition of Darwin’s Expression of Emotions with the book marked to the expression of fear. He can’t work out who sent him the book, so goes to bed wondering. That night, he wakes to find an intruder in the house, sharpening knives and carrying various devices of torture. Somehow he got past the extensive security in the multi-million dollar house Alexander and his wife live in Zurich. Alexander disturbs him, is injured but the man flees. Another mystery but Alexander’s day has just begun.

We soon learn he is a math genius, having invented an algorithm that can forecast stock movements based on the fear index, indications of the level of emotion in the markets that affect prices. He partners with Hugo Quarry, a salesman who recruits ever more funding for their hedge fund. Having set the program on auto-pilot, the fund is amassing millions, picking up on data before the markets and benefiting from the result, even as a result of terrorist attacks. Hoffman’s wife Gabrielle is an artist working in etched glass who is driven away by his behavior which becomes more bizarre as the book progresses and the body count rises. Is Hoffman crazy or is there really someone or something pursuing him?

What keeps you reading:

• The mystery of who is doing this to Alexander Hoffman, or is he in fact in the grip of a mental illness and doing it to himself. If you’re a fan of books like Daemon, you will work it out, but then the question becomes, who will win in this race to the death?

• I love to learn about new things in the novels I read and amazingly enough, the stock market becomes the subject of interest in this book. The Fear Index is real and the complicated market changes are also real in the book. Harris takes this and weaves a technological thriller around the possibilities. There is an immense amount of research that went into the book but he also manages to keep the reader’s interest in a subject that many find dry and boring in the non-fiction world. In a climate of financial anxiety, this is a timely book but won’t ease your fears.

• The conflict with the personalities in the book. I didn’t really like any of the characters but the interplay of conflict kept the tension high. Hoffman clashes with everyone as he fights for his sanity and yet is undermined all the way. One strong scene is at the launch of Gabrielle’s artistic career in a gallery when every single one of her pieces is bought by a mystery person, who she takes to be Hoffman. She is humiliated in front of her guests and leaves him alone to face the onslaught.

• The way the book is written, with glimpses about the dramatic end highlighted with time stamps and phrases like “according to the records viewed later”. This keeps reminding you of a final event to come that as yet you don’t know about, a technique I don’t think I have consciously noticed in other books before but it certainly keeps you reading.

Recommended! Fans of Daemon by Daniel Suarez will enjoy this technological thriller (and if you haven’t read it, try that next!)

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