* The cinematic style of the fast-paced narrative as a Geneva-based hedge fund cash-cow computer goes rogue.
* The breathless prose matching Dr Alexander Hoffman's increasing desperation as he tries to find out why his apparently wonderful life is unravelling around him when an intruder attacks him in his home: but who or what put him up to it?
* Being unable to resist casting appropriate Hollywood stars as the characters for the inevitable movie in a couple of years: Tom Hanks for Hoffman, anyone?
* The titillating explanation from the Hugh Grant-ish business partner about how a hedge fund works: gamble a fortune with someone that a partygoer's panties are black; then gamble another fortune with someone else that they might be any other colour. Apply principle to financial derivatives. Ker-ching.
* The insight into the world of the ruthless hedge funders who would rather fire their risk advisers than do anything to stop the relentless pursuit of unimaginable wealth.
* The plot nods to gruesome contemporary events: the consenting cannibal case in Germany and passenger jets brought down by terrorists.
* The entertaining antics of investigating Detective LeClerc, a cross between Columbo, Clouseau and Robert Duvall in Falling Down.
* The meeting of the hedge fund investors: the motliest crew since the golden ticket winners in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
* The gradual unfolding of Hoffman's back-story via the Cern Large Hadron Collider and his Damien Hirst-style artist wife. He's far from the smug, millionaire antique-book collector the opening chapter suggests.
* The unmistakeable echoes of Hal in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey as it seems the fund computer is developing a mind of its own. But can Hoffman shut it down, live to tell the tale and save his marriage? Go long or short - your choice.
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