Michael Sears is a marvel. His books, which feature a financial investigator who is as welcome in the hallways of his employer company as the flu, balance the cold and calculating digits and zeroes that are the hallmark of financial trading with the very emotional and human. I don’t know how he does it, but he pulls it off, and very well.

The investigator in question is Jason Stafford, a brilliant Wall Street trader who experienced a fall from grace with a stint in prison awaiting him when he came to ground. Stafford puts his knowledge of how to hide illicit trades to work in his day-to-day job, working for Virgil Becker of the Becker Financial Group, which itself was almost brought to ruin by the wrongful machinations of Becker’s father. Stafford reports to Becker, and only to Becker. While forever figuratively and literally looking over the shoulders of the firm’s traders, Stafford is second in importance to the firm only to Becker himself, given that his efforts keep things on a legal footing, and thus in business.

"Sears finds a credible reason to move father and son out of Manhattan and into the real world, if you will, while balancing high finance, action and cyberspace derring-do in a rich mix that will keep you reading well into the night."

That is not to say that the Stafford series is boardrooms and boredom. Far from it. SAVING JASON, the fourth installment, begins with a very exciting assassination attempt on a government witness, one that goes from bad to worse in ways that are entirely unexpected. It takes a bit of time for that opening vignette to tie into the main story, but while it does, Stafford has plenty with which to occupy himself. Not one to stay in the office and pour over results, his initial appearance here finds him on Long Island of all places. A series of suspicious penny stock transactions all seem to share a focal point at a defunct horse farm that houses a few unexpected items, some of which raise the suspicion quota into the red zone.

When Stafford shares his suspicions with his boss, Becker directs him to another project that he considers to be more significant. It appears that someone is quietly but methodically engineering a hostile takeover of Becker Financial Group, and Becker wants Stafford to investigate who is behind it. Stafford is up to the task, but that penny stock operation won’t leave him alone. He suddenly finds himself on the wrong end of a grand jury investigation and under threat from both sides of the law. When that investigation spills over into the Becker Financial Group, Stafford’s boss suddenly is at risk of losing the company he fought so hard to preserve.

Worse, Stafford’s own life is in terrible danger. After an attempt is made on his life, Stafford and his son, Jason --- a young boy with autism who responds to the nickname “The Kid” --- find themselves transported half a continent and a world away from New York. Even there, they are anything but safe. When the worst occurs, Stafford will have to rely on his wits and his few remaining friends to save his life, as well as that of The Kid...and, if he can, his employer’s job as well.

SAVING JASON is the best installment of this fine series to date. Sears finds a credible reason to move father and son out of Manhattan and into the real world, if you will, while balancing high finance, action and cyberspace derring-do in a rich mix that will keep you reading well into the night. And if your idea of finance is limited to making change, never fear. Sears keeps the topics elementary and the explanations simple. The excitement, however, is superlative.