Book Review: The Vault by Stuart Z. Goldstein

Reviewed by Erin Britton

A nail-biting thriller centering on an audacious heist that coincides with a spectacular natural disaster

Even the best of people will go to extreme lengths when pushed too far. Stuart Z. Goldstein’s The Vault is a gripping tale in which concepts of right and wrong are upended and the distinction between heroes and villains is blurred beyond recognition. The stakes are high from the outset, but as both the authorities and Hurricane Sandy close in, the danger mounts and the likelihood of double-crosses increases exponentially, all leading to a tense and unguessable denouement.

New York is home to many secrets, not least a cache of wealth almost beyond comprehension. “No one could imagine that down a rabbit hole near Wall Street stood the largest bank securities vault in the world, holding more than $37 trillion in assets.” One person who is very aware of this hidden treasure beneath Manhattan is Andy Russo, the Head of Vault Operations. Having been with Americlear since the 1970s, he has witnessed the vault’s growth and development, as well as the rewards that its operation has brought, but he’s under illusions about the company.

“Andy knew a reckoning was coming.”

There has long been a distinction between the haves and the have-nots, but the real rot sets in when Daeva Connolly is appointed CEO of Americlear. Unlike the previous CEO, who had removed some of the traditional and discriminatory barriers within the company, meaning that “Black, Latin and Asian faces began showing up in jobs and on floors they could only previously visit,” Connolly only cares about the bottom line, “notwithstanding any collateral damage to our employees.” As a consequence, working conditions are diminished, health and safety is imperfect, and jobs are lost.

Despite the worsening conditions, “None of his employees ever doubted how far Andy would go to protect them.” However, when a freeze on salaries and a reduction in both bonuses and pensions is announced, and only a short time after Russo suffers a personal tragedy, the staff of the subterranean vault are shocked when he suggests that they take action against Americlear. When Andy reaches a tipping point, he suggests that his team commit a daring crime: “We’re going to steal $100 million in bearer bonds from the vault. It will require everyone on our team to make this happen. But no one will ever have to worry about Americlear doing the right thing any longer.”

While The Vault takes a while to get to this point, Stuart Z. Goldstein uses the buildup to Russo’s masterplan wisely, introducing the man himself, his role and history within the company, and the loyalty that he inspires in his staff. Given that Russo decides to end his decades-long exemplary career by stealing tens of millions of dollars from his employer, it’s no surprise that he’s a complex character. Indeed, while Russo is most definitely a man of layers, no one would suspect how far he is willing to go to secure the future for his family and his employees.

Despite being the boss in the vault, Russo sees himself as one of the staff, not one of the higher-ups. What’s more, he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is, confronting company leadership about proposed job cuts, for instance, and ensuring that his department is spared. And even though he has always been loyal to Americlear, he’s not blind to the company’s faults: “if you were white you worked above street level in the building, but minorities and immigrants were relegated to work in a basement without windows.” Still, while he does what he can for his people, he is still part of the corporate machine, at least until he reaches his tipping point.

Perhaps relatedly, although Russo positions himself as an underdog throughout The Vault, he has to acknowledge that even he has benefited from some privilege, at least back in the day. “Returning from his military service in Vietnam and with a college degree, Andy’s uncle leveraged the ‘old boy’ network to land him a job on Wall Street.” This means, of course, that he has benefited from exactly the kind of discrimination that he now rails against, although his good nature and genuine desire to help others makes it easy to overlook the potential hypocrisy here. And this is just one of the intriguing moral quandaries that Goldstein introduces into the story.

Another valuable consequence of the slow buildup to the heist is that the various members of Russo’s crew—more formally known as the loyal employees of the vault—are introduced in turn. From the relative newcomers such as Stella Jones and Reggie Seawright to the stalwarts like Edith Colon and Bea Siegel, they all have complex personal lives that lend credence to their loyalty to Russo and their willingness to commit a major crime. While Russo’s suggestion of the heist seems sudden and the others’ openness to it rather surprising, the detail that Goldstein presents regarding their characters makes it possible to overlook such quibbles.

Goldstein does an excellent job with his antagonists—both plausible and nicely detestable. Daeva Connolly is a properly awful corporate bigwig, and she provides a perfect face for the otherwise faceless specter of corporate greed. Just wait until you get hold of this appallingly mercenary personality.

Given how they are treated, it’s really no wonder that Russo et al. feel they have nothing to lose in stealing all that money, especially when unchecked corporate cost-cutting is ironically a key reason why the heist is possible in the first place. 

Unsurprisingly, when it gets to the point that Russo explains his plan and the crime starts coming together, the pace of The Vault really accelerates and the tension ramps up. The planning stage is both engaging and exciting, and the whole thing seems scarily plausible.

Of course, even the best laid plans sometimes go awry, and Russo’s heist is no exception. In having the theft coincide with Hurricane Sandy bearing down on New York, Goldstein adds an extra layer of danger and suspense to the story. What’s more, there are several other hitches along the way, which makes the whole enterprise even more exhilarating and amusing. 

As the ragtag bunch of unlikely crooks make their move, questions about loyalty arise and suspicions are triggered, and as all this unfolds, The Vault starts to build toward a thrilling conclusion where you can’t help but root for the anti-heroes. 

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