Natural Elements

By Richard Mason

Knopf, March 17

Plot: A hedge fund manager in London takes a gamble on an obscure metal to finance her mother’s assisted-living care.

Inspiration: Mason, who lives in Scotland, researched the novel by spending time with friends who run hedge funds.

Notes: Several publishers bid on Mason’s manuscript in 2006, says Victoria Wilson, the book’s editor. “If he were writing this book today, my hunch is that it would have ended differently,” she says.

The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund

By Jill Kargman

Dutton, April 16

Plot: Against a backdrop of lurid excess, the former wives of two mogul brothers forge an unlikely friendship.

Inspiration: Kargman, the daughter of former Chanel C.E.O. Arie Kopelman, came up with the novel’s plot in 2006 after attending a lavish 200-guest kiddie birthday party held in a ­ballroom.

Advance: $500,000 for a two-book deal.

Notes: The publisher updated a late draft to make it clear that the story is set in 2006.

Triple Cross

By Mark T. Sullivan

St. Martin’s Press, April 14

Plot: Anti-globalist guerrillas wreak havoc on the international ­economy by taking seven of the world’s wealthiest men ­hostage at an exclusive ski resort.

Inspiration: The resort is based on the now-bankrupt Yellowstone Club in Montana.

Advance: $350,000.

Notes: In light of the market crash, publicity for the book may focus more on rich people in peril.

Hedge Fund Wives

by Tatiana Boncompagni

Avon Books, May 5

Plot: Four women’s lives change when their husbands’ fortunes rise and fall in an economic collapse.

Inspiration: In the summer of 2007, ­Boncompagni’s friends in the financial world started to talk about a real estate bubble.

Notes: The author, who’s married to Maximilian Hoover (of vacuum-cleaner fame), is in a legal battle with her sister over who ­really wrote the book. Avon fast-tracked the pub date to take advantage of the changing economy.

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