Joel Sacks has been writing for a long time, but last fall, his first published novel, “City of Cards,” was released.
The book follows the stories of three MIT students who meet in an economics class in 1992. Although they don’t meet up again until more than a decade later, their lives become intertwined as part of a ploy to destroy the American economy.
“The basic plot is what actually led to the U.S. meltdown of the economy in 2008,” Sacks, a member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, said. “It’s all based upon real laws that enabled that whole financial collapse back in 2008.”
The three characters are brought back together when one of them is indirectly recruited by al-Qaida unbeknownst to him. The other two characters get pulled in to the situation, and things get tricky as the characters realize who they are working for.
“It’s a thriller. It’s a very fast-paced book,” Sacks said. “The trick is not to get the reader bogged down and keep the story flowing. I wanted to make the characters interesting and compelling.”
Sacks liked the characters so much that he wrote a sequel and is now working on the third book. He hopes to release the sequel later this year.
“This is the first time I’ve gotten enamored enough with the characters that I’ve wanted
to write [a sequel],” he said. “After it was done, I wasn’t ready to give up on the characters.”
