Based on unique access Mr Cohan has put together a comprehensive picture of one of the last private banks in the Investment Banking world. As objective a view as anybody would ever be able to get of this world where perception and reality can not be distinguished even by those inside the firm. Lazard was lucky enough to have a transatlantic Mergers and Acquisition business that its competitors tried to emulate in the giddy 1990's. A cast of characters which were the last of the "stars", that created so much heat they burned each other to cinders. A fitting obituary to a world that disappeared.