The author engages the reader in a story book fashion with actual bankruptcy stories, the cast of characters, investment philosophies/strategies and lessons to be learned.
The author also sprinkles in bankruptcy laws and procedures for those who are not as conversant in the field.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in profiting from distressed companies.
But, the book doesn't cover these topics in mere textbook fashion. Rather, it introduces us to some of the most famous vulture investors of all time and provides exciting narratives of their significant investment successes and failures. The cast of characters is fascinating. One ends up with a very good feel for the type of personality needed to work in this field: financial/legal wizard who combines the ferocity and tenacity of a wolverine with the haggling skills of a hat merchant from the garment district.
One of the most famous of the vulture investors is Marty Whitman, whose book "Value Investing: A Balanced Approach" forms an invaluable companion text to this book. "Value Investing" provides the theoretical underpinnings; "Vulture Investors" shows the theories in action.
The book went into great detail about the hierarchy of security claims and how they work in bankruptcy. The examples showed how the investor classes work with and against each other in bankruptcy and the roles the b/k judge and attorneys played. With many different narratives the reader is able to see different outcomes and the extreme risks and rewards involved in this type investing.
The book's main focus was on the personalities involved in buying distressed debt and then trying to influence the b/k process mainly through the courts but sometimes in prepackaged b/ks.
In summary, I learned a lot and enjoyed the stories also. The only caveat I would have is that the book was originally written in the early 90s so there are not new examples although the author did give summary updates on the companies and investors up through 1998.