Company Man
A Novel
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- € 12,99
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"A high octane thrill ride!" - San Francisco Chronicle on Paranoia
Joseph Finder's New York Times bestseller Paranoia was hailed by critics as "jet-propelled," the "Page Turner of the Year," and "the archetype of the thriller in its contemporary form."
Now Finder returns with Company Man - a heart-stopping thriller about ambition, betrayal, and the price of secrets.
Nick Conover is the CEO of a major corporation, a local boy made good, and once the most admired man in a company town. But that was before the layoffs.
When a faceless stalker menaces his family, Nick, a single father of two since the recent death of his wife, finds that the gated community they live in is no protection at all. He decides to take action, a tragedy ensues - and immediately his life spirals out of control.
At work, Nick begins to uncover a conspiracy against him, involving some of his closest colleagues. He doesn't know who he can trust - including the brilliant, troubled new woman in his life.
Meanwhile, his actions are being probed by a homicide detective named Audrey Rhimes, a relentless investigator with a strong sense of morality - and her own, very personal reason for pursuing Nick Conover.
With everything he cares about in the balance, Nick discovers strengths he never knew he had. His enemies don't realize how hard he'll fight to save his company. And nobody knows how far he'll go to protect his family.
Mesmerizing and psychologically astute, Company Man is Joseph Finder's most compelling and original novel yet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Though Finder has written several novels including one made into the film High Crimes he hit bestseller lists in a big way only with last year's terrific Paranoia, so this follow-up can be considered a test of his consistency, critically and commercially. While it doesn't dazzle as Paranoia did, this is a solid, engrossing thriller that takes a few risks. Finder's primary risk is a protagonist who, while basically decent, is no paragon. Nick Conover, the youngish CEO of the Stratton Corporation, in Fenwick, Mich., has fired half of the high-end office furniture company's 10,000 employees at the bidding of new ownership in Boston. As a result, much of Fenwick hates Nick, including the person who has been breaking into his mansion and scribbling "No Hiding Place" on the walls, and who then kills the Conover family dog presumably Andrew Stadler, a fired employee and erstwhile mental patient. When Stadler accosts Nick one night, Nick, panicking, shoots him dead, and then, under the influence of his shady corporate security director, covers up the crime. The two cops assigned to the murder prove dogged, sending Nick into a generally beleaguered state that's slightly alleviated by his new romance with, of all people, the daughter of the murdered man, but exacerbated considerably by his discovery that his Boston masters intend to sell Stratton to Chinese government interests. A thriller like this rides on its characters, and Finder creates full-blooded ones here. As in Paranoia, his understanding of byzantine corporate politics is spot on, and the novel's pacing is strong, with steady suspense. Credibility wavers as Finder heaps Job-like trials upon Nick and then ends the book on an optimistic note, but there are few thriller fans who won't stay up to finish this assured tale.
