Book Review - Company Man by Joseph Finder
Category Book Reviews
Based on the recommendation of a few fellow Amazon reviewers, I decided to pick up a copy of Company Man by Joseph Finder for some recreational reading. I'll be going back out to pick up some of his earlier works... This was a good read.
Nick Conover is the CEO of a small town company that's a big name in the office furniture industry. He was well liked before having to lay off 5000 people based on pressure from the owners. Now he's "Nick The Slasher" and everyone in town pretty much hates him. To complicate issues, his wife was killed in an auto accident, and he's left to raise his two kids who are having drastically different reactions to her death. The troubles in Nick's life start when someone continually breaks into his gated community home and spraypaints graffiti on the walls. It escalates when someone kills the family pet. The cops aren't doing much to help due to Nick's standing in the town. It all comes to a head when he has to defend his property and family with a gun against the person who is a likely suspect in all the other break-ins. But the shooting isn't one that can be legally justified, and he makes the mistake of working with his corporate security director to cover it up. Tension mounts as the cops start connecting threads that lead back to him, and his budding romance with the daughter of the victim is making things complicated. His company is also crumbling as it looks like he's being left out of the loop to sell the company to a Chinese firm. Who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, and who can be trusted?
As I said in the opening, this was a good read. Even though Nick is a sympathetic character who hated the layoffs, you understand why the town hates him. The detectives working the case are a mismatched pair as opposite as they can be, but perseverance and justice prevail in order to dig out the truth of the matter. There are also some pretty nice twists thrown in along the way, and I personally found it hard to figure out how exactly the story was going to turn out. Pacing was good, and it was refreshing to not see a religious main character portrayed as a fanatic or deranged psycho.
I'll be putting Finder on my list of "must read" authors based on this book, and now I have to fill up my library hold list with his earlier writings. I love finding a good new author... :-)
Based on the recommendation of a few fellow Amazon reviewers, I decided to pick up a copy of Company Man by Joseph Finder for some recreational reading. I'll be going back out to pick up some of his earlier works... This was a good read.
Nick Conover is the CEO of a small town company that's a big name in the office furniture industry. He was well liked before having to lay off 5000 people based on pressure from the owners. Now he's "Nick The Slasher" and everyone in town pretty much hates him. To complicate issues, his wife was killed in an auto accident, and he's left to raise his two kids who are having drastically different reactions to her death. The troubles in Nick's life start when someone continually breaks into his gated community home and spraypaints graffiti on the walls. It escalates when someone kills the family pet. The cops aren't doing much to help due to Nick's standing in the town. It all comes to a head when he has to defend his property and family with a gun against the person who is a likely suspect in all the other break-ins. But the shooting isn't one that can be legally justified, and he makes the mistake of working with his corporate security director to cover it up. Tension mounts as the cops start connecting threads that lead back to him, and his budding romance with the daughter of the victim is making things complicated. His company is also crumbling as it looks like he's being left out of the loop to sell the company to a Chinese firm. Who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, and who can be trusted?
As I said in the opening, this was a good read. Even though Nick is a sympathetic character who hated the layoffs, you understand why the town hates him. The detectives working the case are a mismatched pair as opposite as they can be, but perseverance and justice prevail in order to dig out the truth of the matter. There are also some pretty nice twists thrown in along the way, and I personally found it hard to figure out how exactly the story was going to turn out. Pacing was good, and it was refreshing to not see a religious main character portrayed as a fanatic or deranged psycho.
I'll be putting Finder on my list of "must read" authors based on this book, and now I have to fill up my library hold list with his earlier writings. I love finding a good new author... :-)
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Comments
If you care to check out some other titles that are similar to Company Man, I would suggest something by Michael Connelly or maybe a new author I just found out about, Ken Ratcliffe - both writers throw some exciting twists into their stories and offer some keen insight to the worlds of their novels which obviously come from personal experience. Maybe try the Closers, or Manhook if you're interested - happy reading!
Posted by Jim Callan At 00:22:32 On 31/07/2005 | - Website - |