Finder, Joseph: Company Man

St. Martin's Press © 2005, 520 pages [amazon]

Nick Conover has problems enough at the outset of Joseph Finder's Company Man. As the CEO of the Stratton Corporation--makers of high-end office furniture and the biggest employer in Fenwick, Michigan--he's hated by his neighbors because of recent layoffs. His 16-year-old son is remote and flirting with drug use. And the whole family is still roiling after the accidental death of Nick's wife a year earlier. But in the course of Finder's page-turner things get much worse for Nick. He comes to realize that the people he's trusted at Stratton are conspiring against the company. And he learns too that though his family's house is ensconced behind the reassuring walls of a gated community--his wife's idea--he and his children are anything but safe.

And he learns too that though his family's house is ensconced behind the reassuring walls of a gated community--his wife's idea--he and his children are anything but safe.Company Man, Finder's sixth novel, is a simply riveting read. Finder masterfully ratchets up the tension, forcing his good-guy protagonist--a flawed but inherently decent Every Man, albeit richer than most--into a corner from which no escape seems possible. It's a superbly wrought thriller, played out among the cubicles of corporate America. Highly recommended.

Tags: book reviews, books, Company Man, Joseph Finder