Suspense in a corporate setting

A few years ago, I picked up a book by Joseph Finder not expecting to like it. His books are a little bit like John Grisham in that the protagonists tend to be men in their early thirties up against some powerful force. Whereas Grisham's books have a legal setting, Finder's take place in the corporate world. I never really got into Grisham's work, but I really look forward to a new Joseph Finder novel.

Paranoia begins with Adam Cassidy, a bored white-collar cubicle rat, attending a retirement party for a man who worked on the loading dock for many years. The company is not aware that they threw such a lavish retirement party because Adam finagled an account to make the funds available. Unfortunately, someone does notice that Adam did this and he is called into a meeting with security, CEO Nick Wyatt and a human resources representative. The case is presented to him as are the consequences of embezzling funds from the company. He is looking at some heavy prison time...unless he does something for Wyatt. Wyatt wants him to go to work for their biggest rival, Trion which has been working on a top secret project. With prison as his only alternative, Adam agrees to the scheme. With a heavily padded resume, Adam gets a job with Trion. Soon he is working closely with CEO Jock Goddard. Adam loves the perks of his new job...a great apartment, fancy car, huge paycheck and a boss he actually likes and respects, but his conscience bothers him. He wants to come clean to Goddard, but can't. There is a twist at the end that I never saw coming. I love it when there is a twist I never see coming.

Killer Instinct starts off with Jason Steadman driving his car into a ditch while gabbing on his cell phone. He gets a ride home from tow truck driver Kurt Semko. They begin talking about the baseball game on the radio and hit it off. Semko has a military background and Jason is a salesman for an electronics company. They bump into each other again and Jason tells him there is an opening at work for a security position and encourages him to apply. Semko gets the job as head of security and soon things start going very well for Jason. The star salesman's car stalls on the way to an important presentation. Then there is a problem with his computer which makes his star begin to dim in the eyes of their bosses. If Jason suspects Kurt is behind it, he doesn't let on. When people begin to die, he no longer can. If Kurt Semko is a dangerous friend to have, he is an even more dangerous enemy.

Power Play takes place at a corporate retreat in the remote Canadian woods. Jake Landry is by no means a high level executive but his presence was requested by the CEO on this outing. She asks him to help her uncover some corruption in the group. Soon the cabin is attacked seemingly by a group of hunters and the executives are taken hostage. It soon becomes clear that these hunters know more about the group and their business and that they aren't your run of the mill backwoods hunters.

Watch for Vanished<> which comes out August 18, 2009.

Murder and Mayhem in Rural Georgia

A few years back, I started reading a series by Karin Slaughter. The book I picked up was actually the second in the series (hate it when that happens) but it was so good I read it and then went back and got the first book. Now I patiently await Ms. Slaughter's newest offering each summer. The series, Grant County is named for a fictional county in Georgia. The main characters are Sara Linton, a pediatrician who also serves as the county's medical examiner which puts her in constant contact with her ex-husband Jeffrey Tolliver who is the sheriff of Grant County. Their marriage ended several years earlier when she came home early one day to discover him in bed with another woman. Aside from the various crimes that go on in this county such as a kiddie porn ring, meth trafficking, white supremacist groups, religious cults and a hostage situation at the sheriff's office we see Jeffrey and Sara grow closer and give their marriage a second chance. Another major character in the series is Detective Lena Adams. Lena is Jeffrey's protege but she has a chip on her shoulder being a woman in a field dominated by men. She feels she has to be tougher than everyone else and is often abrasive, especially in her dealings with Sara. Lena is the opposite of Sara in that she didn't grow up with a traditional family. Her parents died when she was young leaving her and her blind twin sister in the care of their drug-addicted uncle. In the first book Blindsighted, Lena's sister is found murdered in the bathroom of a diner. As medical examiner, Sara finds similarities to a crime perpetrated against herself while she was completing her medical training in Atlanta. The rest of the series is as follows: Kisscut, A Faint Cold Fear, Indelible, Faithless and Beyond Reach.

In 2006, the author began a second series around a minor character from some of the Grant County books named Will Trent, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. This second series is set in Atlanta. The first book Triptych deals with a serial killer on the loose. There is a twist to this book near the beginning that caught me off guard, but made it that much more interesting. Slaughter has a talent for creating characters that you care about and this book is full of them. John Shelley was sent to prison as a teenager for the brutal murder of a school friend while he was on drugs. He always maintained his innocence and the only person who ever believed in him was his mother. He suffered a great deal in prison and was recently parolled. He wants to make a new life for himself, but someone is trying to frame him for these new crimes. He must find out who it is and somehow find out what really happened all those years ago. Will Trent is a tall, lanky aloof sort that no one really knows how to deal with but he is really good at his job. His demeanor helps him to hide the fact that he is dyslexic and his childhood left him feeling separated from other people. He grew up in an orphanage after being taken from his abusive father. He was never adopted but was always hopeful. His only friend is a fellow survivor of the orphanage, vice cop Angie Pulaski who lost hope early on and became bitter. Angie and Will share a bond and can always count on each other. The second book in this series is Fractured which centers around the murder of one teenage girl, the disappearance of another and the fatal shooting of an innocent young man thought to be the perpetrator in an upscale Atlanta neighborhood. In this book, Will is paired with Atlanta PD Detective Faith Mitchell. She resents being assigned to work the case with the enigmatic Will. Faith, like Lena in the Grant County series has a chip on her shoulder as well. She is in her early thirties but is the mother of a college-aged son. As they work the case, they develop mutual respect and she discovers his secret but doesn't expose him. It looks like Faith will be Will's partner in future books.

Undone is Karen Slaughter's latest and it will be released on July 14, 2009. It looks like characters from both series work together on a case. I can't say more without giving away what happened in the last Grant County book, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Do you like a well-written thriller?

A few years ago I found myself between books and didn't know what to read next so I resorted to my tried and true method of just browsing the fiction shelves. I pulled off a few titles that looked interesting. I skimmed the first page of Greg Iles's Dead Sleep and knew I had to read it. Jordan Glass happens upon a controversial art exhibit entitled The Sleeping Women. There is something about the women in the paintings that left the viewer with the impression that their sleep was the more permanent kind. One of the women looks familiar....just like her. A year earlier, Jordan's twin sister vanished without a trace. I really enjoyed that book and have recommended it often over the years.

What I like about Greg Iles is that each book is very well-written and you don't have to read them in any particular order. There are a few characters that pop up from time to time, but only one has been a main character in more than one and that is Penn Cage. Penn Cage first appears in The Quiet Game. He is a former prosecutor who has achieved fame as a writer of legal thrillers. At the opening of The Quiet Game it is not long after his wife died of cancer and his young daughter is not taking it well. He decides the best thing to do is to return to his old hometown of Natchez, Mississippi. While giving an interview to a local reporter who is originally from the north, he is drawn into a conversation about race relations and the way Southerners think. He makes reference to the murder of a local Civil Rights activist in the early 1960's that was never solved. When asked why, he asserts that no one wanted it to be solved even after all these years. The reporter's story appears the next day focused on the unsolved murder and implies that Penn wants to solve it. Needless to say, this doesn't set well with some people in the community and gives hope to others who never thought they would get justice including the man's widow and son. If you liked Grisham's A Time to Kill, you will like The Quiet Game.

Other titles I would recommend by Greg Iles include: True Evil and Turning Angel which are both set in Natchez. On July 7, 2009 his latest The Devil's Punchbowl is due to be released. Be sure to reserve it now!