Company Man [Hardcover]

Joseph Finder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 2005

COMPANY MAN, a deft mix of compelling story, distinctive narrative voice and full-bodied characterization, once again proves Finder to be a master of the modern thriller. Nick Conover, the son of a factory worker, is the CEO of a major corporation in a company town. Once the most admired man in Fenwick, Michigan, Nick - having presided over massive layoffs - is now the most despised. A single parent since the recent death of his wife, he's struggling to insulate his ten-year-old daughter and angry sixteen-year-old son from the town's hostility. When his family is threatened by a nameless stalker, events spin quickly out of control and Nick is faced with a dead body and damning circumstances. To protect his family, he must cover up the homicide with the help of his old friend and corporate security director. Now Audrey Rhimes, a police investigator with an agenda of her own, is determined to connect Nick to the homicide. Nick, in the meantime, begins to unravel a web of intrigue within his own corporation, involving his closest colleagues, that threatens to gut the company and bring him down with it. With everything he spent his life working for hanging in the balance, Nick Conover discovers that life at the top is just one small step away from a long plunge to the bottom.

Editorial Reviews

From 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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker

Finder sets his sixth novel in a small town in Michigan, a place where nothing appears to be going well for anyone. The Stratton Corporation, which makes premium office furniture, has laid off half its workforce, and thousands of ex-employees are furious with the company's C.E.O., Nick Conover; one of them seems to be stalking him. The story alternates between Conover's perspective and that of an intensely religious policewoman. Finder skillfully places his story of corporate intrigue (who is trying to sell the company, and why?) in counterpoint to the unravelling of a family's secrets (why is Nick's son Lucas so disturbed?), and the plot, which also features rogue cops and at least one homicide, accelerates to a headlong finish. Along the way, we receive expert instruction in the technology of home-security devices, the perils of offshoring, and the attractions of Hawaii.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing (May 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075286887X
• ISBN-13: 978-0752868875
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (113 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,423,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joseph Finder's plan was to become a spy. Or maybe a professor of Russian history. Instead he became a bestselling thriller writer, and winner of the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel for KILLER INSTINCT (2006) and winner of the Barry and Gumshoe Awards for Best Thriller for COMPANY MAN (2005).

Born in Chicago, Joe spent his early childhood living around the world, including Afghanistan and the Philippines. In fact, Joe's first language -- even before English -- was Farsi, which he spoke as a child in Kabul. After a stint in Bellingham, WA, his family finally settled outside of Albany, NY.

After taking a high school seminar on the literature and history of Russia, Joe was hooked. He went on to major in Russian studies at Yale, where he also sang with the school's legendary a cappella group, the Whiffenpoofs (and likes to boast that he sang next to Ella Fitzgerald, an honorary Whiffenpoof). Joe graduated summa cum laude from Yale College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, then completed a master's degree at the Harvard Russian Research Center, and later taught on the Harvard faculty. He was recruited to the Central Intelligence Agency but eventually decided he preferred writing fiction.

His first book, published in 1983 when Joe was only 24, was RED CARPET: THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE KREMLIN AND AMERICA'S MOST POWERFUL BUSINESSMEN, the first book to reveal that the controversial multi-millionaire Dr. Armand Hammer, the CEO of Occidental Petroleum, had worked for Soviet intelligence in the 1920s and 1930s. (This book is no longer in print.)

But RED CARPET was only part of the story that Joe wanted to tell. So he wrote his first novel - the only way he could legally tell the whole Armand Hammer saga. Published in 1991, THE MOSCOW CLUB described events whose factual truth would only be revealed many years later. THE MOSCOW CLUB was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the ten best spy thrillers of all time and was published in thirty foreign countries.

What followed were three more critically-acclaimed thrillers - EXTRAORDINARY POWERS, THE ZERO HOUR (sold to Twentieth-Century Fox for a record sum) and HIGH CRIMES, which became a 2002 Fox film starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. Joe was invited on the movie set and even cast for a nonspeaking role as a JAG prosecutor.

Published in 2004, PARANOIA represented a major turning point in Joe's career, landing on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists, among others. It was his first book to use the ruthless drive, corruption and conspiracy of the corporate world as riveting plotline. Called "fun...movie-ready...[with] twists aplenty..." by Entertainment Weekly, PARANOIA has been acquired by Gaumont, one of the world's largest film production and distribution companies. The movie deal was announced in April 2009, with Barry Levy ("Vantage Point") set to script the adaptation.

Joe's next three novels - COMPANY MAN, KILLER INSTINCT and POWER PLAY - were all bestsellers in which things were decidedly not business as usual. He was quickly hailed as "the CEO of suspense."

In VANISHED, published August 2009 by St. Martin's Press and an immediate bestseller, Joe introduced his new continuing character, "private spy" Nick Heller. Trained in the Special Forces, Nick is a high-powered intelligence investigator - exposing secrets that powerful people would rather keep hidden. He's a guy you don't want to mess with. He's also the man you call when you need a problem fixed. The second novel in the series, BURIED SECRETS, was published June 2011.

In addition to his fiction, Joe does occasional work for Hollywood, is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and Council on Foreign Relations, and has written on espionage and international affairs for a number of publications, including TheDailyBeast.com, Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic. He roots for the Boston Red Sox and lives in Boston with his wife, daughter, and a needy golden retriever, Mia, a dropout from seeing-eye-dog school.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the British Edition of "Company Man", August 22, 2007

By 

Thriller Lover (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: No Hiding Place (Paperback)

I'm a fan of Joseph Finder, but don't purchase this book if you've already read COMPANY MAN.

NO HIDING PLACE is simply COMPANY MAN with a different title. It's not unusual for British publishers of an American author to use a different title than the one used in the US.

If you haven't read this book, I heartily recommend it. I loved this thriller, and I think it's probably Finder's best recent effort. It has the strongest character development and the most realistic plot of all his corporate thrillers.

If you like Harlan Coben, you should give Finder a try. I think Finder writes in a similar style, and is probably a little bit more original with his plotlines.

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No hiding place, April 7, 2005

By 

Eileen Rieback (Coral Springs, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Company Man (Hardcover)

Nick Conover has more than his share of troubles. As the CEO of Stratton Corporation, a major manufacturer of office furniture and cubicles, he was forced by his parent company to lay off five thousand workers. Now he is an outcast in his own hometown, since almost every resident was affected in some way by the layoffs. A disgruntled former employee has been breaking into his home and leaving threatening messages. The members of the board of his corporation appear to be acting behind his back and trying to force him out. He is a recent widower with a kitchen in the midst of a major remodeling and a teenage son who is having problems at home and in school. Sound bad? Well that's just the beginning. When he confronts the intruder who has been threatening him, things go very wrong, and soon he finds himself the target of a police investigation. As his problems mount, so does the tension. Nick has nowhere to hide.

Finder has continued in the tradition of his last novel "Paranoia" with another fast-paced and suspenseful story. This time, however, it's a combination of corporate thriller and murder mystery. Instead of examining the world of high tech, it explores a manufacturer of more down-to-earth products like desk chairs. There are interesting details about the design and manufacture of office equipment, and it's obvious that Finder did his homework on the topic.

Anyone who works in the corporate world or is close to someone who does will find that the ripple effects of Stratton's mammoth layoffs ring all too true. This makes Nick's "company man" portrayal a bit out of the ordinary, since he is a high level executive with a conscience about the corporate buyouts, force reductions, and labor outsourcing that have become an integral part of today's business practices. He even insists that top management work in a cubicle environment like the other workers instead of in posh corner offices. Besides Nick, there are many other well fleshed-out characters. One of them is police detective Audrey Rhimes, who struggles with racial and gender discrimination on the job and who must keep an open mind when investigating Nick even though Stratton laid off her husband. If you enjoyed "Paranoia" you will love "Company Man." If you haven't read "Paranoia" yet, then hurry up and read both of them!

Eileen Rieback

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner from Joe Finder, April 20, 2005

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Company Man (Hardcover)

COMPANY MAN by Joseph Finder

March 26, 2005

COMPANY MAN is the story of a CEO (Nick Conover) of a large office furniture manufacturer who finds himself involved in a murder, while at the same time is dealing with the death of his wife and the impact it has on his children.

Nick works for Stratton, a company that makes high-end office furniture, and they have been in business for a few generations. Unfortunately, things have been rocky since Nick took over, and has had to lay off hundreds of employees. It's a typical scenario in the business world, but Stratton is the main employer for this small town of Fenwick, Michigan, where almost everyone knows someone that was employed there or had been laid off. Nick goes from being popular guy to "the slasher".

As the story begins, the reader finds out that Nick's home has been broken into more than once, and although nothing is ever stolen, someone has been writing graffiti on his walls. The police do not see this as a threat, even after they find the family dog in the pool, butchered. Soon after, his friend Eddie, who also happens to be Nick's director of security at Stratton, helps him install a security system as well as try to find out who could possibly be the person doing this to Nick and the family. Eddie suspects an ex-employee by the name of Andrew Stadler who was supposedly schizophrenic and had been part of the layoffs, except he quit before they could actually lay him off.

One night Nick kills Andrew in self-defense. Andrew had shown up in the yard (the brand new security system alerted Nick) and from there, his nightmares begin. Eddie comes to the rescue once again, but he wants to cover up the murder. Nick wants to go the police, saying it was in self-defense, but Eddie says that Nick would definitely go to jail. Nick believes him, since Eddie used to be a cop with the Grand Rapids police, and knows the routine. So, Eddie helps Nick cover up the murder, with Nick not knowing any of the details. Eddie feels that the less Nick knows the better.

In the mean time, there is something going on with the management team at Stratton, and Nick finds that he can't trust anyone. Scott McNally, his CFO, was his most trusted man at one point, but now Nick can't even trust him either. Scott begins to make decisions without informing Nick, obviously going behind Nick's back, travelling overseas without letting Nick know. It is almost obvious that Scott and the top management of Stratton are all hiding something from him. Desperate, Nick enlists Eddie to help get to the bottom of it, and as they find out what is going on, Nick finds himself wanting more than ever to help save the company that seems to be on the brink of bankruptcy.

One added element helps crank up the tension in the story: Nick gets involved with the daughter of Andrew Stadler, and regardless of the advice Eddie gives Nick about staying away from her, Nick feels a connection with her, and cannot stay away. Eddie is worried that Nick's involvement with her may jeopardize things, and lead the police to them.

The two story lines are written in parallel, and as the cops (including Audry Rhimes, an African American female cop that finds all sorts of opposition from her peers) come closer to finding the truth of what happened that night, Nick's problems at work escalate. The ending climax was not what I had expected and it was a shock to find out who really was the one that was breaking into Nick's home.

This is the second book by Joseph Finder that I have read, and while I liked this book, I still find PARANOIA to be my favorite (for sentimental reasons). Both books were hard to put down, however, and I stayed up past my bedtime to finish reading COMPANY MAN. I think some may find that the ending was a bit too sensational, but overall the book was well written and I loved the suspense. Those who enjoyed PARANOIA will definitely love COMPANY MAN. As for myself, I'm looking forward to Finder's next novel (keep cranking them out, Joe!)