Customer Reviews

Company Man

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have to concur with several other reviewers, one who said,
"The story could have been written in about 200 pages, not this 500 + behemoth." Toward the end, I was skimming entire pages just to get to the climax. No kidding, in the thick of the climax, the author stops for a few pages to talk about a detective's Sunday morning church outing. You gotta be kidding me!

Also, I totally agree with those who say this is the dumbest "hero" ever. His actions aren't credible.

Finally, so many positive reviews? The author or publisher paid or encouraged others to write positive reviews. There's no way this deserves the positive praise it got.

This is my first try at author Joseph Finder and I will read more. This book drags in the middle and is a little long but it is a good story. The story revolves around Nick Conover the head of Stratton Corporation. He is called 'the slasher' in his community because of the job cutting he was forced to do. The is a struggle of good and bad within one's life, that is, doing what is right and wrong. Nick manages to do both to extremes. I call this a beach read, comfortable and you can pick it up and put it down while you put on sun tan lotion.
I am looking forward to the next of Finder's many books hoping the pace picks up a little.

If you read Finder's High Crimes and enjoyed it, you'll probably like Company Man, too. I didn't like High Crimes, and though I made it through to the interesting surprises at the end of Company Man, most of the middle 300 pages could be cut out without missing anything much.

My secondary complaint is that this is a novel about a corporate executive, but the writer clearly doesn't know much about the lives of corporate executives to make the main character feel real. I do give Finder credit for having enough reviewers to remove most of the obvious errors and throw in a few tidbits of proto-corporatese and spend a little time learning about the furniture business, but it still lacked the feel of authenticity.

My primary complaint is that except for the very ending, the book was a so-called 'thriller' without many thrills. Most of the plot was predictable and the story dragged on over 500 pages. It moved steadily, so I wasn't quite bored, but there are so many better thrillers out there, I wouldn't recommend Company Man except to Finder fans.

Company Man combines Joseph Finder's patented corporate thriller subject matter with that of a murder-based thriller. Finder's protagonist, Nick Conover, is refreshingly human for books of this sort. Although he has a painfully-familiar golden-boy pedigree (high school hockey star and BMOC) and now serves as CEO of the largest business in town, Stratton Corporation, Nick is a troubled man. As if the recent death of his wife, the challenges of raising two adolescent kids, and the local ostracism caused by laying off thousands of the town's residents weren't enough, Nick has to contend with a threatening stalker and a clandestine attempt by the Board of Directors to sell the company to overseas investors.

While certain readers may condemn Nick for his choices, I appreciated the moral ambiguity in which Finder places his hero. All in all, Company Man may be Finder's most complex and fully-realized novel, yet no sacrifices were made in pacing or suspense quotient.

In this novel Joseph Finder has posited the question; who is responsible for a company's failure? management or ownership? Nick Conover, is the local boy who has made good. He is the CEO of the Stratton Corporation, in the small town of Fenwick, Mich. It's a company town and has been for over seventy years. When things were going well (until two years ago) he was the toast of the town (Man of the Year three years ago), now he's just toast.

The company was sold to a venture capitalist, and ever since, there has been pressure to reduce expenses to the point where even CEO Conover questions why. He has had to fire half of the company's 10,000 employees at the bidding of new ownership in Boston. As a result, much of Fenwick hates Nick. He has a stalker who has been breaking into his mansion (in an exclusive gated community) and scribbling "No Hiding Place" on the walls. The police haven't done much because most of them have family or friends who have lost their jobs.

When the stalker kills the Conover family dog, leaving it eviscerate and floating in his pool, the policeman at his door asks Nick, "do you have any enemies?". Nick's old hockey teammate, Eddie has been serving as the company's Security Chief and recommends that Nick put in a high-tech security system with cameras and motion detectors. Eddie also scans the community's security tapes and "finds" the stalker-presumably he is Andrew Stadler, a fired employee and erstwhile mental patient.

When Stadler sets off the motion detectors one night, Nick, panicking, shoots him dead (with a gun supplied by Eddie), and then, under the influence of his Eddie, 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, the daughter of Stadler.

All the pressure on Nick is increased ten fold when at a Board meeting a new member is added along with his CFO, neither of which were run by him for his approval as Board Chairman. Nick then discovers that his Boston masters intend to sell Stratton to Chinese government interests (in fact its the PLA-Peoples Liberation Army). Nick now has to prevent this corporate murder while dodging the detectives who are getting closer to the truth of the murder. The ensuing story is both plausible if not way too drawn out. The finding of the actual stalker, and the lengthy psycho- logical explanations take alot away from the tension of the story.

Unfortunately, I read Finder's new book Killer Instinct before I read Company Man. In some ways they are similar and, while I thoroughly enjoyed Company Man, I was comparing it to Killer Instinct, which I thought was even better. I love Finder and am reading his entire body of work.

Sometimes that moment, that tipping point, where everything begins to go inexorably downhill is obvious. Sometimes it isn't. For Nick Conover, CEO of Stratton Corporation, the moment isn't clear though he knows that things aren't going well. His knowledge is just the tip of the proverbial tip of the iceberg and he has no idea how bad or how fast his slide downhill is going to be.

He knows he isn't liked by his employees or the community at large and things aren't much better at home. Nothing has been the same since his wife died. His teenage son, Lucas, hates his guts. His daughter, Julia, still loves him but things aren't the way they were. The fact that someone keeps vandalizing their house in the expensive gated community doesn't help matters. Having "No hiding place" written on your walls in spray paint is never a good thing. The vandalism seems to point to a faceless nameless former employee, one of many recently laid off as Nick has struggled to save a business which has recently become a small part of a much larger business empire.

With the local police force unwilling to find his vandal, Nick arms himself to protect his family. Before long, a trespasser is dead, Nick is part of a conspiracy to cover up the death and all sense of control Nick had over his personal as well as his professional life is lost.

Like most thrillers, character development is somewhat limited in this work. Most of the character development is done through back story detailing various momentous moments in Nick and his family's past long before the period of time the novel event's actually happen. These events aren't complicated and are rather straightforward as well as gradually revealed throughout the course of the book.

As in most thrillers, several enemies are clearly identified early while others are revealed later in such a way to reduce the entire novel to us vs. them situation. That certainly is true here as Nick struggles mightily to defend not only himself, but his family from assault. At the same time as his actions continue to invite more trouble into his life, he attempts to bridge the gap between himself and Lucas in order to save Lucas from a clear path of self destruction.

The result is an entertaining fast moving read that pulls the reader along at a rapid clip. The novel does not pretend to be anything more than it is--a fun read. It serves that purpose well and reinforces the idea that so many folks still have yet to learn. The cover up is always worse than the crime.

Kevin R. Tipple ? 2006

In a small town one business or industry can mean survival or desperation. Nick Conover is the CEO of one such company. When the business begins to fade and Nick is forced to lay off many of the townspeople, he goes from local golden boy to the most hated man in town. Now known as "The Slasher" for having to cut so many jobs there is no place he or his children feel welcomed or protected. Even the local police force is not eager to help them as graffiti and break-ins at their house spiral into the brutal murder of their family pet. Since his wife's recent death Nick has reared young Julia and teenage Lucas with only the paid help of Marta. His long hours at work are necessary for his job but lead to guilt for being away from too much. A late night tragic incident leads Nick to take drastic action that leads to unending fear for his own and his family's safety.

And all is not well at work. In addition to continuing down turns in business, Nick feels like there is also another hidden agenda between some of his coworkers. He does not feel secure in his job or in the direction the company may be taking. But he no longer knows who he can trust and who is working against him.

While maintaining the details of the cut throat corporate world, the author is able to simultaneously address the equally complex work of raising teenagers. As Nick wages a battle at work he also comes home to face the daily fight with his son. His role as a father adds a dimension of humanity and realism to the character of Nick. It is Finder's strength as a writer that he is able to produce sympathy and understanding for his characters.

Joseph Finder has created a thriller encased in a story of morality. His main character must grapple with the fine lines between right and wrong in both his personal and his work life. This adds a unique perspective to the character and the plot. Finder creates a situation that should seem one sided but he is able to expand it into a believable dilemma for both the characters and the reader. As the suspense builds on all levels, the reader is drawn into the story, the dilemmas and the principles involved. The typical Finder short chapters add to the race track speed of the book.

Although there are close to 600 pages in this latest entry into the crowded thriller genre the book seems to last an instant. The reader is drawn into the situation from the start and interest never lags. The tension is finely drawn and carries into all corners of the story.

This is a pretty good thriller. Nick Conover is the CEO of an office furniture company that is the main business of a small town. Economic problems cause Nick to cut half the workforce which effects just about everyone in the town who now hate him and call him Slasher Nick.

Someone starts breaking into his house and writing hateful messages on his walls. The police do virtually nothing to help him because he is so disliked. After his dog is gutted, Nick calls his security head, Eddie Rinaldi who installs a sophisticated security system in Nick's house. Eddie also gives Nick a gun just in case. Of course we know that Nick will use it. It will also lead to a possible murder rap for Nick that he in Eddie will try to cover up.

Meanwhile, strange forces are underway at Nick's job and his Chief Financial Officer seems to be plotting with one of the board members to take Nick's company away.

The book is full of interesting personalities including the lady detective who tries to bring down Nick and Eddie while dealing with her own domestic problems. Nick's troubled son and the mysterious woman of the man that Nick accidently kills.

I would have rated this book higher except that you can figure out pretty quickly that Nick's girlfriend is definately hiding a lot of dirty laundry. I finished the book in under a week which is good considering it is about 500 pages long.