Pressure Points (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Early on in the life of every fledging advertising agency there comes a day of reckoning, a cold and inevitable moment in time when ultimatum..." (more)
Key Phrases: little seminar, seminar exercise, seminar company, Ken Wong, Tom Turner, Brad Teeters (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Performance seminars have long been the bane of the corporate world, yet few authors have explored them in fiction to the candid degree that Brooks (Darkness Bound) does here. The first third of this addictive thriller introduces Brad Teeters, Mark Johnson and Pamela Wiley, three dedicated yet bitter senior employees at Wright & Wong, a successful Seattle-based ad agency. When the trio propose to buy out the firm, Wong agrees, stipulating that all three employees must first attend The Seminar, a week-long retreat for executives at a secluded site in northern California. In detailed prose, Brooks captures the first 60 hours of The Seminar, during which facilitators simulate airplane crashes and hostage takeovers in an effort to teach inner strength and trust. But when one of The Seminar's mind games goes awry, Teeters, Johnson and Wiley become unwittingly ensnared in an evil scheme masterminded by Wong and Beth, Teeters's sexy, manipulative wife. Beth, who up to this point has been a secondary character, becomes the focal point of an intricate conclusion involving betrayed friendships, apparent suicides and kinky sex games. A master of terror and suspense, Brooks crafts his characters with care, lending them opaque dimensions that make them appear both sympathetic and loathsome.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

[Brooks is] a master of terror and suspense... -- Publishers Weekly, November 19, 2001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 454 pages
• Publisher: Onyx (November 29, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451410017
• ISBN-13: 978-0451410016
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #655,518 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a compelling thriller with lots of surprises, November 27, 2002

By	audrey (white mtns) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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I enjoyed this thriller about executives at a week-long seminar in a secluded West coast setting. Though there was quite a bit of corporate/business jargon that went right past me, the author did a good job of establishing an interesting set of characters -- some in depth and some kept mysterious until later in the story -- and setting an atmosphere filled with tension. Three executives at a Seattle ad agency are attempting to buy out their boss's interest in the company, and he tells them he will do so IF they all complete a seminar that he regards highly. Right away you wonder if the seminar is legitimate, what the boss has planned, etc. As the seminar progresses you, like the participants, begin to wonder what is real and what is staged, and who you can trust and who you can't.

The writing and plotting are very well done and I, like other reviewers, stayed up late so I could finish it -- which is the mark of a successful thriller, right? I thought the ending was somewhat less than satisfying, but certainly exciting.

I would recommend this book to a friend who enjoys thrillers, especially if they're an MBA.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A seminar to die for..., December 28, 2001

By	Katherine Adams (Salem, Oregon) - See all my reviews

Start the coffeemaker; you'll be up all night reading this page-turner. From the first paragraph to the last sentence, Brooks keeps the reader wondering which characters -- if any -- will ultimately survive "The Seminar," a secretive retreat aimed at executives needing a shot of self-awareness.

A trio of ad agency managers are coerced into attending "The Seminar" by a boss with an unusual motive. The threesome have their own reasons for attending the retreat, but they quickly realize soul-searching can mean deadly discoveries.

Brad, Mark and Pamela -- the characters who launch this roller coaster plot -- are not typical mystery/thriller stereotypes. They're frightening real people. You'll find yourself wondering who can be trusted, and who would kill to cover up a trail of lies.

Don't cheat and read the last page. The twists and turns that drive this book will throw you a curve long after you ponder the last sentence.

If psychological thrillers without cliches are your cup of tea, then hustle out and grab this one. It's a fast-paced and satisfying read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading, December 16, 2001

By	Frank (Stockton CA) - See all my reviews

This book is well worth your time. My favorite aspect of the book is that the characters have mixed motivations: the good guys have a bad side, and the bad guys have a good side. The book is a page-turner, well-written, and has its fair share of plot twists. The only quibbles I have are that, in the denouement, the guilty party seems a bit too omnipotent and omnipresent, and that the end drama was inserted into the Prologue, and trumpeted on the front art and back cover. I'd rather read the book wondering what problems are going to happen at the seminar, instead of feeling like I had read the end of the book before going to Chapter 1.

I also wish those who write reviews would read the reviewed book first. In this instance, the "#1 reviewer" comments that agency owner Wong "has not even shown up at the office in months. Unless he sells [three key employees] the company, they will quit and start a new company. At least half the present clients of Wright and Wong would come with them. Wong agrees with the stipulation that the threesome come with him on a retreat first." In fact, according to the book, Wong had been gone two weeks at most -- from "the annual holiday bash" to late December. Wong took 18 weeks a year vacation, not 18 weeks in a row. The workers calculated that _all_ the company's clients would come with them. And Wong's stipulation was that the three go on a retreat _without_ Wong, not with him. Maybe Ms. Klausner, who managed to post _85_ reviews in November 2001, should cut back on her production in favor of accuracy.