Power play

The best-selling author known for his business thrillers ( Paranoia, 2004; Company Man, 2005) here focuses on the aviation industry, as the management team of Hammond Aerospace gathers in a lodge off the coast of British Columbia. The hard-charging businessmen are in full preening mode, showing off their high-end gear and slamming the company's female CEO. Jake Landry, who has been asked to step in for his boss and does not have quite as privileged a background, has brought the wrong clothes and the wrong attitude. When the lodge is overrun by a group of hunters, Jake suspects there's more to the scenario than a robbery, especially since the thieves are toting military-issue weapons. Finder's not much on dialogue and characterization (it's hard to keep all the egotistical businessmen straight), and he throws in just enough tech talk to give his story a realistic veneer. What he does do is hook his readers big time with an irresistible premise: watching the swaggering businessmen cower as a smart-mouthed former juvenile delinquent picks off the bad guys, one by one. --Joanne Wilkinson Copyright 2007 Booklist

Finder's newest mixture of business technology and pulp fiction focuses on Jake Landry, the sole Hammond Aerospace junior exec attending a company retreat at a swank hunting lodge. He is alternately shunned or insulted by the obnoxious upper-level corporate types until the lodge is invaded by a band of homicidal hunters, and Landry is forced to fall back on lessons he learned on the wrong side of the tracks. Boutsikaris's low-key, amused delivery of Landry's narration is a vocal tightrope walk that successfully suggests enough intelligence to make his aero-tech talk credible and enough edgy cynicism to suggest a checkered past. His timing also gets the most out of the fast-paced action sequences. But his most helpful contribution to the success of the audio is his ability to find unique voices for the executive cadre. Finder individualizes his villains well enough, but he skimps a bit with the Hammond hierarchy, making it hard for the reader to recall one spoiled and pampered blowhard from another. Boutsikaris uses a variety of timbres and tones to give each true distinction. Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's hardcover (Reviews, June 18). (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A mild-mannered junior exec with a not-so-mild past is the only guy who can save the day when armed men crash Hammond Aerospace's off-site (very off-site) meeting. With a national tour. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The best-selling author known for his business thrillers (Paranoia, 2004; Company Man, 2005)here focuses on the aviation industry, as the management team of Hammond Aerospace gathers in a lodge off the coast of British Columbia. The hard-charging businessmen are in full preening mode, showing off their high-end gear and slamming the company's female CEO. Jake Landry, who has been asked to step in for his boss and does not have quite as privileged a background, has brought the wrong clothes and the wrong attitude. When the lodge is overrun by a group of hunters, Jake suspects there's more to the scenario than a robbery, especially since the thieves are toting military-issue weapons. Finder's not much on dialogue and characterization (it's hard to keep all the egotistical businessmen straight), and he throws in just enough tech talk to give his story a realistic veneer. What he does do is hook his readers big time with an irresistible premise: watching the swaggering businessmen cower as a smart-mouthed former juvenile delinquent picks off the bad guys, one by one. ((Reviewed May 1, 2007)) Copyright 2007 Booklist Reviews.

A mild-mannered junior exec with a not-so-mild past is the only guy who can save the day when armed men crash Hammond Aerospace's off-site (very off-site) meeting. With a national tour. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Finder (Company Man ) continues his exploration of the business world with this thriller, set in the aerospace industry. Although he's low on the corporate food chain, Jake Laundry receives an invitation to the annual company retreat far from civilization. With his boss abroad, Jake doesn't have much of a choice. The others at the rustic lodge include the new female CEO, who is despised by most of the company, and Jake's ex-girlfriend, who now works as the CEO's assistant. Before he has a chance to prove that he deserves to be at the lodge as well, their isolated location becomes a source of terror as a group of local hunters take them hostage. Now, instead of bonding with his fellow workers, Jake must help them stay alive. Juggling the dog-eat-dog ethics of corporate life with a tense, scary plot, Finder's nail biter of a read is recommended for all popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/07.]—Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

If Jake Landry, a tough guy with an understanding of airplane engineering and an innate grasp of corporate politics, is too good to be true, he's still fun to watch in this sleek thriller from bestseller Finder (Killer Instinct ). A junior executive at California's Hammond Aerospace, Landry possesses a remarkably flexible intelligence, which lands him on a high-end corporate weekend at a lodge called Rivers Inlet, where the new CEO, Cheryl Tobin, discreetly asks Landry to help her identify corrupt executives. Almost immediately, the lodge is assailed by five men who at first appear to be hunters turned vicious at the sight of the weekend participants' enormous wealth. As they interrogate the executives, however, it becomes clear that they know quite a bit about Hammond and its workings. Landry's job, then, is to figure out their purpose as well as rescue the entire crew. Tight, fluid writing more than compensates for the occasional plot implausibility. 200,000 first printing; author tour. (Aug.)