Evil, Inc.

Finally - a fast-paced, satisfying thriller that does not portray business in a naive or cartoonish fashion. If you have spent time in corporate life, you know people like this, although perhaps not quite so evil (or entertaining).

This is the first time I've read a corporate thriller, but if Evil Inc. is any indication of the genre, it won't be the last. The story itself is deftly plotted and nicely paced, the characters are well drawn and believeable. In an era marked by ever more lavish executive compensation, and entrenched corruption, a world where bald lies masquerade as truth in a quest for power, Evil Inc. is all too plausble. Read about it in fictional form before you read about it on the front page of the Wall Street journal.

Ken Olson is riding a career with Ayvil Plastics. Tom Pennington a rising star at the company has promoted Ken to a divisional director at the Dayton division. A South African mercenary named Peter Houghton goes to the Dayton company and sets off an explosion and kills 1,000 people. Among those killed are Olson's wife and daughter who are at the company datcare center.The blame for the sabotage falls upon the CEO Arch Paulson. he commits suicide and Tom Pennington becomes the new CEO. He promptly changes the name of the company to Humanifit and become a rising star in the world of business. Ken Olson if fired from the company on false charges. He believes that the late CEO Arch Paulson was falsely accused. He begins an investigation trying to dodge the likes of Tom Pennington, board member Justin Hildreth, and the evil mercenary Peter Houghton(Grant DeWaal).This group comes at him through every facet of his life. He is always in danger. This turns into an exciting turn of events. This is a very good book that you should read.Don't miss it.

Glenn Kaplan, a former ad agency creative director who has worked with dozens of Fortune 500 companies, turns his eye to illicit backroom dealings in his second novel. There's a lot of hype surrounding this book, with blurbs from New York Times #1 best-selling authors such as Janet Evanovich and James Patterson. It's also no secret that Kaplan is in charge of branding and advertising as the creative director of Barnes & Noble. So he's a smart, well-connected guy--but can he write? Yes. The book delivers as an imaginative thriller that's just a tad bit implausible. But that's the point of the corporate thriller genre--the best corporate thrillers are usually non-fiction exposes, so Kaplan has to up the ante to stay one step "ahead of the headlines," as Patterson praises--or, as Kaplan said in a Q & A, "Reality consistently trumps fiction." The book's pace drags when the action slows (one page consists entirely of a character trying to get through to a cellphone--it rings, it goes to voicemail, he tries it again, it goes to voicemail, etc etc.). The writing itself could be a bit tighter as well--adverbs are used quite liberally, but that's more a convention of modern mysteries and popular fiction rather than an affliction pertaining solely to "Evil Inc." For fans of the web comic of the same name, please note that this book is unrelated to the comic series that was nominated for the 2007 Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards in the category of Outstanding Superhero / Action Comic.