Power Play

Sometimes you want a good rollicking read that lets you get lost in the story -- good guys a little too good to be true, bad guys a little too bad. That's what you get with Joseph Finder; this man can really grab your attention! POWER PLAY is the sort of book I can't tear myself away from; just one more page, oh maybe one more chapter, can't put it down! The book starts with an air crash and fabrication problems with an airplane tail section, and I thought of an old favorite, AIRFRAME by Michael Crichton. But POWER PLAY leaves the production and operation details behind and focuses on the sometimes ugly top management politics of the Hammond Aerospace Corporation. All the company leaders are on a wilderness retreat, along with one ringer: our hero, Jake Landry, whose presence is demanded at the last minute. The retreat goes badly wrong when intruders force their way into the lodge and demand the electronic transfer of a large sum of money. Only Jake steps up to take on the intruders in a bold, nearly suicidal confrontation that (of course) ultimately saves the day. Predictable? Maybe. Original? Not entirely. But Joseph Finder has a way with his characters that keeps you absorbed in the story. The flashback scenes of Landry's formative past give insight and pace the book well, without distracting from the action. The love interest contributes to the plot, both committing Landry to the rescue and reining in his actions. The characters are well differentiated. The business and finance elements create a framework for the action. Most of POWER PLAY is set in the confines of the remote lodge, and this mise en scene allows Finder to focus our attention on his strengths: action and dialogue. You can count on lots of excitement from this fine writer! I'll be in line for the next book by Joseph Finder, and I recommend POWER PLAY for a great escape.

Jake Landry is a fish out of water. Adept at running interference for his boss, Executive VP Michel Zorn, with aerospace engineers, quality control, production, and almost everything else--he just doesn't feel comfortable in the executive suite. But that's where he's headed. It's time for Hammond Aerospace's annual senior executive retreat at King Chinook Lodge. A two-hour flight north by float plane from Vancouver on a remote Canadian lake, it's the perfect place for team building--or at least it was. Things go wrong long before the team arrives. Hammond's long-time CEO, Peter Rawlings, dies of a heart attack while playing golf at Pebble Beach. Cheryl Tyson is brought in from the outside as CEO--a female in what the other senior executives firmly believe is a man's world. Then a major competitor's new plane goes down in flames at the Paris Air Show. Michael Zorn, Jake's boss, is on a whirlwind tour of Asia to wrap up billion dollar contracts as people switch to Hammond for the latest jumbo jet. But the retreat must go on. Jake Landry, Michael's assistant, is tapped to take his place. He knows the most about the company's new plane and latest multibillion dollar gamble. He also knows why the competitor's plane crashed--and knows whether the same problem plagues the Hammond entry. Landry is the anti-hero you want to root for, against all odds. The pain in his past has equipped him for the present. And his steel-trap mind, which never lets a problem loose, uncovers the real reason the entire executive team is taken hostage. Only Landry and his old girl friend, Ali, (now CEO Tyson's executive assistant) have the courage to step up against the military trained thugs. Who knew that guns, knives, and barroom brawling should have been on Jake's resume? Is it just a ransom scheme--or is something much more sinister. Finder brilliantly paints a clear picture of corporate power plays, the flaws of technology, and bribery as a sales technique. Armchair Interview says: This book captures what desperate measures desperate men will take.

Power Play is a book you don't want to miss. Its plot, which involves an offsite meeting with a company's top executives and one junior executive at a deluxe desolate lodge that is invaded by a group of armed intruders, will keep you on the edge of your seat. You won't be able to turn the pages fast enough to see what happens next. Beyond its strong plot, Finder's characters are multidimensional and very believable. With Power Play, Finder further reinforces his credentials as one of the premier thriller writers. While I've enjoyed some of Finder's books even more than Power Play, Power Play deserves to be at the top of this summer's bestseller list. Do yourself a major favor and get yourself a copy of Power Play. You'll be glad you did!

If you are a part of corporate America, the part that is at the top and indulges itsef in things such as retreats to well appointed locations with numerous amenities, you might want to brace yourself before you read this latest thriller from Joseph Finder. This particular group of aircraft manufacturing executives have purposely retreated to a very remote, but luxurious location. There is a new leader at the helm and there is trouble in the ranks. Jake Landry shouldn't be there. His boss should. It quickly turns out, however, that the trouble in the ranks begins to pale with the trouble that the group faces as they and all of the staff of the facility are held hostage by some very real, very mean and very determined men. Jake Landry is all that stands between the success or the failure of the hostage taking and how he deals with it you are going to have to read the book to find out about. Finder has written another taught thriller which will be sure to please his legions of fans and probaby create some new ones who are reading him for the first time.

Sometimes somebody's tragedy is somebody else's fortune. Such is the case for Hammond Aerospace when rival Eurospatiale's E-336 crashes at the Paris air show. Hammond and Eurospatiale build large passenger aircraft and within minutes of the crash, Eurospatiale's committed customers start canceling their orders and now the new Hammond Skycruiser 880 is the next best thing since sliced bread, jumbo aircraft wise. And nobody knows more about the Skycruiser 880 than Jake Landry. Jake is an assisstant to an executive vice president, who had to rush to India after the crash to sell 888s to Air India so there is an opening at the Hammond annual leadership conference which is held at their offside, a luxery lounge deep in the woods in British Columbia. For reasons Jake doesn't understand, he's invited to go in his boss's place. Turns out, to the chagrin of all the other Hammond bigwigs that Jake was invited by the new CEO Cheryl Tobin. She's the first woman to hold the post in the airline industry and is the butt of a lot of executive jokes. Then at the airport, as he's about to board the plane to go to Canada he sees the love of his life, the girl he's trying to get over, with Chery Tobin. She's Ms. Tobin's aide and all of a sudden Jake knows why he's been invited. Once they're in the air, Ali calls Jake to Tobin's private cabin and the women tell Jake that they suspect some of the Hammond execs have been involved in bribery, maybe kickbacks and who knows what else. They want Jake to keep an open ear while they're in Canada, they want him to spy. Jack, coming from the his special background, is unhappy about this. And now a word about that background. When Jake was a juvenile he killed in self defense. He was sentenced to serve in a juvenile detention facility for eighteen months and then his case would be reviewed again. During her sentencing the judge told Jake about an old Cherokee legend about a young man who was always in trouble. The man goes to his grandfather and tells him he feels such anger and to this his grandfather replies, "Inside of you there are two wolves. One is good, the other is mean and angry. The mean wolf is always fighting the good wolf." When the boy asked which wolf was going to win, his grandfather answered back, "The one you feed." Jake's prison records were sealed upon his release and he made a success of himself, because he'd been feeding the good wolf, but surving in prison is not an easy thing. Some die there, others kill themselves and some need the help of a bad wolf on occasion. Jake had to feed the bad wolf when he was incarcerated, but he's hidden his food ever since. Flash forward to the remote lodge in Canada. Jake is a still bit unhappy about this spying business, is just starting to get to know the company big shots and is looking forward to getting to know Ali again, when hunters break into the lodge and take them all hostage. They want a hundred million dollars wired to an offshore account or they're goin