The Finder

well crafted intelligent read/best read for me in 2008 what a treat..grab it suzi 333

This book is not for the squeamish. There is so much going on that you wonder how Harrison keeps it all together, and keeps it all believable. But he does! It is a fascinating look into the different sub-cultures in New York and how closely they can be related, despite being completely different. It reminds me of a line from a Kirsty MacColl song "from an uptown apartment to a knife on the A train, it's not that far....". I enjoyed "The Havana Room" but this one just blew me away. Despite being relatively short in length (which is a blessing considering every other book these days seems to be needlessly long) Harrison introduces two very complex characters, Ray and Jin Li. They are both simultaneously criminal yet compassionate. We seem to know what they are thinking, despite their complex pasts, and we root for them. The rest of the seemingly unrelated characters round out the circle beautifully, each one at once powerful yet vulnerable. The book is written with intelligence and realism.

There is a vignette in THE FINDER, Colin Harrison's latest novel, that is worth buying and reading the whole book for. Actually, there are several --- several dozen --- but let's talk about just one right now. It involves two men, both named Ray Grant (one Jr., one Sr.). Sr. is an ex-NYPD detective who is dying from the inside out of cancer. He wants Jr., a somewhat enigmatic, extremely capable guy, to help him end it all. Jr. refuses, for what seems like a selfish reason: he wants as much time with Sr. as possible. I've given nothing away here (I hate when people do that, even with the best of intentions, don't you?), but pay close attention to this exchange. It becomes very important later. And, like the rest of THE FINDER, it is an incredibly well-told tale, perfect in every way. Harrison does not publish often --- about every three or four years is his cycle --- so that, no doubt out of consideration for his audience, he writes stand-alone books instead of series. You won't find yourself wondering how the cast is going to stop a runaway train at the conclusion of one of his novels, which frees him up a bit. He can end a book any way he pleases because you won't see the characters again. Accordingly, he has had some of the darkest endings I can remember reading. It's what comes between the beginning and the end, however, that's important. What Harrison does, to superior effect, is take a bunch of disparate folks, put them to cross-purposes at each other and watch what happens. In the case of THE FINDER, it's quite a bit. In addition to the two Rays, the book introduces Jin-Li, a young Chinese woman who is the head of a New York City document disposal service with a very select clientele. She is also the ex-girlfriend of Ray Jr. Jin-Li has a brother, Chen, in mainland China who is able to make warehouses full of money thanks to Jin-Li, in a way that will have you shaking your head in admiration while trembling with fear. Jin-Li has a client, Good Pharma, whose nominal head, Tom Reilly, discovers that the small pharmaceutical company has been adversely affected by Chen and Jin-Li. In the unfortunate choice of words to the wrong person, he sets a number of disastrous chains of events in motion. And there's Bill Martz, with more money than God and the power to buy everyone I've just listed, and more, several times over. Martz is heavily leveraged with Good Pharma, and if the company is hurting, then Martz is really hurting. It turns out that Martz has a low pain threshold, and when he discovers what's going on, it's not pretty. We begin meeting all of these folks, fine and otherwise, when Jin-Li goes out one night clubbing with a couple of her Hispanic workers. The night ends in a particularly horrific way with two women dead and Jin-Li on the run and in hiding. This incident brings her brother out of his mainland China hidey-hole and to New York City. His financial empire depends upon Jin-Li doing her job, something she can't do while she's i

Those of you who remember movies like "Naked City" or fancy the noir crime thrillers of the late 1940s will feel immediately at home with Colin Harrison's "The Finders", which is frankly one of the best urban noir novels I've read in years. New York, with its endless contrasts between rich and poor, elegance and crass, conflicting cultures all trying to get their piece of the American pie is the perfect setting for noir fiction and Harrison, a Brooklynite, plays it for all its worth. And, man, does he ever do it well! In the high-rise office towers of Manhattan where "Masters of the Universe" contend for billions, young illegal Mexicans scurry about cleaning the detritus of the business at night under the supervision of Jin Li, a young, beautiful Chinese woman. Jin Li is more than she appears to be. She is, in fact, a key player in a global power play, something that becomes apparent when she takes an after work, middle of the night ride with two of her Mexican female workers. They part in a remote Brooklyn park when disaster in the form of truck bearing a load of excrement comes on the scene. Jin Li escapes death and is pursued by a growing cast of characters. The good guy is Ray Grant, Jr., Jin Li's recent lover who still pines for her. Grant, Jr. is backed by his father, who is dying of cancer, a near-retirement NYPD detective and that's it. Against them and Jin Yi is a surprising number of bad guys, all of whom Harrison introduces flawlessly, each one racheting up the suspense level. There are few writers with Harrison's skill and the ability to keep layering on plot twists. It is a delight to watch as we are introduced to Bill Martz, Tom Reilly, Chen, Victor, Richie, Violet, Montoya, Elliott and more, each contributing their bit of evil to the story without tripping over some other character. Harrison deftly builds his main characters like Jin Li, Ray Grant, Jr., Bill Martz, Chen and the others largely through backstories and flashbacks. In less adept hands, this technique could be disastrous, but Finder pulls it off beautifully. The suspense builds with each page as these characters pulled literally from different universes come together on a collision course. The ending is a bit of a stretch, but still totally acceptable. If you like noir, you will love "The Finders". If you like suspense, crime or thriller novels, "The Finders" will have you turning pages. It is simply one of the best I've read in a while. Jerry

In New York City, someone is using insider information to make a financial killing buying and selling Good Pharma stock. An outraged billionaire warns CEO Tom Reilly to plug the leak and to take care of the culprit regardless of means or else. His paper notes delivered to Reilly even in Yankee Stadium frightens the CEO who must do something or face dire consequences from an unknown but obviously powerful stockholder. Tom is unable at first to figure out who or how. Using a legitimate paper shredding outfit CorpServe as a guise, Jin Li has been selling company information that she provides to her brother Chen who trades stocks accordingly. A desperate Tom orders a ruthless wannabe to take care of the leak. In Brooklyn two twentyish female Mexican employees working for the shredding firm are murdered, but Li escapes not before she sees their horrific deaths. Her sibling and Reilly assume her former boyfriend Ray Grant not only helped her, he hid her probably in Brooklyn. Each side demands he reveals where she is. He has no idea but turns to his dying father, a former NYPD cop, to help him find Jin before he becomes an afterlife greeter welcoming his father. This is an excellent crime thriller that grips readers as every trail converges on Li even an overseas stock market. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the two young Mexicans are killed in Brooklyn and never slows down as Tom, Chen and Ray understand the threats to their lives while each seek Li as the key to their safety. Fans of urban crime capers will appreciate this exhilarating action-packed thriller that never decelerates ending with a typhoon. Harriet Klausner