Review by Booklist Review
Nobody does man-on-the-run, excruciatingly suspenseful thrillers better than Joseph Finder, author of many stand-alone thrillers and the Boston private eye Nick Heller series. Finder's latest is a combination spy story, financial mystery, and survival-evasion tale, with the propulsive plot set in motion by one man's costly mistake. The narrative shuttles between the present, with small-town boat builder Grant Anderson hiding for his life in the New Hampshire woods as Russian agents and the FBI try to track him down, and the past, when Anderson, then an on-the-rise New York financial analyst, got himself into a world of trouble falling in love with a Russian oligarch's daughter. Finder's granular details about what it takes for the hunted Anderson to survive and evade his pursuers (using the dimly remembered precepts of his survivalist father), along with the added complications of hunger, thirst, and injury, are fascinating, as are the details from his earlier life in cutthroat finance. Finder adds another layer of suspense with Anderson's false identity, reminiscent of Cary Grant's imperiled character in North by Northwest. Deep characterization, cliffhanger suspense, and a wealth of information ranging from Russian spies to survival in the woods and in public spaces make this one of Finder's best.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Finder (the Nick Heller series) delivers a fitfully arresting but hard-to-swallow thriller about an investment analyst whose life gets turned upside down after he marries a free-spirited artist. The overstuffed plot proceeds along two main tracks: in the present, Paul Brightman has shed his identity and become Grant Anderson, a New Hampshire boat builder, only to be forced on the run after a hit man tries to kill him. Flashbacks reveal how, six years earlier, Brightman left his career on Wall Street after meeting photographer Tatyana Galkin to work for her wealthy father's shady investment company. Soon, Brightman realizes something nearly every reader will clock immediately: that he is working for an elaborate criminal organization with ties to the Kremlin. Though the plot generates some real suspense as Brightman attempts to escape the Russians using skills he learned from his paranoid, off-the-grid father, its momentum is hampered by too much backstory and too many fawning descriptions of the Galkins' homes and luxury goods. An over-the-top deus ex machina at the climax doesn't help matters. This is a misfire. Agent: Don Conaway, Writers House. (Jan.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Finder (Nick Heller series; Judgment; The Switch) deftly fuses the essence of the best Cold War spy novels with modern, high-tech espionage thrillers. Grant Anderson is a boatwright in picturesque Derryfield, NH. When his buddy, a charter boat captain, needs him to fill in for him on a fishing charter, Grant is eager to take the boat out. The client tells Grant he looks familiar and calls him "Paul." It seems like a case of mistaken identity, but in fact, Grant's past is about to make a dangerous return. Six years ago, Paul Brightman disappeared from his life as a Russian oligarch's son-in-law and informant for the U.S. government. Somehow, his new identity has been compromised. With the FBI and Russian operatives in hot pursuit, Paul escapes into the wilderness, hampering his tech-reliant pursuers. He is desperate to reach someone who can help, and readers will be breathlessly following along. VERDICT The glimpse inside the opulent world of a Russian oligarch is fascinating, with international intrigue ripped from the headlines. Creating compelling apprehension, this suspenseful thriller keeps readers off-balance and unsure whom to trust. Finder achieves a perfect one-sitting read.--Laura A.B. Cifelli
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Marrying a Russian billionaire's daughter proves to be a very bad move for New York hedge fund manager Paul Brightman. The beautiful daughter, Tatyana, impresses Paul with her independence, rejecting the excesses of her Upper East Side father to live in a modest East Village apartment and pursue a career as a photographer. Paul loves her street portraits;Artforum not so much. It doesn't take long for the oligarch, Arkady Galkin, to break down the couple's resistance to living large, bestowing lavish gifts on them and hiring Paul for his own investment firm. Paul's doubts about taking the job come to a head when fellow employees start dying mysteriously. That's enough to prompt him to accept a solicitation from the FBI to spy on his father-in-law. When those amateur efforts are exposed, he fears he will be the next victim and flees--without Tatyana, who won't leave her family, but with a desperately sought thumb drive. For five years, he lives under an assumed name in a small New Hampshire town, building boats and dating a nice school teacher whom he keeps ignorant of his past--until the day he manages to kill a Russian assassin with a speargun in a scuffle on a boat and dumps him in the ocean, and then Alec Wood, Paul's friend and the deputy police chief, is found murdered at his house. Disappearing into the gloomy woods, pursued by both the Russians and the FBI, he practices the survivalist skills he learned from his estranged father, who abandoned his family when his son was young to live in a hut. The plot convolutions don't stop there. If Paul, who narrates the book, were a strong character, he would be able to ride over the forced twists and turns. But, he is such a bland protagonist and so insistent on making dumb moves, it's impossible to root for him. A thriller with a decent setup but ridiculous outcomes. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
