Rating: 
Summary: Thiller will engage you right from page 1!
Review: I enjoyed PARANOIA, the latest thriller by Joseph Finder . . . this
is a novel about a 26 year-old low level employee at a high-tech
corporation who hates his job . . . when he manipulates the system
to do a favor for a friend, he finds himself charged with a crime . . . he
is then given a choice: prison or become a spy in the headquarters
of the corporation's chief competitor.When he chooses the latter option, his life changes dramatically . . . all
of a sudden, he becomes rich and even gets to date the girl of his
dreams . . . his life is suddenly perfect--or is it? I got sucked into this tale from page 1 . . . it is very quick reading, and
I didn't want it to end . . . that said, the ending--while a bit abrupt--still
was satisfying . . . and left me wanting to read other books by Finder. In particular, I liked his use of dialogue . . . at times, it was snappy;
at other times, it was memorable . . . among the passages that
caught my attention were the following: * "Then I assume smoking's out of the question." "Wrong," she said. "It's a filthy, disgusting habit, and it indicates
a lack of self-control, but there are other considerations. Standing
around in the smoking area is an excellent way to cross-pollinate,
connect with people in different units, obtain useful intelligence.
Now, about your handshake." She shook her head. "You blew
it. Hiring decisions are made in the first five seconds--at the
handshake. Anyone who tells you anything else is lying to you.
You get the job with the handshake, and then the rest of
the job interview you fight to keep it, not to lose it. Since I'm a
woman, you went easy on me. Don't. Be firm, do it hard, and
hold--" I smiled impishly, cut in: "The last woman who told me that . . . " I
noticed she'd frozen in midsentence." * "Of course it's a trick question [why the main character was
interviewing for a job]. Job interviews are minefields, my friend. You have
to 'admit' to weaknesses, but you must never tell them anything
derogatory. So you confess to being too faithful a husband, too loving
a father." She did the Adam-voice again: "Sometimes I get so
comfortable with one software application that I don't explore others.
Or: sometimes when little things bother me, I don't always speak up,
because I figure most things tend to blow over. You don't complain
enough! Or how about this: I tend to get really absorbed in a project,
so I sometimes put in long hours, too long, because I love doing
them, doing them right. Maybe I work on things more than is
necessary. Get it? They'll be creaming, Adam." * "He was a sweet kid," Goodard suddenly said, so quietly that at first
I thought I'd imagined it. I stopped moving. His voice was low and
hoarse and faint, not much louder than a whisper. "An athlete, tall
and broad in the chest, like you. And he had a . . . . gift for
happiness. When he walked into a room, you just felt the mood
lifting. He made people feel good. He was beautiful, and he was kind,
and there was this--this spark in his eyes. He slowly raised his
head and stared into the middle distance. "Even when he was
a baby, he almost never cried or fussed or . . . "
Rating: 
Summary: Unexpected but unsatisfying ending
Review: I saw this in the library and thought it looked pretty interesting, I was getting burnt out on thrillers with a lot of killing and formulaic plot twists having recently read all of Dan Brown's books, so I thought a thriller involving high-tech corporate espionage would be an interesting change of pace. I wasn't disappointed by this book. Finder does a good job of creating a protaganist who is likeable, but not the superman that you find in a lot of thrillers. The plot is very fast paced with a lot of interesting things going on, the story never really gets bogged down at all. This is all capped by a plot twist at the end that is sudden and pretty tough to see coming. Well, actually, you can probably guess that something is coming, but it would be tough to guess what it is. Having said that, while the ending is written well and hard to predict, it left me somewhat disatisfied for some reason. I guess I thought the whole thing ended a little abruptly, however that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book, just gave me a different feeling at the end of it. I would recommend this book if you're looking for a fast-paced thriller with an interesting story, and less violence than you might usually see in this genre.
Rating:
Summary: A Stay-Awake Till 3:00 AM Thriller!
Review: I'm ordering this book for my son whose in his last year of law school. I refuse to part with my copy. It's a great insight into the world of high-tech corporate greed and manipulation and Joseph Finder has put it all together in this action thriller. It's been a long time since I've given up my much needed sleep to keep the bedisde light on in order to finish a book, but Paranoia made me do just that. I was sure I had the ending all figured out but was thrown with such a curve that I sat there just going "Wow". I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: The poster child for formulaic pop fiction
Review: Anyone who has worked in a high tech business will find Joseph Finder's latest novel, "Paranoia", to be a treasure trove of humorous tech hijinks. Wrapped in a veneer of business skullduggery, this thriller will keep you turning pages and nodding in recognition whenever another tech cliché glides into view. Adam Cassidy is your typical slacker programmer filling days in a cubicle and nights in a bar. Bored to tears, he tries to pull one over on the boss by rerouting some cash in order to give an overlooked fellow employee a proper retirement sendoff. Typical of most postmoderns, his relativistic views on proper employee decorum (as well as good and evil, in general) land him in deep doo-doo. Threatened with a lifetime of rotting in a federal pen for fooling around with company funds, he sells his shriveled soul to become a corporate spy for über-CEO Nick Wyatt (an extremely thinly-veiled Larry Ellison of Oracle fame.) Cassidy is tasked with cracking rival company Trion Systems' new project, entitled AURORA. He's coached in being a rising tech star and given all manner of insider info by Wyatt and his cronies. Soon, he's hired on at the competitor. And not only does he spy with abandon, his fearless take on business soon finds him as the right-hand man for everyman CEO of Trion, Jock Goddard (a typical killer app designer who parlayed it all into running a big telecom firm on cornpone and nice feelings, the quintessential anti-Wyatt.) Now in the top tier, Cassidy starts unraveling the mystery behind AURORA, bedding a key AURORA project manager, and along the way becoming the surrogate son of Trion's founder. But on his journey, he develops a fatal flaw: he begins to love the kinder, gentler atmosphere of the very company he is betraying to the soul-challenged Nick Wyatt. The tension comes in this book through numerous close scrapes at being exposed, the big AURORA question, the puzzle of cracking security at Trion, and Cassidy's unwitting discovery of disloyalty in the upper echelons of Trion's management. All the while, Wyatt steams in the background, demanding more and more risky spying. If you've spotted the inevitable double and triplecrosses ten miles down the road, you wouldn't be alone. "Paranoia" is a textbook case of writing a book to formula. You wait for the third scene and just hope it doesn't disappoint. Given that you know the tables will be turned only makes the ending inevitable, but not all that exciting. Deus ex machina plot devices come fast and hard in the final pages--anyone who fancies himself a writer will cringe. It doesn't help that the holes in the plot have holes, either. This is not Shakespeare, folks. In truth, this book is the poster child for what popular fiction has become. No writing craft is here, just calculated manipulation. (For those seeking to escape the filth-laden novels that seem to abound today, just skip this one. There are enough of George Carlin's seven dirty words--and their infinite variations--in this book to make a sailor blush. Yeah, it bores me, too, to read all that junk. Authors, can we clean it up a little?) That said, "Paranoia" could be worse. It is semi-entertaining and will keep you flipping pages, even if the ending is prepackaged. Reviewers here who have lambasted the business portrayals in the book have obviously never worked for any large tech firms. Though much of the high tech business machinations shown in this novel's pages seem trite and clichéd, the truth is that much of high tech business IS trite and clichéd. Having worked for large firms in Silicon Valley, I recognized every stupid business decision, every employee, and each single incident of corporate culture run amok. Finder at least did his research. Deserving of two and a half stars, but since I've got to pick just two or three, I'll let the formulaic nature of this one drag it down a notch.
Rating:
Summary: FICTION AT ITS VERY BEST!!!!!
Review: I do not read much fiction. But I have to tell you, after reading Paranoia I will be much more inclined to reading more (especially anything written by Mr. Finder). Outstanding character development, superb story-line and very easy to read. This book has everything: corporate spying, a slight love triangle and LOTS of twists and turns. The reader is kept on edge, which is great -- a real page turner!!!! My wife and I both loved it -- in fact she just bought every book written by Joseph Finder. Try it, you'll love it!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful and Witty
Review: Adam Cassidy has skated through his entire career at Wyatt Telecom, doing just enough work not to get fired. When he hacks into the corporate computers to finance an expensive shindig for a friend, a retiring dock worker, he must face the consequences. His abrasive boss, CEO Nick Wyatt, gives him a choice: go directly to jail for embezzlement or go to work for Wyatt's chief competitor, Trion Industries, as a spy. When Cassidy chooses the latter, the intrigue of "Paranoia" begins. Cassidy, a low-level employee, is coached by Nick Wyatt and Dr. Judith Bolton, an executive coach who holds a Ph. D. in behavioral psychology. They teach him the ins and outs of espionage, including giving detailed biographies on Trion employees and instructions on how to use the latest in spy gadgetry to gather the information they need. While at Trion, Cassidy must become a different person. He must appear to be an intelligent innovator of one of Wyatt's most successful products rather than the slacker he truly is without getting caught. When he gains the trust of the CEO, Jock Goddard, he is given the raise of a lifetime and access to much of the secure information he is looking to steal. A moral dilemma commences when Cassidy realizes that Goddard is an honest man of integrity who he enjoys working for as opposed to the tough and threatening Nick Wyatt. Can he gather the enough information on Trion's secret project AURORA to keep Wyatt off his back without completely ruining Goddard or his own new lavish lifestyle, including a budding romance with Alana, a gorgeous Trion employee? Meanwhile he must consider his personal life, including the caretaking of his grumpy, dying father (which he pays for); and his friendship with Seth, a local bartender and paralegal. Though the signs of his newfound success become apparent, including his new Porsche and a luxury apartment, he must use discretion when discussing his new position or run the risk of having his cover blown. Paranoia is a nail biting story of corporate espionage and morality told with incredible wit from bestselling author Joseph Finder (High Crimes). The book will have you laughing out loud from the onset. Although it loses some of its wit towards the middle of the book; and the unit introductions with espionage definitions seem a bit out of place for a story on corporate spying, the story will still grab your attention and keep it right until its surprising ending. Hats off to Joseph Finder for writing such a clever, hilarious and suspenseful novel.
Rating: 
Summary: What an insult.
Review: An unbelievable corporate spying/stealing tale. First, what idiot is going to risk his job and procecution for grand theft by stealing money from his employer to cater a party for a loading dock employee to the tune of $78,000.00?
Paranoid's main character Adam of course. Second, how's this flake, Adam, who virtually knows nothing about nothing suppose to pass himself off to a rival Co. as some PC hardware genius and within a week or so steal that Co. most secret project? Third, What Co. is not going to do a thorough background check on him? Forth, what kind of person is going to buy himself a 90 thousand dollar car before he even gets his very first pay check! Fith, What bank is going to approve the loan? J. Finder has out done himself in flat out idiocy in this one. Just like in his Extraordinary Powers the whole story is fantasy. Not recommended. The Washington Post review calls it "Thrillers for Dummies". ...
I agree. The writing stinks. I can't even imagine anyone wanting to make a movie of this unless they plan on rewriting the whole dang thing. I remember trying to read Finder's High Crimes and just couldn't. Try William Lashner's -- Fatal Flaw. Veritas, Hostile Witness. He sometimes gets a little out there too but the writing, characters, dialogue and story are witty, smart and fun.
Rating:
Summary: A fine paranoid thriller
Review: I don't read (let alone review) very much new fiction. But I do enjoy a good cyber-nano-crypto-geno-neuro-psycho-techno paramilitary/espionage corporate-dystopian noir-SF thriller. In addition to all the obvious names in recent SF, I also like Tom Grace and Dan Brown. With this book, Joseph Finder has made my shortlist. Naturally there's only so much I can tell you without spoiling the surprises. It's a well-written, tightly paced tale of corporate espionage; Finder nails the narrative voice, keeps the thing moving along briskly, and gets the technical and legal background right without bogging down in details. He's a fine writer and he's done his homework. That homework makes _Paranoia_ surprisingly realistic in a number of major respects, Oh, sure, some of the corporate intrigue is fictionalized, simplified, or exaggerated. But anyone who thinks corporations just don't do this sort of thing at all is living in a dream world. Anybody who's even been near the outskirts of a corporate grudge match can tell you that Finder has the flavor right. I'd tell you why I deducted a star, but I can't air my few minor misgivings without unsacking the proverbial feline. So I'll just say that there are a couple of points that won't bear much retrospective scrutiny after the last twist has been taken. Nevertheless Finder will keep you reading -- and interested -- until the very end. (I plowed through it in less than a day.) It's a nicely crafted piece of fiction, and it's not an accident that it's been touted as this year's _Da Vinci Code_. Brown's readers will probably like this one too.
Rating:
Summary: Highly enjoyable!
Review: I enjoyed this book. Let's get that out of the way and move on. A lot of people are saying they thought it was standard fare or had potential, but I thought Paranoia was well written. The concept of someone being planted in another company to steal their secrets isn't a new one, but this novel brings a new angle by making the main character basically nothing more than a con man who has no idea what he's doing in the job and has to bluff his way out of everything. I admit that I was becoming a bit skeptical halfway through the book with how it was all working so well for him, but then I was completely satisfied with the ending. I'll have to say I never saw the twist ending coming (and that's saying a lot since novels of this type are pretty cut-and-dry). There were a few slow places in the book, but not many. If you decide to read the book, let me give you this warning: before you complain that some of the characters seem too good or bad to be true, remember that not everything you read is at it seems. Be prepared for several surprises along the way. I highly recommend this book, with my only reservation being the excessive use of profanity by Wyatt that made him seem more of an idiot than a CEO.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Book from the first page to the last!
Review: I loved this book, it moved very quickly and I had a hard time putting it down. Adam gets himself into a bad spot and the only way out is to become a spy for his jerk boss Wyatt. This book has many twists and turns and keeps you wondering till the very end. Great book must read for any thriller fans out there.
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