Rating: 
Summary: Excellently written, fast paced and really fun
Review: This book literally kept me turning the pages. It was suspense, fun, witty, and cleverly put together. The hero is played like a violin by everyone who surrounds him, and there are some brilliant inversions of good and evil which I can't go into too much without giving the whole book away. Suffice it to say he gets revenge and gets screwed at the same time. He is a wonderful anti-hero, clever, but thinks he is more intellligent than he actually is. His wry outlook on life is hilarious at times. This is the real deal, a writer with talent turning out original material, not the usual pulpy trash that passes for suspense these days. I found my hands and feet sweating with every single close escape. You will devour this book and be left begging for more. I sure hope he has a sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but you've read it - and seen it - all before
Review: Sure, "Paranoia" is an entertaining book, but as typical for a book pre-sold to Hollywood it often reads like a screenplay (for a Matt Damon film) and is totally unoriginal to the point where nearly every character and every scene seems instantly familiar from other books or movies (clever young guy gets caught up in big corporate conspiracy -- gee how original!). An attempted cross between Grisham's "The Firm" and Crichton's "Disclosure" (but not as good), it has a decidely retro 1990s feel as its set in a Po Bronson high-tech corporate world full of techno-speak (man, will this feel dated in a few years), a "greed is good" villain (obviously modeled after Oracle's Larry Ellison), and chock full of Pepsi product placement and carefully-placed and forced pop culture references ("my bad," "bling bling," etc.). Sadly, it wasn't suspenseful or thrilling either, but will probably make a good matinee movie diversion one day.
Rating:
Summary: FINDER HAS NO REASON TO BE PARANOID -- HE'S TERRIFIC
Review: I first came upon this author when the movie High Crimes, starring Ashley Judd, was being premiered. As soon as I heard it was an adaptation of a book, I knew I wanted to read the book first before seeing the movie. I ended up loving both the book and the movie and was eager to read something else by this author. Then, along came Paranoia....Finder's newest release. I was a bit anxious when I started it because I wanted it to be as good as High Crimes. I needn't have worried. Paranoia was terrific but the best discovery of all was the realization that this author was the "real deal." We all have our preferred authors --the ones whose books we buy as soon as they come out. I'm happy to now add Finder to my list. My favorite kind of book has always been the one where events spiral so out of control that you can't imagine the main character being able to get back on track in one piece. You know the kind of book I'm talking about -- a virtual roller coaster ride. Typical examples would be The Big Picture by Douglas Kennedy, Derailed by James Siegel and A Simple Plan by Scott Smith just to name a few. Paranoia now tops my list as my new favorite heart-stopping thriller. Finder has managed to put the reader right smack in the middle of a power struggle between two invincible high-tech companies with Adam Cassidy as the referee/spy. Prior to the day when Adam Cassidy's life changed forever, he was a lackadaisical employee of Wyatt Telecom. The CEO of that company soon discovers Adam's involvement in some illegal disbursement of company monies to pay for an employee's retirement party. To compound matters, this party ended up costing the company $78,000.00. Now the CEO has Adam where he wants him and threatens him with prison unless he agrees to plant himself as an employee/spy with Trion Systems, Wyatt's biggest competitor. This is very risky for Adam as it is a no-win situation. If he doesn't do what Wyatt is asking, he'll go to jail. If he's caught leaking secrets by his new employer, Trion Systems, he'll go to jail. Adam accepts the risk just to buy some time never realizing what he's getting himself into. I can honestly say that my heart was in my throat on many occasions as Adam tries to sneak information out of Trion and into Wyatt's hands. But when Adam starts to feel some loyalty towards his new employer, all hell breaks loose. I'm not going to tell you anymore for fear of giving anything away. Just trust me when I say that you will love this book. It's a win-win situation for the reader. Joseph Finder has now gotten himself one loyal new fan.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This book is absolutely brilliant. The writer is a master of suspense who hooks you with every corporate nightmare and throws in a smattering of sex and brand names to make sure you're paying attention.
Rating:
Summary: superb thriller with an appealing central protagonist
Review: Adam Cassidy works rather poorly as a minor product-line manager at Wyatt Telecom. When his friend Jonesie retires, Adam impersonates the VP for Corporate Events and places an order with Meals of Splendor to cater a luncheon on the loading docks to rival what they did last week for the Salesman of the Year banquet. The gala continued past midnight when a security guard heard the band still playing. Adam anticipates being fired, but instead learns his extravagance cost $78,000 and if he prefers to avoid a stretch in the pen for embezzlement, he will become a high tech industrial spy. Adam reluctantly begins working for rival Trion Systems, but reports insider information to Wyatt Telecom Corporate Security. Once proud of his high ethical standards, Adam finds the people including the CEO at Trion treat him with dignity ripping his soul further asunder while he tries to gain knowledge about a quantum leap forward in technology considered as big as the first integrated circuit. Failure means jail; success means betrayal. PARANOIA is a superb thriller that grasps the reader into an all night stand because of the appealing central protagonist. Adam changes from a character similar to the heroic slacker of Office Space to a person struggling with his conscience lecturing him like a teacher haranguing a misbehaving student. While the suspense grows as to whether he will do it or not, Adam knows that author John C. Maxwell is right as There Is No Such Thing as Business Ethics being any different than just living and working according to the Golden Rule. He wonders how he can do that without paying the price of twenty years in prison. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Average at best
Review: I received a pre-publication copy of this novel and quite frankly I'm a little confused at all the five star rankings. Having received this for free I actually wanted to like it and like it a lot, but I couldn't. This book although not awful, was not fantastic either. It was just average. It never moved me to keep reading. It wasn't until about page 375 that the book started actually moving. Before then it just kind of plodded along. He threw in characters trying to make them seem more sinister than they actually were and you knew reading it that that was what he was doing. Also, you could never take seriously that Adam would start at a new company and in a couple of days be working in the executive suite. I just didn't like Adam at all and didn't really care for his plight. The only thing that salvaged the book was the ending, but unfortunately I had to read 400+ pages before then. I want a book to make we want to turn the pages faster and faster because I want to see what happens next, not because I want to just get it over with and that's how I felt. I recommend instead you try some new authors like P.J. Tracy (Monkeewrench) or Stephen Johnson (Assassins Game) and skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: Intense, fascinating and pure surprise!!
Review: What if they really are watching your every move!!!...and who are "they"?
Joseph Finder creates a novel drenched in tension and emotion. Adam Cassidy is a young man working in the high tech industry when he is drawn into a web of intrigue and paranoia. He is blackmailed into industrial espionage and once he has crossed the line, the way back is a maze of right and wrong, good and bad and sheer raw emotion. Adam must decide which side is right and which side is wrong and sometimes the differences are negligible. When he stands on the edge of his newly created life, and both sides are closing in, how will he make the right decision?
While he deals with this situation, on the home front, his father, a bitter ill tempered man, is terminally ill. He has a penchant for refusing reasonable help, badmouthing his son and allowing his situation to deteriorate.
This is a rapid paced, emotionally charged novel that barely leaves you room to breathe, and you will never be sure who knows what is really going on. Intense, fascinating and pure surprise!!
Rating:
Summary: Non-stop excitement
Review: Books that keep me up way past my bedtime to finish always rate 5 stars! This excellent, well-written thriller kept me turning the pages long after I should have been asleep, but I kept saying to myself "Just one more chapter!" It's a roller coaster thriller of corporate espionage and betrayal that's almost ripped from today's headlines, and the action just keeps you barrelling along with its protagonist. Just when you think the plot is going in a certain direction there's a curve thrown at you, and often you don't know which way is "up", but that's one of the things about this book that I liked. A reader should never become too complacent: an author must keep him or her "on their toes". Finishing the book was very satisfying, and I look forward to more novels from this author, who is new to me.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes they ARE out to get you
Review: Adam Cassidy makes a profound error in judgment at work at Wyatt Telecom which starts the ball rolling toward corporate espionage, treachery, and outright paranoia. When made a proposition he can't refuse by Wyatt Telecom's CEO, Adam feels he has no choice but to doctor his resume and apply as directed for a job at the competition, Trion Systems. Especially since Nick Wyatt has promised him a spectacular felony prosecution and a certain prison sentence if he doesn't do it. Fast forward, and we find Adam firmly ensconced at Trion and wracking his brain to get the goods on AURORA, Trion's top secret project that Nick Wyatt would kill to get. And Adam is pretty sure Nick will kill HIM if he doesn't deliver AURORA. Adam makes friends at Trion, including the company's eccentric founder and, of course, there's a girl, but NObody is who they seem to be as the ingenius plotting and supercharged level of suspense race toward the denouement. When I hear the words "corporate intrigue", "big business", or "industrial espionage", I'm usually thinking, "Unh-uh, I'm not reading that", but let me tell you, I LOVED this book! It has every element I look for in a thriller, constructed with finesse and glued with panache. This one started 2004 out with a bang.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrifying
Review: The thought of people being seduced into identifying with the mentality voiced by this author caused me to lose my sense of humor about such a supposedly harmless read. As a professor who's spent the last fifteen years attempting to help elevate the next generation's level of thought beyond the puerile, belligerent and mundane, I find this book the very enemy I fight against.
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