Book Review: Paranoia

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

Paranoia     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Joseph Finder
Class/Genre:   Mystery

Adam Cassidy works for a large high-tech company. He is a go-along to get-along kind of guy, and when he realizes he can use company spending authorizations in any way he chooses, he arranges for a extravagent retirement party for a worker on the loading dock. Not exactly what top brass would approve of, and when a security guard wanders by to investigate all the noise, Adam is in big trouble.

But instead of firing him and having him arrested for embezzlement, his employer offers him a chance to stay out of trouble. Or so it seems at the beginning. Adam is coached to fill the requirements of a competitor's product development department, given the tools for electronic data gathering, provided with an elegant new wardrobe, and sent off for an interview. He lands the job, and begins his assigned tasks of spying. All the while he continues to receive a salary from his original employer.

Events veer off course when the CEO of his new employer takes an interest in Adam's career and he is soon sitting in on high level meetings and contributing to high level long term business plans. But the go along, get along guy of the first few pages of the book discovers that he has an ethical sensibility, and he chafes under the conflicting loyalties and tightwire tension of his new position.

"Paranoia" contains no violent crime. There is no murdered body, no sadistic killer, no brutal beatings, no knives, no guns. There is however, a high level of tension and unease which mounts as the story moves along. The twists and surprises of the final few pages come from out of left field.

The book is a superb read, good for a summer's weekend at the beach as well as a more thoughtful analysis of the true meaning of personal integrity.

Woodstock - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Woodstock - RAM