JULY 2016 - AudioFile
This thriller, full of political intrigue, is the third installment of investigations by Nick Heller, a private intelligence operative from Boston. Here, narrator Holter Graham recounts Heller’s efforts to determine who framed the Chief Supreme Court Justice, who leaked a false story to the gossip website Slander Sheet, and who murdered a call girl. Holter delivers dialogue intensely, ratcheting up the tension. And he narrates Heller’s internal monologue, which is almost non-stop, smoothly and unemotionally. Heller won’t quit investigating D.C. corruption until he uncovers all the answers, no matter how high up the political ladder he has to climb. Graham’s straightforward narration is perfect for this convoluted thriller. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
04/25/2016
In Thriller Award–winner Finder’s lively third Nick Heller novel (after 2011’s Buried Secrets), the website Slander Sheet is about to run a story claiming that a highly placed U.S. government official has had a regular relationship with a prostitute. Lawyers for a top international law firm want Boston-based private intelligence operative Heller to check on the story’s authenticity. Heller says he isn’t interested, but he accepts the assignment after learning that the official in question is Chief Justice Jeremiah Claflin of the Supreme Court. Holes quickly appear in the allegations against Claflin, and Heller blows it out of the water. But it’s been too easy, and Heller’s instincts tell him there’s far more to this case than just a smear attempt on a judge. Who owns Slander Sheet, and what was this case really about? Conventions of the contemporary political thriller abound, but a tight plot, sharp dialogue, and a cast of intriguing characters keep the story a cut above the genre pack. Author tour. Agent: Daniel Conaway, Writers House. (July)
From the Publisher
Praise for Guilty Minds
“Finder shows off his top-notch storytelling skills, moving with ease from high places to low in the nation's capital.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Finder really knows his way around a thriller, and his sensibilities about Washington, scandal, and the immediacy—and threat—of digital publishing and electronic surveillance seem chillingly plausible. This is an exciting, insightful thriller with finely sketched characters—in other words, a sure bet in public libraries.”—Booklist (starred review)
“[A] tight plot, sharp dialogue, and a cast of intriguing characters keep the story a cut above the genre pack.”—Publishers Weekly
“Finder (The Fixer) shows off his clever storytelling skills by packing action, politics, and modern detective techniques into a complicated plotline that leads to murder.”—Library Journal
“This is a dark tale of intrigue and underhanded politics…If you’re a Finder fan, this book will not disappoint you. If you’re not, you might become one after this read.”—Suspense Magazine
“Finder’s prose is lean, the pacing swift and agile, and the plot well worth gossiping about.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Guilty Minds balances its thriller tenets with solid characters...razor-sharp dialogue, and a breathless plot that careens from one realistic twist to another.”—Mystery Scene Magazine
“The plot of Guilty Minds...is taut, rapid, and tensely recurving.”—Harvard Magazine
“Finder is one of the best contemporary thriller writers.”—Connecticut Post
Praise for Joseph Finder and The Fixer
“A master of the modern thriller.”—The Boston Globe
“There are many authors who take a reader 'slowly into that good night.' However, the real genius knows how to create the ultimate lead-in. They are the wordsmiths who can, in one page or one paragraph, grab the reader's attention and never let go....A true genius wordsmith, this is one author who has created solid suspense gold.”—Suspense Magazine
“Finder can make reading about someone walking across a room excruciatingly suspenseful....This is a thriller that is as much about redemption as it is about escape. A remarkable exciting read.”—Booklist (starred review)
“If you’re in the mood for tense, witty angst about closed-down career opportunities and dirty money cleansed by family redemption, The Fixer is the way to go.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Joseph Finder takes a familiar story and gives it a unique spin in his latest page-turner, The Fixer.”—Associated Press
JULY 2016 - AudioFile
This thriller, full of political intrigue, is the third installment of investigations by Nick Heller, a private intelligence operative from Boston. Here, narrator Holter Graham recounts Heller’s efforts to determine who framed the Chief Supreme Court Justice, who leaked a false story to the gossip website Slander Sheet, and who murdered a call girl. Holter delivers dialogue intensely, ratcheting up the tension. And he narrates Heller’s internal monologue, which is almost non-stop, smoothly and unemotionally. Heller won’t quit investigating D.C. corruption until he uncovers all the answers, no matter how high up the political ladder he has to climb. Graham’s straightforward narration is perfect for this convoluted thriller. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2016-03-16
Hired to clear the chief justice of the United States of dallying with a call girl, Boston-based investigator Nick Heller becomes entwined in a complicated scheme that leads to murder. Superattorney Gideon Parnell is the Washington VIP who hires Heller. A black civil rights hero who's golfed with all the golfing presidents since LBJ, he's capable of pulling any and all strings in D.C. But he's powerless to prevent the gossip website Slander Sheet from running an exposé about Chief Justice Jeremiah Claflin, who reputedly was given three nights with the hooker by a casino mogul in whose favor he had ruled in a recent case. Heller has 48 hours to discredit the story. It's easy enough to determine that Claflin never set foot in the hotel room in which he is said to have consorted with young Kayla Pitts—whose working name is Heidi L'Amour. (The judge has one of the better alibis: he was having electroshock treatment.) But after Pitts is found dead, an apparent suicide, and Heller and his crack team infiltrate the secret ownership of Slander Sheet, unsettling new wrinkles in the case point to an unlikely suspect. The book, the third and best entry in a series, is about as airtight as you can get, plotwise. Heller, a former Special Forces operative in Iraq, is a convincing combination of physical toughness and intelligence—one of the book's pleasures is its descriptions of modern detection techniques. And in Mandy Seeger, the former ace Washington Post reporter who lives to regret writing for Slander Sheet, Heller has an attractive running partner and romantic interest. Finder shows off his top-notch storytelling skills, moving with ease from high places to low in the nation's capital.
