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book review
Fear is the key
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Paranoia
Joseph Finder

"Back in 1811, a Yankee named Francis Lowell Cabot sailed to Great Britain and stole England's most precious secret – the Cartright loom, the cornerstone of the textile industry. Brought the Industrial Revolution to America, turned us into a colossus. All thanks to a single act of industrial espionage." – Excerpt

While industrial espionage has had firm roots for over 200 years now, the corporate thriller genre can be best described as under-utilised. Particularly when compared to the crime, medical or even political thriller. But along comes Finder, infusing Paranoia with the kind of characters, situations and suspense that make corporate warfare not just exciting but entertaining and real as well.

At the start of the book we meet Adam Cassidy, a slacker with guts. He has just been caught embezzling funds from his firm Wyatt Telecom, albeit to throw a retirement party for a member of the loading dock. Cassidy’s attempts to get out of the mess he finds himself in, catch the attention of the company's CEO Nicholas Wyatt. He propo-ses that Cassidy infiltrate Wyatt Telecom's arch rival Trion Systems and find out more about their top secret Aurora project.

Through a combination of intense trai-ning, courtesy Wyatt, his own quick thinking and some lucky breaks, Cassidy shoots up the Trion hierarchy. He gets particularly close to Jock Goddard, Trion's founder and CEO, who seems like the rare kind of corporate head with a conscience. He is also a man completely unlike Cassidy's own father, who is terminally ill but still manages to be irascible and insulting.

As Goddard starts to trust Cassidy more and more, the ride truly begins. Working two jobs, two sets of deadlines, and increasingly confused loyalties and priorities, Cassidy's character demonstrates just the kind of one-track life that spies in any setting would have to live. Also popping in and out of Cassidy's life are Noah Mordden, a distinguished engineer at Trion who keeps catching him in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Alana Jennings, who is closely involved with the Aurora project.

As Wyatt's demands on Cassidy grow, events come to a head, and there are plenty of surprises in store – some of which you might guess and some you might not. Paranoia's strength lies in Finder's style. The first person narrative is highly effective, etching out Cassidy's character clearly. He changes slowly and subtly, physically and mentally, from someone who does poorly on routine appraisals to someone who has the attitude for top management.

It is to Finder's credit that he never dumbs down the technical aspects of the businesses in focus in Paranoia. Early in the book, Cassidy confesses he spends his days hearing phrases like 'dynamic bandwidth circuit emulation service' and 'IP security tunnelling protocol', and not knowing what half of it means. But he learns, as we do, that it is important to know how to fake it before one makes it. And the most important lesson: only the paranoid survive.

Bestsellers List

Hardback nonfiction

IN AN INSTANT, by Lee and Bob Woodruff.
(Random House, $25.95.)

I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK, by Nora Ephron.
(Knopf, $19.95.)

THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, by Barack Obama.
(Crown, $25.)

A LONG WAY GONE, by Ishmael Beah.
(Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $22.)

INFIDEL, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
(Free Press, $26.)

SOMEBODY'S GOTTA SAY IT, by Neal Boortz
(HC/HarperCollins, $25.95.)

THE HARDCORE DIARIES, by Mick Foley.
(World Wrestling Entertainment/Pocket, $24.)

MARLEY & ME, by John Grogan.
(Morrow, $29.95 and $21.95.)

THE INNOCENT MAN, by John Grisham.
(Doubleday, $28.95.)

THE JESUS FAMILY TOMB, by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino.
(HarperSanFrancisco, $27.95.)

Paperback Nonfiction

THE MEASURE OF A MAN, by Sidney Poitier.
(HarperSanFrancisco, $14.95.)

THE GLASS CASTLE, by Jeannette Walls.
(Scribner, $14.)

EAT, PRAY, LOVE, by Elizabeth Gilbert.
(Penguin Books, $15)

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING, by Joan Didion.
(Vintage, $13.95.)

ZODIAC, by Robert Graysmith.
(Berkley, $7.99.)

90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN, by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey.
(Revell, $12.99.)

DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, by Barack Obama.
(Three Rivers, $13.95.)

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, by Augusten Burroughs.
(Picador, $14 and $7.99.)

NIGHT, by Elie Wiesel.
(Hill & Wang, $9.)

THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
(Penguin Books, $15.)

Source: New York Times Best sellers list March 25
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