Vanished

June 8, 2009
Known for his stand-alones, bestseller Finder (Power Play
) introduces Nick Heller, an elite corporate intelligence specialist and former Special Services badass, in this exciting series opener. After a frantic call from his 14-year-old nephew, Gabe, Heller returns home to Washington, D.C., from a job in California to find Gabe's mother in a coma and Gabe's stepfather, Roger, who is Heller's older brother, vanished without a trace. Though the brothers have been estranged since their father's much-publicized securities fraud conviction years earlier, Nick vows to protect Gabe and his mother and unravel the mystery of Roger's alleged abduction. The investigation leads him to some disturbing revelations about Roger, not the least of which involves a powerful—and dangerous—private military company. Written in staccato chapters that are emotionally supercharged and action packed, this thriller will more than satisfy adrenaline junkies and have them guessing until the very end.

Starred review from May 15, 2009
Finder ("Power Play") offers a rousing start to a new series featuring Nick Heller, a high-powered international investigator and corporate security consultant. Through a brilliant piece of detection, Heller has just tracked down 12 cargo containers packed with $1 billion in cash when he gets a call from his nephew Gabe in Washington, DC. Heller's brother Roger, the kid's stepfather, has vanished, and the boy's mother, Lauren, is in the hospital, the victim of a late-night attack. Both Roger and Lauren work for Gifford Industries, a multibillion-dollar corporation where Roger mostly handled mergers and acquisitions. Was he kidnapped, or did he disappear of his own volition? Is there a connection to the cash, part of $12 billion in U.S. funds that went missing in Iraq? And what about their father, a notorious financier imprisoned for securities fraud? Using his Special Forces skills and the latest high-tech wizardry, Heller counters lethal adversaries as he peels back layers of secrets that hide not only high-level corporate crimes but the troubled affairs of his own family. Cliffhangers galore, the fascinating tradecraft of corporate espionage, and an engrossing story will propel readers through this outstanding thriller. Highly recommended as a great summer read. [A 200,000-copy first printing; promotional tie-in to an original graphic novel.Ed.]Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tuscon

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2009
Finders latest thriller boasts the same breakneck pace and labyrinthine schemes that have made his previous business stories blockbusters. But this time the plot is centered on a domestic dramaone mans outsize greed puts his family in peril. Hero Nick Heller fits the cookie-cutter model of Finder protagonists. He is an international investigator with a corporate-espionage agency. The first time we meet Heller, he is inside a cargo airplane hanger in L.A., neatly solving the theft of a billion American dollars intended to support the Iraq War. The ingenious way he locates the cargo nicely establishes his ability to find just about anything. The next phone call he receives, from his teenage nephew, Gabe, calls on this ability. Gabes stepfather (Nicks estranged brother) has been kidnapped near a posh D.C. sushi joint. Gabes mother was struck from behind and is fighting for her life in a hospital. Heller, despite his disapproval of his craven brother, who took the low road into corporate finance (its getting easier and easier to make corporate types villains), accepts the case for his nephews sake. Finders conventional mystery lacks the frisson of his purely corporate thrillers, though we do see glimpses of that world from time to time, and his heros methods sometimes seem like taking an AK-47 to a bumblebee, but theres enough plot tension to keep readers involved.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)