Review: Power Play By Joseph Finder

Jake Landry is a junior executive with Hammond Aerospace, a company riven by corporate infighting since the recent selection of a new CEO intent on cleaning house. He is exceedingly competent, and in fact knows more than anyone else at Hammond about the new wide-bodied jet the company is rolling out. His expertise lands Jake a last-minute summons to the company’s annual leadership retreat — three days off the grid at a remote fishing lodge in British Columbia, team-building with a bunch of alpha male execs. But once they’ve arrived at the lodge, professional backstabbing takes a back seat to more immediate dangers: a gang of dead-eyed hunters take the group hostage and demand an enormous ransom for their release.

Like Joseph Finder’s previous corporate thrillers, Power Play is laced with technical jargon, which lends the story credibility yet somehow doesn’t weigh down the pages. Jake turns out to have a complicated past that makes him particularly well suited to dealing with a bunch of heavily-armed baddies. He is arguably a bit cartoonish, but he’s sufficiently fleshed out to carry this adrenaline rush of a read. Finder has written another smart, edge-of-your-seat piece of fiction that you’ll want to read in one sitting.