The Finder: A Novel

The Finder: A Novel
by Colin Harrison

The Finder: A Novel
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Book Summary Information

Author: Colin Harrison
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-01
ISBN: 0374299498
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Book Reviews of The Finder: A Novel

Book Review: An incredibly well-told tale
Summary: 5 Stars

There is a vignette in THE FINDER, Colin Harrison's latest novel, that is worth buying and reading the whole book for. Actually, there are several --- several dozen --- but let's talk about just one right now. It involves two men, both named Ray Grant (one Jr., one Sr.). Sr. is an ex-NYPD detective who is dying from the inside out of cancer. He wants Jr., a somewhat enigmatic, extremely capable guy, to help him end it all. Jr. refuses, for what seems like a selfish reason: he wants as much time with Sr. as possible. I've given nothing away here (I hate when people do that, even with the best of intentions, don't you?), but pay close attention to this exchange. It becomes very important later. And, like the rest of THE FINDER, it is an incredibly well-told tale, perfect in every way.

Harrison does not publish often --- about every three or four years is his cycle --- so that, no doubt out of consideration for his audience, he writes stand-alone books instead of series. You won't find yourself wondering how the cast is going to stop a runaway train at the conclusion of one of his novels, which frees him up a bit. He can end a book any way he pleases because you won't see the characters again. Accordingly, he has had some of the darkest endings I can remember reading. It's what comes between the beginning and the end, however, that's important. What Harrison does, to superior effect, is take a bunch of disparate folks, put them to cross-purposes at each other and watch what happens. In the case of THE FINDER, it's quite a bit.

In addition to the two Rays, the book introduces Jin-Li, a young Chinese woman who is the head of a New York City document disposal service with a very select clientele. She is also the ex-girlfriend of Ray Jr. Jin-Li has a brother, Chen, in mainland China who is able to make warehouses full of money thanks to Jin-Li, in a way that will have you shaking your head in admiration while trembling with fear. Jin-Li has a client, Good Pharma, whose nominal head, Tom Reilly, discovers that the small pharmaceutical company has been adversely affected by Chen and Jin-Li. In the unfortunate choice of words to the wrong person, he sets a number of disastrous chains of events in motion.

And there's Bill Martz, with more money than God and the power to buy everyone I've just listed, and more, several times over. Martz is heavily leveraged with Good Pharma, and if the company is hurting, then Martz is really hurting. It turns out that Martz has a low pain threshold, and when he discovers what's going on, it's not pretty.

We begin meeting all of these folks, fine and otherwise, when Jin-Li goes out one night clubbing with a couple of her Hispanic workers. The night ends in a particularly horrific way with two women dead and Jin-Li on the run and in hiding. This incident brings her brother out of his mainland China hidey-hole and to New York City. His financial empire depends upon Jin-Li doing her job, something she can't do while she's in hiding. Chen knows about Ray Jr. and thinks that he is responsible for his sister's disappearance and possible death. Ray doesn't know a thing --- Jin-Li had broken up with him weeks before, and he still does not know why --- but he wants to find out where Jin-Li is and why someone wants to kill her. Ray Jr. turns to his father, one of the best people and detectives he knows. At first, Ray Sr. isn't a lot of help; he is heavily sedated and barely lucid, more often than not. Yet Ray Sr. holds a small but important key to what is occurring in THE FINDER, information upon which Jin-Li's life, and more, will ultimately depend.

Obviously, not everyone who appears here is going to make it to the end. Like most of Harrison's work, it did not conclude the way I thought. All I will say is that you should not expect a sequel. But don't let that keep you from eagerly anticipating his next book, especially if you read THE FINDER.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Summary of The Finder: A Novel

There's no doubt about it: Colin Harrison is a master storyteller. Critics and readers love his gripping, dark books. It's hard not to get sucked into his world. Entertainment Weekly calls him the "class act of the urban thriller," Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times lauds him as "a master of mood and atmosphere," and Publishers Weekly crows that Harrison writes "like an angel."
 
Now the author of The Havana Room, Afterburn, and Manhattan Nocturne raises the stakes with an electrifying new thriller, The Finder. Harrison spins the story of a young, beautiful, secretive Chinese woman, Jin-Li, who gets involved in a brilliant scheme to steal valuable information from corporations in New York City. When the plan is discovered by powerful New Yorkers who stand to lose enormous sums of money, Jin-Li goes on the run. Meanwhile, her former lover, Ray Grant, a man who was out of the country for years but has recently returned, is caught up in the search for her. Ray has not been forthcoming to Jin-Li about why he left New York or what he was doing overseas, but his training and strengths will be put to the ultimate test against those who are unmerciful in their desire to regain a fortune lost. Ray is going to have to find Jin-Li, and he is going to have to find her fast.

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