Review: Paranoia

When I read the first chapter and came to the last line ‘My life as I knew it was over’ – I knew as a book reviewer that this was going to be a thrilling book, but why? Because of the hip, perceptive and slippery style of the prose and a plot to die for. When I got to the end, I put the book down and clapped my hands and shouted ‘Bravo!’ and would implore you to seek out ‘Paranoia’ as it is such a fun read.

The story revolves around white-collar, junior manager and corporate slacker Adam Cassidy who throws a party for one of his blue-collar colleagues using funds from his employer Wyatt Telecom. The budget for the party reaches $68,000 and lands him in deep trouble. A Faustian pact is offered by the man at the top of the tree, Nicolas Wyatt, who Cassidy describes as ‘one scary dude’. The deal is outlined explicitly as either going to jail (for the theft of the $68,000) and facing anal rape night after night (as Cassidy is a pretty boy), or to go undercover and infiltrate Wyatt’s main competitor Trion systems on an enhanced salary. Nursing his critically-ill father and paying for his medical costs, Cassidy realizes his back is well and truly to the wall so he agrees to become an industrial espionage agent. Researched heavily, the high-tech environment is vividly realized, as Cassidy gets trained into becoming a top-flight executive. The book is very perceptive and underlying the hip humor is a layer of cynicism. I loved the line ‘Power corrupts and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely’, and the book is peppered with such corporate snipes.

After grueling training and coaching, Cassidy enters Trion Systems, and becomes pressurized by Wyatt to extract information on a new product (a product so secret that it is hidden from Trion’s main business). He also has to cut his ties to his slacker buddies as he transforms himself into the high-powered executive. The stakes get higher as does Cassidy’s paranoia, because he soon finds himself heavily embroiled within the politics of Trion, but also realizes that things are not as they once seemed. His woes are heightened when his father needs constant nursing, as his emphysema brought on by his cigarette habit requires constant nursing. The problem is that none of his stream of nurses can cope with his acidic tongue.

As Cassidy infiltrates Trion, he soon finds a friendship with Alana Jennings an employee working on the secret project, and starts questioning his allegiances. The pressure from Wyatt is ratcheted up and Cassidy finds himself a pawn in a bigger game.

I defy anyone not to read this in one sitting; such is the easygoing and hip prose style of Finder. However it is the unbearable tension that starts bending back the plot like a catapult that really makes this one hell of a book.

Exciting, fast-paced and laced with intelligent humour – this is a fun read and I am not surprised that it gained such support from the US publisher St. Martin’s Press, and that Finder’s UK publisher Orion are so enthusiastic about its release.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Ali Karim - RAM

Book Review: Paranoia