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The Finder
There's no doubt about 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 who 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.
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 who 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.
340 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2008
39 people are currently reading
463 people want to read
About the author
Colin Harrison
63 books140 followersColin Harrison is a crime novelist. He is a vice president and senior editor at Scribner.
He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with his wife, the writer Kathryn Harrison, and their three children (Sarah, Walker and Julia).
He attended: Haverford College, BA 1982; University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. MFA 1986
His short nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Vogue, Salon, Worth, and other various publications.
He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with his wife, the writer Kathryn Harrison, and their three children (Sarah, Walker and Julia).
He attended: Haverford College, BA 1982; University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. MFA 1986
His short nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Vogue, Salon, Worth, and other various publications.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 149 reviews
June 10, 2020
Buildings & Boobs
Below the marble foyers and plush offices of mid-town Manhattan are of course the sewers: Two worlds. One world is visible, impressive, ornamental and confident; but that’s only a façade for what lies beneath. It is the hidden world of the sewers which is essential, not the marble foyers. If the visible weren’t properly maintained, there might be complaints. If the invisible stopped working, life itself becomes impossible.
As it is with buildings, so is it with people. Those above don’t think at all about those below. And this provides great opportunity. One man’s trash is another man’s inside information. Hence the real contradictions of modern high-tech capitalism: “CorpServe's clients were paying it extra money to more efficiently steal the very information they most wanted destroyed.”
It is women, of course, who inhabit and maintain the nether regions of buildings and the lower reaches of society. They are, as it were, the plumbing that connects upper and lower. Women have made advances in society but not where it counts in New York City, that place “Where blood gets turned into money!.” The reason? “The permanent government of New York City, the true and lasting power, is found in the quietly firm handshake between the banking and real estate industries.” Those handshakes are almost exclusively among men. This is a world of marginalised women, “A corporate world so close they could reach out and touch it with their cherry-colored fingernails. Yet given the stratifications of American society, it is a world they are unlikely ever to know from within.”
Women exist in that government for the two things which Harrison makes very clear: sex and the removal, medical examination and cleansing of excrement. But don’t believe him, just ask Trump (who gets a mention as the ‘great American trickster’ in this book of 2008 which aptly captures his two interests: buildings and boobs). Otherwise “they are faceless, nameless, and invisible.” They live in a parallel universe, something like Red Hook in Brooklyn, which has nothing to do with the high-tech paperless office but through which that office is connected to the moral excrement as well as to the money it creates. What goes around, comes around, as it were. When the plumbing starts backing up, everyone eventually notices. A blessing really. There may be some justice after all.
Below the marble foyers and plush offices of mid-town Manhattan are of course the sewers: Two worlds. One world is visible, impressive, ornamental and confident; but that’s only a façade for what lies beneath. It is the hidden world of the sewers which is essential, not the marble foyers. If the visible weren’t properly maintained, there might be complaints. If the invisible stopped working, life itself becomes impossible.
As it is with buildings, so is it with people. Those above don’t think at all about those below. And this provides great opportunity. One man’s trash is another man’s inside information. Hence the real contradictions of modern high-tech capitalism: “CorpServe's clients were paying it extra money to more efficiently steal the very information they most wanted destroyed.”
It is women, of course, who inhabit and maintain the nether regions of buildings and the lower reaches of society. They are, as it were, the plumbing that connects upper and lower. Women have made advances in society but not where it counts in New York City, that place “Where blood gets turned into money!.” The reason? “The permanent government of New York City, the true and lasting power, is found in the quietly firm handshake between the banking and real estate industries.” Those handshakes are almost exclusively among men. This is a world of marginalised women, “A corporate world so close they could reach out and touch it with their cherry-colored fingernails. Yet given the stratifications of American society, it is a world they are unlikely ever to know from within.”
Women exist in that government for the two things which Harrison makes very clear: sex and the removal, medical examination and cleansing of excrement. But don’t believe him, just ask Trump (who gets a mention as the ‘great American trickster’ in this book of 2008 which aptly captures his two interests: buildings and boobs). Otherwise “they are faceless, nameless, and invisible.” They live in a parallel universe, something like Red Hook in Brooklyn, which has nothing to do with the high-tech paperless office but through which that office is connected to the moral excrement as well as to the money it creates. What goes around, comes around, as it were. When the plumbing starts backing up, everyone eventually notices. A blessing really. There may be some justice after all.
November 29, 2024
Three stars for a twisted plot and a non-convincing final, which seems hurriedly written.
Ray, Chen and the villain are sometimes clever and professional, sometimes very dumb and careless. I don't believe too much in coincidences, as Ray senior's file about young Vic, don't like at all the scent of poo. Although, there are some interesting collateral facts involving trade, economics and even medicine, so that is not quite a bad book...
Ray, Chen and the villain are sometimes clever and professional, sometimes very dumb and careless. I don't believe too much in coincidences, as Ray senior's file about young Vic, don't like at all the scent of poo. Although, there are some interesting collateral facts involving trade, economics and even medicine, so that is not quite a bad book...
March 9, 2016
"But in Tom's case most of the conversation involved abstractions that were answered with abstractions. The people on the other end of the conversation were working within an algorithm, too.
This meant that Tom had very few real conversations. He spoke to dozens of people a day but always within his corporate persona and within the appropriate algorithm He was trapped. The man he'd been once was either buried under all of this behavior or even, perhaps, gone. Irrecoverably. We change in only one direction. We don't ever change back. She still loved Tom, she supposed, at least out of a kind of habit; her mind was trapped within its own algorithms too, of course.
But in this overall perception about her husband, who was now brushing his teeth in their bathroom, came another one. Tom had made an error. A big human error. He had misjudged a human being. Maybe it was Martz, maybe it was someone else. The misjudgment was a serious one, full of huge personal and professional risk. This led to another thought.
Tom was stalling because he didn't have an algorithm.
He had never seen the problem before.
He didn't know what to do."
-- Colin Harrison, The Finder
My first Colin Harrison novel. My brother turned me onto him, years ago. I learned he edited David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, William H. Gass, etc., while working at Harpers Mag (he is currently a/the senior editor at Scribner.). I figured, hell, if THIS guy had the stones to take a red pen to DFW, Franzen, Gass, etc., he must be above average. So, I collected his novels, but still never quite jumped in any of them, until yesterday.
Anyway, enough foreplay. I liked the novel. It was a well-formed urban crime novel that traveled from money and power to poverty and destitution. From beginning to end, it was detailed, fleshy, and of course, well-written. Not quite a John le Carré, but God, who really is?
This meant that Tom had very few real conversations. He spoke to dozens of people a day but always within his corporate persona and within the appropriate algorithm He was trapped. The man he'd been once was either buried under all of this behavior or even, perhaps, gone. Irrecoverably. We change in only one direction. We don't ever change back. She still loved Tom, she supposed, at least out of a kind of habit; her mind was trapped within its own algorithms too, of course.
But in this overall perception about her husband, who was now brushing his teeth in their bathroom, came another one. Tom had made an error. A big human error. He had misjudged a human being. Maybe it was Martz, maybe it was someone else. The misjudgment was a serious one, full of huge personal and professional risk. This led to another thought.
Tom was stalling because he didn't have an algorithm.
He had never seen the problem before.
He didn't know what to do."
-- Colin Harrison, The Finder
My first Colin Harrison novel. My brother turned me onto him, years ago. I learned he edited David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, William H. Gass, etc., while working at Harpers Mag (he is currently a/the senior editor at Scribner.). I figured, hell, if THIS guy had the stones to take a red pen to DFW, Franzen, Gass, etc., he must be above average. So, I collected his novels, but still never quite jumped in any of them, until yesterday.
Anyway, enough foreplay. I liked the novel. It was a well-formed urban crime novel that traveled from money and power to poverty and destitution. From beginning to end, it was detailed, fleshy, and of course, well-written. Not quite a John le Carré, but God, who really is?
October 24, 2008
If you can suspend disbelief and not ask any questions while reading this, you might like it. I have enjoyed several Colin Harrison books, so I can't figure out whether his writing is going downhill or my reading became more discriminatory. He is still a good story-teller and his books set in NYC give the reader a real familiarity with the city. This story has an interesting premise: a cleaning crew is taking out valuable trash from Manhattan business offices, and while most of it gets shredded, some of it is sorted, reviewed and analyzed, then reported to a group of investors in China, who use the information to play the stock market to their advantage. That is a fascinating idea and it could have been developed into an interesting mystery, but it has so much gratuitous violence using scatological settings and his characters act like cartoons, only without as much sense. I got the impression that the author was under the gun and had to finish the book to pay off a bad debt.
May 15, 2008
Confession: I only got halfway through. Hell, I love me some violence, but after the death-by-drowning-in-a-car-filled-up-with-human-excrement (followed by a lengthy investigation of the human-excrement-filled pipes for clues -- oh look, it's another tampon!), and after the death-by-golf-club-pummelling, and after the hero stole his dying dad's pain medication, and after the rich guy got a prostate exam during his own party...I needed a shower. Colin Harrison is a great writer, but maybe I'm getting too old for this, well, excrement.
February 17, 2009
Set in NYC, this is an international corporate spy intregue. The main character is strong, likable and approachable. He is admirable and the "bad guys" are reallllllly bad. Short on the close, but a tight plot with interesting chapter layout.
June 17, 2010
All you have to do to realize how differently each books affects each individual is to read reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Clearly some books resonate for a whole variety of different reasons. This book is a good example of that.
Ray's relationship to his dying father is done, I think, in a very sensitive and emotional manner that resonated more than a few of my chords as I had gone through similar experiences with my father last fall. I suspect for many people, it would have been just boring. For me it was the opposite, if almost unreadable because it struck so close to home. Ray's farther is an ex-cop who wants desperately to help his son in the quest to locate his girlfriend. In the end he locates some key information in his old files.
Ray is an ex-fireman who was almost crushed with his partner (who did not survive) when the WTC collapsed. I must say that the description of Ray trying to stay alive while his partner dies is horrifying in the extreme and very realistic. I got claustrophobic while listening. One unusual method for murder is how the two Mexican immigrants are killed: their car is pumped full of sewage and they suffocate.
This is the third Colin Harrison I have read. This one is a tad different in that the protagonist is perhaps less ordinary - or should I say more extraordinary - than in the other two. On the other hand, his abilities are well within the range of normal considering his métier. Not quite as well done as the others, I think. The Peter Blake character seems superfluous; some of the character's motivations seem bizarre. Still an above average mystery/thriller.
Ray's relationship to his dying father is done, I think, in a very sensitive and emotional manner that resonated more than a few of my chords as I had gone through similar experiences with my father last fall. I suspect for many people, it would have been just boring. For me it was the opposite, if almost unreadable because it struck so close to home. Ray's farther is an ex-cop who wants desperately to help his son in the quest to locate his girlfriend. In the end he locates some key information in his old files.
Ray is an ex-fireman who was almost crushed with his partner (who did not survive) when the WTC collapsed. I must say that the description of Ray trying to stay alive while his partner dies is horrifying in the extreme and very realistic. I got claustrophobic while listening. One unusual method for murder is how the two Mexican immigrants are killed: their car is pumped full of sewage and they suffocate.
This is the third Colin Harrison I have read. This one is a tad different in that the protagonist is perhaps less ordinary - or should I say more extraordinary - than in the other two. On the other hand, his abilities are well within the range of normal considering his métier. Not quite as well done as the others, I think. The Peter Blake character seems superfluous; some of the character's motivations seem bizarre. Still an above average mystery/thriller.
February 22, 2016
Let me start with a brief tangent. I literally happened onto this book by wandering the aisles of my local Barnes & Noble. If bookstores go away because of the internet then I will eventually run out of stuff to read because there will be no aisles to browse. And I always thought it was undiluted bullshit that you can't judge a book by its cover because I was first drawn to this by its cover. Okay. The characters here are very complex and vivid and I always knew who was who unlike other books I've read (I'm looking at you Dragon Tattoo). The white and blue collar criminal world of New York is as interesting here as in Michael Clayton or Duplicity (great movie, bad title). I'm eager to read other books by Harrison and excited to have a new author. The amount of knowledge of international business seems authentic and it never bogs down and kills the story. That said, I was a little disappointed by the last few chapters on this book. It went from low but real stakes to an Ashley Judd movie with someone tied up in a warehouse. Seriously. But on balance, I liked the vivid and unusual characters and it zipped along very well.
September 6, 2016
Blending big business in with shady elements on the page is no new thing, it's merely art imitating life. But Harrison continues to prove he knows his stuff (or at least seems to--what do I know--I work in shipping) on the ledger side of the equation. This adds a sense of realism to his characters throughout his bibliography, a reason I keep coming back to his novels. That said, there is some really over the top stuff on the street side on occasion in The Finder, and these moments all involve poop. No bs, pun intended. But all crap jokes aside (I'm here all day folks and twice on Tuesday), it still works as a whole and I whipped through it pretty quickly.
June 25, 2008
So far, very fast-paced and exciting. Brilliant descriptive imagery; I feel like I'm in New York City and I've never been. Hate to have to put it down...
Whew!! What a great thriller; truly one of the best I have ever read. This author gets every detail exactly right and unlike most thrillers, I wasn't dissatisfied by how things wrapped up. Recommended for anyone who wants their heart to beat fast...
Whew!! What a great thriller; truly one of the best I have ever read. This author gets every detail exactly right and unlike most thrillers, I wasn't dissatisfied by how things wrapped up. Recommended for anyone who wants their heart to beat fast...
November 3, 2012
A really smart clever thriller. A compelling account of corporate espionage gone wrong, with slightly smarter and more nuanced characters then one usually finds in such thrillers. The real star of the book for me was the way the author brings the sinister side of New York lurking under it all to life.
May 8, 2009
After the last few books I read I began to lose faith in the New York Times book list, but they went and totally redeemed themselves with the Finder. A pure action book which I read super fast and loved. Great, gritty read.
November 11, 2014
I read this book because of a good/interesting review in the L.A. Times - not sure why I finished it. Interesting telling of manipulations of the stock market by international players, including China. However, way too much gratuitous description of abhorrent cruelty and violence.
April 22, 2019
This book is very well researched and quite well written, albeit more or less formulaic, but it isn’t the sort of crime fiction I enjoy. Give me Poirot-like mind puzzles or psychological thrillers any day of the week, and I’ll be a happy camper.
April 22, 2008
If you love suspense I highly recommend this book. The author does not waste any space or use words carelessly.
December 7, 2008
Really great. Some people think it gives the Chinese a bad name but actually it seemed to be torn from the headlines.
July 17, 2025
Die Stadt. die Scheiße und der Tod
Don De Lillos Unterwelt war ein hochgradig komplexes Epos voll Zivilitationskritik über die Entsorgungsindustrie, die sich über mehrere Generationen hinzog und bei der Gestaltung auch die Erzähltrends der jeweiligen Epoche mit einbezog oder sich am Stil der jeweiligen Großmeister orientierte. Ein Gourmetfest für Kritiker, aber eine Herausfoderung, die den Geduldsfaden von Allerweltguckern des Literarischen Quartetts glatt überstrapazierte.
Daher lag der Gedanke nahe, ein paar Schlenker wegzulssen, um einen etwas anrüchtigen Spannungsroman aus der Materie zu eine verlockende Lektüre aus den allgemeinmenschlichen Substanzen zu gestalten.
Wäre Colin Harrison wenigsten ein Gestalter! Aber diese Geschichte wurde derart lieblos hingehudelt, durchaus vorhandene Potenziale kläglichst verplempert, dass ich mich auch nur in anderen Rezis geäußerten These anschließen kann, dass der Auto während der Finanzkrise 2007ff den Lohn für seine besseren Bücher wohl eingebüßt haben muss und ganz schnell einen Nachfolger für den weiteren Lebensunterhalt fertig machen musste. Freunde von Anal-, Fäkal-, und Kanalhumor könnten aber durchaus ein paar Brosamen für ihren Fetisch in dieser Klischee-Suppe finden, die sich wohl auch ein wenig von Tom Wolfes Fegefeuer der Eitelkreiten inspierieren ließ, was die Portraits der Schurken in der Finanz-, Pharma- oder Entsorgungsindustrie angeht.
Sollte mir eines der gelungenen Werke von Colin Harrison in einer Bücherzelle unterkommen, würde ich ihm noch mal etwas Lesezeit einräumen, aber sicherlich kein Geld investieren.
Don De Lillos Unterwelt war ein hochgradig komplexes Epos voll Zivilitationskritik über die Entsorgungsindustrie, die sich über mehrere Generationen hinzog und bei der Gestaltung auch die Erzähltrends der jeweiligen Epoche mit einbezog oder sich am Stil der jeweiligen Großmeister orientierte. Ein Gourmetfest für Kritiker, aber eine Herausfoderung, die den Geduldsfaden von Allerweltguckern des Literarischen Quartetts glatt überstrapazierte.
Daher lag der Gedanke nahe, ein paar Schlenker wegzulssen, um einen etwas anrüchtigen Spannungsroman aus der Materie zu eine verlockende Lektüre aus den allgemeinmenschlichen Substanzen zu gestalten.
Wäre Colin Harrison wenigsten ein Gestalter! Aber diese Geschichte wurde derart lieblos hingehudelt, durchaus vorhandene Potenziale kläglichst verplempert, dass ich mich auch nur in anderen Rezis geäußerten These anschließen kann, dass der Auto während der Finanzkrise 2007ff den Lohn für seine besseren Bücher wohl eingebüßt haben muss und ganz schnell einen Nachfolger für den weiteren Lebensunterhalt fertig machen musste. Freunde von Anal-, Fäkal-, und Kanalhumor könnten aber durchaus ein paar Brosamen für ihren Fetisch in dieser Klischee-Suppe finden, die sich wohl auch ein wenig von Tom Wolfes Fegefeuer der Eitelkreiten inspierieren ließ, was die Portraits der Schurken in der Finanz-, Pharma- oder Entsorgungsindustrie angeht.
Sollte mir eines der gelungenen Werke von Colin Harrison in einer Bücherzelle unterkommen, würde ich ihm noch mal etwas Lesezeit einräumen, aber sicherlich kein Geld investieren.
March 28, 2015
Was pleasantly surprised with this thrill ride..this was one I had on my to-read list as highly recommended by an Amazon reader and that push, an intense need to knock some books of this impossible list of things to read in my lifetime LOL and the encouraging author blurbs on the back flap had this one highly anticipated and rightly so, it hooks you, compels you to read and savor needing to know what will happen next.. it was riveting. This story veered in so many directions and introduced so many procedures and explanations and characters it challenged me and was hard to stay away from for more than a day for fear you may forget something important and I liked that, I stayed up late with it and was entertained even through the highly detailed escape, chase scenes I tend to shy away from – I just don’t like to read of how a body is maneuvered or things are broken and because I am not an action reader and prefer plot however it just added to the great writing of the story..this was a consuming and engrossing story of a pretty Chinese woman on the run with her manipulative international businessman brother, her mysterious but rugged and strong ex boyfriend, an ambitious and ruthless sewage company owner and a delightfully evil millionaire with a bad prostrate looking for her for their own reasons..Why everyone wants her, how the lives of millions are toyed with and exploited daily through the stock market and insider tradings, the minutiae and innocence of paper and the disposal of it and the details of excrement and waste removal are all examined here and interesting despite its oddity. It takes a read such as this to teach me and excite me that make me excited about reading again and anxious for better, more, better, more..a vicious cycle I happily repeat every book until……..Yea this author is on my radar as I know and hope there are more gems like this from him out there. Recommended.
April 11, 2009
LOST AND FOUND
My introduction to Colin Harrison began with Manhattan Nocturne followed by The Havana Room and then one of his earlier books, Break and Enter (which most of his readers didn't love yet I enjoyed immensely). So I'm definitely a fan and look forward to reading anything by him. I think I would put this one on par with The Havana Room.
I read this on a recent trip to Vegas on a flight that should have taken four hours and ended up taking seven with all of the runway delays. Consequently, the book was started and finished in that one trip. There's nothing I like better than books that keep you on the edge of your seat, even though this time I was wearing a seatbelt so I knew I was secure.
This novel explores the far reaching effects of crime as its tentacles reach as far as China where the wheels begin to turn in a scheme involving a cleaning service and stealing information. It's elaborate and well thought out and it will take a firefighter, in the form of Ray Grant, Jr., to get to the bottom of it. Yes, you heard me right....he's a firefighter but his father was a former NYC detective, whose days are now numbered as he wages his war with cancer.
Harrison is very adept at drawing out his characters and introducing new characters who add to the story as opposed to confusing it. This one gives us a good mix but it's Ray Grant and Jin-Li, his ex-girlfriend, who will lead the charge, trying not to be found in her case and trying to find her in his case.
Usually I would give this book five stars but there was just something missing that I can't exactly put my finger on. It was gritty and riveting but, in the end, it did not find me.
My introduction to Colin Harrison began with Manhattan Nocturne followed by The Havana Room and then one of his earlier books, Break and Enter (which most of his readers didn't love yet I enjoyed immensely). So I'm definitely a fan and look forward to reading anything by him. I think I would put this one on par with The Havana Room.
I read this on a recent trip to Vegas on a flight that should have taken four hours and ended up taking seven with all of the runway delays. Consequently, the book was started and finished in that one trip. There's nothing I like better than books that keep you on the edge of your seat, even though this time I was wearing a seatbelt so I knew I was secure.
This novel explores the far reaching effects of crime as its tentacles reach as far as China where the wheels begin to turn in a scheme involving a cleaning service and stealing information. It's elaborate and well thought out and it will take a firefighter, in the form of Ray Grant, Jr., to get to the bottom of it. Yes, you heard me right....he's a firefighter but his father was a former NYC detective, whose days are now numbered as he wages his war with cancer.
Harrison is very adept at drawing out his characters and introducing new characters who add to the story as opposed to confusing it. This one gives us a good mix but it's Ray Grant and Jin-Li, his ex-girlfriend, who will lead the charge, trying not to be found in her case and trying to find her in his case.
Usually I would give this book five stars but there was just something missing that I can't exactly put my finger on. It was gritty and riveting but, in the end, it did not find me.
February 20, 2018
Colin Harrison seems to really, really want to be Tom Wolfe. His suspense novel The Finder is filled with the kind of reporting that Wolfe uses to such good effect (and which itself is modeled on Melville's Moby Dick or Hugo's Les Miserables). Wolfe skillfully inserts his reportage into the story in such a way that the reader simply follows it along in the narrative.
Finder isn't nearly as interesting or skillful. The fact that Harrison's setting a crime thriller in the middle of some high-finance shenanigans in New York City invites further comparison to Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities, which doesn't serve Finder very well.
Mysterious loner Ray needs to find his ex-girlfriend Jin Li, who's on the run because some folks have apparently stumbled on the information theft ring she and her brother run from their office cleaning business. The brother wants Ray to find Jin Li and bring her in to both save her and cover their tracks. Mobsters want to kill her. It's pretty standard and written in an arch style that deadens the action and characterization suspense novels live on.
Original available here.
Finder isn't nearly as interesting or skillful. The fact that Harrison's setting a crime thriller in the middle of some high-finance shenanigans in New York City invites further comparison to Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities, which doesn't serve Finder very well.
Mysterious loner Ray needs to find his ex-girlfriend Jin Li, who's on the run because some folks have apparently stumbled on the information theft ring she and her brother run from their office cleaning business. The brother wants Ray to find Jin Li and bring her in to both save her and cover their tracks. Mobsters want to kill her. It's pretty standard and written in an arch style that deadens the action and characterization suspense novels live on.
Original available here.
August 16, 2017
Ray Grant is “the finder”, a brave, caring, haunted man looking for Jin Li, a beautiful woman who mysteriously broke up with him and who’s now in deep trouble. Finding her involves untangling a complicated knot of people and problems extending from China to Manhattan. It also means understanding and avoiding the horrible, bizarre deaths befalling other players in the story. This well-crafted mystery will keep readers up all night; at the same time, it offers a fascinating look at human foibles and motivations, such as when mega rich Bill Martz reflects, “my happiness rides on understanding a young scam artist who crawled out of the gutter in Shanghai. Utterly ridiculous, except that it made absolutely perfect sense.” Extra bonus? The author provides an insider’s look at such intriguing questions as how can proprietary information be smuggled out of the U.S.? It’s no question that readers who enjoy The Finder will also appreciate Harrison’s other masterpieces, including Afterburn and Manhattan Nocturne (both fiction by Harrison).
July 21, 2008
I really loved this modern New York gangland thriller in the beginning--dynamite characters from all over the place: Chinese immigrants, ex-911 firefighters, old-school Long Island gangsters, big-business assholes, plastic surgery wives, and dying detectives. Really interesting intrigue, gross-out murders, detailed info about microcosms of society (how to make a stock rise and fall, how the sewage industry works, what information will people pay big bucks for). However, it sort of lost cohesion as it revealed the mysterious backgrounds behind the characters--the "big reveals" weren't that great. Also, random behaviors and actions were perpetrated by/against our characters that seemed funky. But, I loved the last chapter wrapping up all the characters as a pseudo-anonymous portrait. Just that section of the book 65-95% in that could have been stronger. Otherwise, a great summer read.
October 27, 2009
Okay, surprisingly I liked this book. I borrowed it from my mother and I read it in 2 days. It was interesting to me because of all the ins and outs of big business in NYC intrigue me. It kept me in suspense -I could never guess what was going to happen next. The author outsmarted me and I liked it...I just don't like to predict what is going to happen next...and I certainly was unable to do that with this book.
Warning - a few of the scenes were vulgar or violent...to the point where I was embarrassed to be reading it. I was not left disturbed though at the end, so I feel good about recommending it.
Also, I liked the main male character. He was respectable and just a good guy. I couldn't identify with the main female character though, so I think that is what I just liked it rather than "really" liked it.
Warning - a few of the scenes were vulgar or violent...to the point where I was embarrassed to be reading it. I was not left disturbed though at the end, so I feel good about recommending it.
Also, I liked the main male character. He was respectable and just a good guy. I couldn't identify with the main female character though, so I think that is what I just liked it rather than "really" liked it.
January 13, 2017
Well written, great story line and one hell of a way to begin this saga! Two young women killed in one of the worst ways to die in recent memory. What a shitty way to go! You know urine NYC when you get snuffed by excrement, it must be those devious, bohemian, artsy-craftsy type characters, or is it? I was hoping the rest of the plot wasn't going to be as distasteful but it concluded in just the opposite; an effective, engaging thriller. Mr. Harrison tended to dwell upon the history of nearly every character's background in places that were irrelevant and unnecessary. But, aside from those forgiveable, minor detours, he delivered a great story set in one of my favorite cities, introducing a down to earth protagonist. It concluded with a satisfying ending and look forward to my second serving of Colin Harrison.
April 11, 2008
This thriller is worth reading for the interesting characters that pop up along the way like Ears Moleson, a minor player whose name and eventual demise is just one of the fun surprises in the book. The description of the sewage business is another odd but interesting sidelight. The last third of the book is somewhat absurd as thrillers tend to get but the action is fast and furious and holds the reader's interest. The overly detailed but not very understandable description of the financial maneuverings tends to evoke a yawn but all in all, it was the characterizations that made the novel most readable. DO NOT pick up this book if blood and gore repel you. It does indeed go down to the "last gory detail."
February 19, 2011
It seemed the author was trying to find the most awful ways to die possible, for the involved characters. There really was no 'mystery' involved, as the means, motive and opportunity were quickly revealed. As for 'suspense', rather than 'mystery' - well, I suppose one might read on, just to see whether the 'hero' and his intended will survive their own stupidity. This book has the added 'bonus' of making the reader thoroughly disheartened, when considering the likelihood of thorough corruption in the trading of Stock on the public markets, both in NYC and in Shanghai, etc. I was especially disappointed, as much of the action takes place in what was my long time home territory, Long Island, NY. I suggest you find your mystery/suspense pleasures elsewhere.
July 19, 2018
Enjoyable enough if you want some light reading and can stand the gratuitous violence and gruesome filth. The book paints a believable enough picture (alas) of corporate New York but goes too much into technical detail to my taste. The scenes between Ray Sr and Jr are some of the strongest in the book. The relationship between the son and his dying father is described in terms of practical filial care and paternal final making up the reckoning kind of help that try to make light of the implicit emotions. For the rest, the characters are not memorable and sometimes even superfluous. However, good enough for a summer break.
June 7, 2008
The cast of The Finder sets up like a bad joke: enter a Chinese woman, a pharma rep, a billionaire tycoon, a sewage specialist, a Chinese entrepreneur, a Mexican mafia boss, and former CIA agents. Surprisingly, at least to me, Harrison manages to concoct a story connecting each of these outlandish characters, fittingly embedded in New York's diverse social-fabric, in a fun, spirited thriller.
An easy summer read done best with sand at your feet and cold lemonade (full of Grey Goose) in your free hand.
An easy summer read done best with sand at your feet and cold lemonade (full of Grey Goose) in your free hand.
October 3, 2008
Listened to this on audiobook - was annoyed with the reader's fake-Asian accents for the Chinese characters and his digressions into random minutiae like the warning label on a drug bottle and how to lift a stock's price. Some scenes, like a series of cell phone calls near the end of the book, were hilarious and tension-filled at the same time and broke through the muck. It was gripping in the beginning and gory throughout, but by the last half of the book I just wanted to finish it bacause I wanted the loose ends tied up.
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February 5, 2009Reminiscent of Tom Wolfe's and Raymond Chandler's novels, The Finder received mostly rave reviews. Although somewhat of a basic thriller, it contains excellent portraits of greedy, corrupt men and women and of a New York rotten to the core. "In [Harrison's:] New York," notes the Washington Post, "the evil that men do is indivisible." Critics praised Harrison's sharp eye for nuance
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