Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"Brilliant . . . recalls Tom Wolfe's best-selling The Bonfire of the Vanities, but this is a far darker story and a far more interesting one. Harrisons Big Apple is rotten to the core."--The Washington Post
"Brutally effective . . . Harrison spins a fast-paced NYC crime novel. . . . Start reading this book and prepare to cancel all other plans for the next seven hours or so."--Entertainment Weekly (
Synopsis
Jin Li is a beautiful, driven young woman running a dangerous little operation. Manhattan corporations hire her for a simple but delicate task: to shred and destroy the reams of highly classified documents. But they don't know that she and her brother, Chen, have been using their discarded secrets to game the international markets, making a pile of cash. When someone at the Good Pharma corporation, whose stock is plummeting, uncovers the scheme, two of Jin Li's workers die a grisly death, and Jin is on the run. Her brother extorts Jin's old flame, Ray Grant--an ex-firefighter with a disturbing 9/11 past--to track her down. He'll have to comb every strata of New York, from the brutal Mexican mafia to the greed-fueled penthouse billionaires of Wall Street, to find her.
An intricate tale of avarice, corruption, and power, Colin Harrison's masterful new thriller is a "brilliantly executed novel" (The Baltimore Sun).
About the Author
COLIN HARRISON is the author of, most recently,
The Havana Room. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Reading Group Guide
Discussion Questions
1. In the first chapter of The Finder, Harrison writes about ethnic pariahs. "They are Nigerians in London, Turks in Paris, Koreans in Tokyo, Filipinos in Riyadh—outsiders in their new homelands." How does the of being an outsider play into The Finder? What examples are there of outsiders in this novel?
2. In New York, ethnic diversity is a big part of the citys culture. What is the importance of the various characters ethnicities in the book?
3. At the end of chapter 3, why does Ray berate himself for fighting back after Chens men had kidnapped him?
4. "You do what you gotta do" is a line uttered by both Ray and Jin Li in The Finder. Can you think of examples where they had to employ this type of thinking and attitude?
5. In Chapter 15, what does Ray notice when he drives by the house where Richie was murdered? What is the implication of what he sees?
6. Why does Harrison withhold Rays dark past until more than halfway through the book? How did its revelation change the way you thought of him?
7. Jin Li often refers to her brother and his fellow investors as the "pig men." If she dislikes her brother and his dealings, why would she continue to work for him in America? What factors complicate their relationship?
8. How does Jin Lis knowledge of chemical properties help her in the end of the book? Where did she acquire this knowledge?
9. Vulnerability is a recurring theme in The Finder. What are each characters vulnerabilities? And why is it so important for each character to be vulnerable to some degree in this book?
10. There are bad guys and good guys in every crime novel, but Harrison is careful to make his characters more complex, often mixing good attributes and less favorable ones in the same character. Is there a scale from bad to good on which the characters in The Finder can be arranged? Where would each character fall on this scale? How would you judge them?
11. When Ray Grant, Sr. risked injury by going to the basement of his home, what was he looking for? How did his discovery there help Ray Grant, Jr. track down Jin Li?
12. Ray Grant, Jr. survived the 9/11 attacks on The World Trade Center, but his partner suffered a gruesome death. When authorities came to Ray in the hospital, he was asked to keep the details of his partners death a secret for the peace of mind of the family. Is this a good idea? Or should the family know exactly what happened to their father/husband? Which story would you want to be told if it was your family member?
13. In the end of the book, William Martz is successful in his attempt to regain the money he lost on Good Pharmas stock. What does this mean for Martz as a character? Was the reader led to believe he would lose the money, or suffer in other ways? Did you want him to lose his money? Why?
14. Who is The Finder in this novel? Is there one finder or are there many?