Power Play Joseph Finder St. Martin's

Power Play is packed with action and each succeeding chapter, explodes like fireworks. Jake Landry is a junior executive at Hammond Aerospace. Hammond has a new jet in production and the crash/failure of the European competition at an air-show has the executives gleefully pushing contracts to those who bought European. No one really wants to go to a seminar, retreat, team play, long weekend event especially one set up by the new, female, CEO. Hammond Aerospace is still an old, white, male clique slowly coming around. That's not the only thing wrong with Hammond Aerospace. Hints of a possible congressional investigation are in the air. The new CEO wants to clean house before hand. Hank Bodine, Jake's boss's boss brings Jake along because he's familiar with the actual production of the aircraft. No one expects much more than a lecture, maybe a dressing down and some team building exercises. But they all have their secrets, including Jake.

It's when these secrets begin to be played out and manipulated that things get intense. People end up dying. Most thrillers start with something more or less plausible and run it to the extreme, losing believability and any tension as a result. Power Play remains realistically plausible throughout. The only minor fault with Power Play was the executives talk much too business - like in a situation that calls for "I just lost control of my bowels" type dialog. Easily forgiven as the action picks up and the twists and turns of the plot are revealed. Want to read about corporate greed getting its comeuppance and yet cheer the corporate entity at the same time? Pick up Power Play by Joseph Finder.

Dave Biemann