Paranoia by
Joseph Finder
pbk out March 05
(Orion)
at £6.99
Billed as the corporate thriller for the 21st century, Paranoia is a film in
waiting. Not surprising, as Paramount have already snapped up the film rights, and
Finder's previous novel, High Crimes, was made into a film. But I say it's a film in
waiting because the novel is written, structured and styled as a film. It's almost as if
the paper version is a by-product of the film, not the other way round.
Adam Cassidy is twenty-six and in a low-level job at a high-tech corporation,
where he coasts along doing as little as possible. When he manipulates the computer
accounts records to arrange an extravagant leaving party for a shop-floor worker, he is
in trouble with the nasty, self-centred boss of the corporation, Nick Wyatt. The only
way he can escape prison is to agree to spy for Wyatt Corporation from inside their
rivals, Trion. With faked recommendations, he gets a job in Trion, and wings it while
trying to find out about Project Aurora, a deeply secret new development in
electronics. Falling under the charismatic influence of his new boss, Jock Goddard,
he is torn two ways. Especially when he also falls for the charms of someone inside
the Aurora Project, Alana Jennings. How is he going to get out of this one? Read on.
Oh, and at the same time as all this is happening to him, he carries on a love-hate
relationship with his dying father, whose care can only be handled by a black ex-con.
The story flies along, carrying the reader with it, on a roller-coaster ride of
heart-stopping moments. Adam risks everything time and again to supply his former
boss with data that will give Wyatt the edge over his competitor. You have to like the
guy, though, especially if you're twenty-something yourself, and part of the bling
bling style generation. You can identify, sympathise even, as he is forced to cheat on
his new employer, and his new girl-friend. To win her over, he is fed all her
preferences in music, food, and films by Wyatt, so he can charm her with his similar
tastes. But then wouldn't that look a little suspicious to you and me? "Hey, you like
Ani DiFranco, can quote verbatim from Double Indemnity, love Thai food, Sancerre
wine, and you're into Buddhist philosophy! Me too!" (Not an actual quote). The
climax takes you right up to the wire, then puts in the final (but not entirely
unpredictable) twist in the tail.
And that's where I think its more a film than a novel. The whole book, its
language and ambience is aimed at that prime twenty-something cinema audience.
The climax is straight out of Mission Impossible, or Topkapi - a little more suitable for
the cinema than the page. And I can just see the final ending played out on the silver
screen, leaving us hanging on for the sequel. Paranoia 2. If I was up-to-date with the
latest film stars in Hollywood, I could even tell you who is pencilled in for the parts.
But as I'm not, I leave that to you. Don't wait for the film, you will enjoy reading the
book.
(
Ian Morson
Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger)
Paranoia by
Joseph Finder
