Killer Instinct

By: Joseph Finder

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Jason Steadman is a thirty-year-old sales executive living in Boston and working for an electronics giant, a competitors to Sony and Panasonic. He's a witty, charismatic guy who's well liked at the office, but he lacks the "killer instinct" necessary to move up the corporate ladder. To the chagrin of his ambitious wife, it looks as if his career has hit a ceiling. Jason's been sidelined.

But all that will change one evening when Jason meets Kurt Semko, a former Special Forces officer just back from Iraq. Looking for a decent pitcher for the company softball team, Jason gets Kurt, who was once drafted by the majors, a job in Corporate Security. Soon, good things start to happen for Jason—and bad things start to happen to Jason's rivals. His career suddenly takes off. He's an overnight success. Only too late does Jason discover that his friend Kurt has been secretly paving his path to the top by the most "efficient"—and ruthless— means available. After all, as Kurt says, "Business is war, right?"

But when Jason tries to put a stop to it, he finds that his new best friend has become the most dangerous enemy imaginable. And now it's far more than just his career that lies in the balance. A riveting tale of ambition, intrigue, and the price of success, Killer Instinct is Joseph Finder at his best.

*San Francisco Chronicle
** Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Audio edition includes an exclusive bonus interview with Joseph Finder and Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Blink and The Tipping Point!

©2006 Joseph Finder (P)2006 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC.

Critic reviews

"[A] masterful business thriller....Readers who enjoy movies where you have to fight the urge to shout 'Stop! Don't open that door!' will love this one." (Publishers Weekly)

"Steadman's 10-month ride from complacency to terror is filled with...thrills and chills." (Booklist)

One of my favorites in a while

While a little far fetched at times, the story is great!

The character is likeable and I got seriously entwined with his plight throughout the story - definitely a potential recurring character.

You may be put off if you can't bring yourself to believe some of the far fetched coorporate espionage antics, but in the end, it's all well worth it.

A Dynamic Duo

Finder writes the plot,and Brick interprets it. I just go along for the rollercoaster experience, only to find myself barely able to hold on , but unable and unwilling to get off. The giddy sensation of surviving the experience actually makes me smile...hope it does for you, too!

Great Finder story!

Typical Finder corporate intrigue plot, except that this time I liked the protagonist. A bit predictable, but still enjoyable. Scott Brick makes his books a good listen.

Entertaining but Predictable

The writing is very good, easy to read and entertaining. The author is easy to "listen" to. But the plot becomes fairly predictable early on with a kind of "Cable Guy" plot (friendly "helper" morphs into "helper from hell").
Still worth the read if you like this kind of story!

Awesome Author

Spellbinding... Finder weaves a web of suspense and intrigue that keeps you going after it. He appears to be so aware of the corporate world. I come away learning something with every book he writes. Kurt is sooo bad and Jason is so cool.

Good, but a bit slow

Overall this book was ok. In my opinion not as good as Power Play, but it was ok. The author took a lot of time in the begining setting everything up, so if you aren't a patient person, that could get annoying. It was a bit predictable at times as well, but really, once the book got going I found it to be enjoyable. Not great, but enjoyable. Scott Brick did a great job as he always does.

A Good Book!

The reviews for this book are all over the place. Some of us love it and others, well, not so much. Reading all the different reviews reminds me how different people are from each other. Just because 'John from Arizona' likes a book doesn't mean that I will, and vice-versa. I don't know anything about the corporate world, so Joseph Finder's books are very interesting to me. I think this book is well written, and the characters well developed- if not likeable. To me, that's just the way it should be. This book is well worth the money (or credit) and I really enjoyed it. I would recommend it to anyone who likes the genre.

No free lunch

After 13 years in the corporate world, I recognize the sales guys in this novel. Unfortunately. If I have to listen to how AWESOME a sales executive's latest Powerpoint presentation is, I would at least insist that he pay for lunch. I found the main character to be shallow and none too bright, and the characterization of special forces as darkly omnipotent criminals to be offensive. The story is completely tedious for the first several hours. The dialogue is clunky and odd--my boss has never shouted, "What goes on here?" instead of "What's going on here?" This book is the first time I have ever needed Fast playback on my iPod, and I'm only still listening because I started it with my husband, and don't want to blink first. Use your credits elsewhere.

predictable

I think the story is pretty predictable. Read the publisher's summary and you've got the book. And I'm sorry, but I don't get the whole Scott Brick-thing. To me, he is overly dramatic and certainly can't pull off a regular guy, much less a tough guy like Kurt Semko. He reminds me of Thurston Howell III. I know I'm in the minority. I think this may be my last Finder book and my last Scott Brick listen.

Mediocre at best

I love mystery and suspense novels as much as the next person, but found nothing endearing about the book. Every character and relationship was an absolute steriotype. The sports-driven salesman married to a formerly-wealthy indy-film-watching abstract-art-dealing wife was enough to make me roll my eyes. Worse was the ridiculously obvious plot that a four-year-old could have written, and dull, predictable ending. Nothing in this book was surprising or suspenseful, and I'm sorry to have wasted my time.