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)

A long slow story

What disappointed you about Killer Instinct?

The first 9/10ths of the book were slow, dry and the ending predictable and unrealistic.

What could Joseph Finder have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The book could have had much more character development. The weakness of the main character was in a weird blatant simplicity. The guy was good, slipping only into the bad without any reflection. The main character didn't seem to have the driving balance that defines most executives. He failed to acknowledge the villain's role in his process and had the depth of a 1960's cowboy movie.

The author could have spent time and effort on main character's struggle climbing the corporate ladder and his moral foundation. It was really strange how little time was devoted to this effort, and yet so much time was devoted to really dry office chat.

What does Scott Brick bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Nicely read and generally helped an otherwise dry book be tolerable.

What character would you cut from Killer Instinct?

What did his nephew bring to the story? That was totally undeveloped in the hours that the story told little.

Any additional comments?

A nice idea that would have been interesting if character development was more complete.

Write on Mr. Finder!

A very enjoyable read!!!

Predictable

If you've read other work by this author, it may feel like familiar territory. On the other hand, Scott Brick has produced another great performance.

Falls Flat

Slightly painful to listen to, not only because Scott Brick isn't my favorite narrator, but because the book itself is... um... kind of sucky.

The protagonist is kind of wimpy and stupid, and the antagonist is omnipotent and evil, and yet the wimpy, stupid guy prevails. This is one book that might have been improved by the bad guy winning.

Kind of a waste of a credit.

Bad, Bad, Bad

This is a book that Scott Brick can not save. I have been listening for several years and never written a review but feel compeled to pan this book. A cook book has more suspense than this novel. It is so slow in developing and goes between the faith or the lack of it, if the power of prayer is or is not a viable option. At one time I actually forgot what the main thrust of the plot was and why the main characters were doing the things they were doing. The only reason I finished this book was that I have never quit on a book yet. Sorry, bad book.

Slow & uncharacteristically boring

Would you try another book from Joseph Finder and/or Scott Brick?

Definitely

What do you think your next listen will be?

Unsure

Which character – as performed by Scott Brick – was your favorite?

Brick's performances are always top shelf

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointed

Any additional comments?

Joseph Finder is one of my favorite authors. I was unfortunately disappointed with this book. Very slow to develop & I struggled to get through it.

Preposterous storyline

The only thing that prevented this book from being a total waste of time was Scott Brick's excellent narration. Reading this book would have been painful. Very little in this book made sense. A security expert with almost superhuman abilities begins the story as a tow-truck driver. Our protagonist, aware of the villain's covert abilities, is, for a time, oblivious to the vulnerability of his own communications. It's difficult to provide examples of all that is incongruent about this story without creating spoilers. You can pretty much figure out where the story is going even without the spoilers. Also, this was another one of those books where it was hard to find a likable character. And when the book mercifully concluded we are immediately presented with a conversation/interview between the author and someone else whom I was never able to identify. These listens make me appreciate the good ones.

Not as good as others

Like many of the others, I loved Paranoia and really liked Power Play. I thought Killer Instinct had zero excitement. It just kept going and going. I looked at my iPod many times to see how much of the book was left hoping it was almost over. I felt the book was over after 4 hours and couldn't imagine what was going to fill the remaining 8 hours. Turned out it was more of the same and what I felt was very predictable. The sales part was well researched and well presented and was accurate up to the Sales Manager level, but the real corporate world does not work as it was presented in this book above the VP level. I do love Scott Brick and thought he did an excellent job of the narration, I wouldn't recommend using a credit on this book.