New York Times bestselling author Joseph Finder’s breakneck stand-alone thriller about the secrets families can keep—and the danger of their discovery. When former investigative reporter Rick Hoffman loses his job, fiancée, and apartment, his only option is to move back into—and renovate—the home of his miserable youth, now empty and in decay since the stroke that put his father in a nursing home. father in a nursing home.
As Rick starts to pull apart the old house, he makes an electrifying discovery—millions of dollars hidden in the walls. It’s enough money to completely transform Rick’s life—and everything he thought he knew about his father. Yet the more of his father’s hidden past that Rick brings to light, the more dangerous his present becomes. Soon, he finds himself on the run from deadly enemies desperate to keep the past buried, and only solving the mystery of his father—a man who has been unable to communicate, comprehend, or care for himself for almost 20 years—will save Rick…if he can survive long enough to do it.
more
This book had the twists and turns I love, from discovering who were the criminals and who was actually “the fixer”. It definitely held my attention.
Rick Hoffman, ace investigative reporter, loses his job, six-figure income, and, thereby, his gorgeous fiancée due to declining newspaper sales. Freelancing and writing only fluff pieces for a Boston magazine, Rick cringes when instructed to give an interviewee “the full Rick Hoffman treatment,” code for to hell with journalistic ability; kiss ass, the truth be damned!
Unable to keep his upscale apartment, Hoffman, grudgingly, returns to his now-deserted childhood home. While attempting to locate raucous scratching sounds within the attic, Rick stumbles on a tented tarp concealing three million dollars. Recklessly blowing through a large chunk, he quickly attracts the wrong kind of attention.
His father in a nursing home, suffering from stroke-induced aphasia (an inability to speak), he’s unable to provide any insight regarding the money’s origin. Rick dusts off his once superior investigative reportorial skills and searches for the source of his good fortune.
Once equipped with the cold hard truth, Rick delivers a powerful exposé, earning the George Polk Award for investigative journalism. More importantly, he discovers he never really knew the father he’d always assumed an innocuous, successful attorney.
Pumped-full of all the right elements, greed, money laundering, and Irish contract killers; Finder’s The Fixer is a satisfying, reasonably paced, methodical mystery.
Unfettered Storytelling – Some family secrets should be just that – secret or so thought the fixer and the mastermind trying to convince Rick. You’ll want to keep turning pages to see if the family secrets remain in the dark or exposed for the world to see. A chilling pulsating read by Joseph Finder with over-the-top descriptive details.
Listened to the audio book. OK story.
It’s captivating from the start. Since my own novels (Borderland and Napa Noir) feature journalists, I was more than a little curious and sympathetic. Here the protagonist, an investigative journalist, has lost his prestigious job due to the ravages of the digital age. He’s camped out in his family’s decrepit home in Boston, and when he decides to renovate it, finds $3.5 million in cash hidden in father’s study. Though he’s suddenly rich, the money sends him on a search for the origins of the money. While he discovers his father, who’s now in a nursing home, is not the person he thought he knew, he lifts the lids on a swap of Boston corruption that nearly costs him his life. A few story elements were dubious. The crime the hero investigates happened 18 years earlier, and it’s a stretch to make it relevant two decades later. When the investigation seems at a dead end, sources and saviors miraculously appear to keep the story alive. The hero is kidnapped and beaten on multiple occasions, suffering concussions and broken bones, but he recovers in a matter of hours to fight again. Despite being battered by a 2×4, our intrepid hero makes a Batman leap from a third-story window to escape his burning house and into a tree where he clutches at branches to swing to ground. Hmm. Regardless, it’s a fun read.