High Crimes (32 page)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We should all have editors as dedicated as Henry Ferris. Just hours after his twin daughters were born, when most new fathers can’t think straight, he was tirelessly exchanging faxes and FedEx packages from the hospital. I’m grateful for his sound judgment, his taste, and his determination. (If it were up to him, he’d have deleted this paragraph as needless excess in a section already too long.)
With each of my four novels, I’ve been privileged to have such superb and generous sources, above all my friend Jack McGeorge of the Public Safety Group in Woodbridge, Virginia, expert in security, munitions, terrorism, and just about everything else. The longer I know him, the more he seems to know. Once again I’m indebted to other friends who’ve given freely of their expertise, contacts, and advice: Paul McSweeney of Professional Management Specialists; H. Keith Melton, expert in (and world-class collector of) surveillance devices; Peter Crooks of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers; the remarkable Paul Redmond of the CIA; Thomas Powers, for his wise counsel; and Marty Peretz, for his generous and unflagging support from the very beginning of my writing career.
A number of experts in various fields provided valuable assistance: in voice and tape identification, Lonnie Smrkovski; on the military and its security procedures, Mickey Connolly; on the U.S. Marshals, Dick Bigelow; and on government secrecy, Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. Carlos Salinas of Amnesty International furnished useful background on American involvement in El Salvador. In the Cambridge Police, I was helped by Kathy Murphy, Alisse Cline of the Identification Unit, and Detectives Lester J. Sullivan and John Lopes of the Criminal Investigation Section; and in the Massachusetts State Police, by Chris Dolan in Crime Scene Services. Tom Williams helped make the polygraph scenes as authentic as possible. At Quantico, Chief Warrant Officer Jim Hart granted me an enlightening tour of the brig. Carl M. Majeskey shared with me his unparalleled ballistics expertise. My brother and medical consultant, Dr. Jonathan Finder, was as usual supremely generous with expert medical advice, as well as with an unfortunately timed computer catastrophe.
Claire would have had an even rougher time of it without my team of Boston attorneys: Ralph D. Gants of Palmer & Dodge; Morris M. Goldings of Mahoney, Hawkes & Goldings; Charles W. Rankin of Rankin & Sultan; Nick Poser; and especially Harry Mezer; and in Washington, Joseph E. diGenova and Victoria Toensing. At Harvard Law School, Alan Dershowitz and particulary Martha Minow were extremely helpful, as was M. Tracey Maclin at the Boston University Law School.
The author Rodney Barker kindly provided entrée to the insular and highly specialized world of military law. Thanks to him I was able to assemble my own Dream Team of civilian attorneys specializing in courts-martial, including William J. Baker, Tom Folk, David Sheldon, and the estimable David L. Beck. Charles W. Gittins helped immensely in devising Claire’s legal strategy, at a time when he was working ’round the clock to defend the Sergeant Major of the Army. And I can’t say enough about the great Mike Powell, a civilian military attorney with the imagination of a novelist, who cheerfully served as my chief legal adviser and military consultant, and became a friend. If ever I were court-martialed, I’d hire him in an instant. The malevolent nature of Tom’s court-martial is purely my own invention and not based on anything I ever saw in real life. None of the military judges I met were at all like my Warren Farrell. (What’s
possible
, though, is another matter.…) Any procedural or legal errors are mine, or maybe Claire’s.
At William Morrow I thank Paul Fedorko, Ann Treistman, and Fritz Metsch. I had a superb copy editor in Terry Zaroff-Evans. My wonderful and supremely able assistant, Kathy Economou, made my writing life a lot easier. My gratitude to my terrific literary agent and all-around consigliere, Molly Friedrich; her assistant, Paul Cirone; and Aaron Priest; and again I appreciate the enthusiasm of my foreign-rights agent, Danny Baror, and Richard Green and Howie Sanders of United Talent Agency. My parents, Morris and Natalie Finder, are outstanding unpaid freelance publicists and supporters. And of course my brother, Henry Finder, peerless editor/consultant, still sets aside time for me even as the demand on his time grows and the outside world gets wise to his talents. My wife, Michele Souda, not only helped give life to Claire but also recognized that in my fiction, men who cook are to be watched closely. She encouraged me from the start and continues to believe, and I’m grateful as always for her loving support.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks Titles
by Joseph Finder
Vanished
Power Play
Killer Instinct
Company Man
Paranoia
Praise for
New York Times
bestselling author Joseph Finder and his novels
HIGH CRIMES
“Fast and furious.”
—
The New York Times Book Review
“Exciting … deliciously absorbing … full of hairpin turns.”
—
The Washington Post
“A powerhouse tale.”
—
Chicago Tribune
“Provocative and chilling.”
—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)
“Rattling good entertainment.”
—
Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)
VANISHED
“A rousing, lightning-paced thriller from the first page to the last. ”
—
Providence Journal
“An action-packed, full-throttle, buy-it-today-read-it-tonight series that you definitely shouldn’t miss.”
—Lee Child
“A humdinger.… a thriller to enjoy for its Washington locales, convincing familiarity with cutting-edge spy gadgetry, and taut action scenes.”
—
The Washington Post
“Cliffhangers galore, the fascinating tradecraft of corporate espionage, and an engrossing story will propel readers through this outstanding thriller.”
—
Library Journal
(starred review)
“If you only read one book this summer, make it
Vanished
.”
—
Crimespree
magazine
“Moves at the pace of an injected neurotoxin … You’ll curse Finder for keeping you up into the early hours.”
—
Shots
magazine
“Finder is that rare thriller author who actually writes well. He manages deft characterization, offhand one-liners, and a fine sense of place.… In the best thrillers everything is connected. Pay attention to the details here, because they all fit into the surprising and timely plot of this first-rate effort.”
—
SmartMoney
POWER PLAY
“A white-knuckle tale of suspense.”
—
Chicago Sun-Times
“Its premise is enough to send chills through corporate boardrooms, and through civilian readers, too.”
—Janet Maslin,
The New York Times
“A fast-paced fun ride … a delicious, perfectly prepared mixture.”
—
Boston Globe
“A bloody, rollicking thrill ride … the plot moves at light speed.”
—
Richmond Times-Dispatch
“The action is swift … keeps the plot bubbling and the pages turning.”
—
Wall Street Journal
“Thrilling … Start
Power Play
this afternoon and you’ll have the nightstand lamp burning at bedtime.”
—
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“A finely crafted excursion into the dark heart of executive-suite skullduggery … plenty of action and suspense.”
—
Forbes
KILLER INSTINCT
“Unstoppable.”
—
USA Today
“Masterful.”
—
Houston Chronicle
“Explosive … wickedly fun.”
—
Entertainment Weekly
“Master of a complex suspense formula … flawlessly executed violence, crisp dialogue, and taut pacing.”
—
The New York Times Book Review
“A roller coaster of a read.”
—
Cosmopolitan
COMPANY MAN
“Finder skillfully places his story of corporate intrigue in counterpoint to the unraveling of a family’s secrets, and the plot, which also features rogue cops and at least one homicide, accelerates to a headlong finish.”
—New Yorker
“Once again, Finder has produced a page-turning corporate thriller with enough twists and turns for any reader.”
—Denver Post
PARANOIA
“A high-octane thrill ride.”
—
San Francisco Chronicle
“The most entertaining thriller of the year.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Jet-propelled … this twisting, stealthily plotted story … weaves a tangled and ingeniously enveloping web … [with a] killer twist for the end.”
—
The New York Times
“Page-turning perfection … Finder has that rare knack for instantly pulling the reader into the story and then tops that with surprises within surprises.”
—
Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Fast, funny, and very, very topical.”
—
Toronto Globe and Mail
“Imaginative and original, this is a gripping thriller with three characteristics too rare in the genre: humor, heart, and good writing.”
—
Detroit Free Press
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
HIGH CRIMES
Copyright © 1998 by Joseph Finder.
Excerpt from
Buried Secrets
copyright © 2011 by Joseph Finder.
All rights reserved.
For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
ISBN: 978-0-312-37882-0
William Morrow hardcover edition / February 1998
Avon Books paperback edition / February 1998
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / March 2011
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
eISBN: 978-1-4299-2852-6
First St. Martin’s Paperbacks eBook Edition: March 2011