-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Joseph Finder's plan was to become a spy. Or maybe a professor of Russian
history. Instead he became a bestselling thriller writer.
Born in Chicago, Joe spent his early childhood living around the world,
including Afghanistan and the Philippines. In fact, Joe's first language — even
before learning English — was Farsi, which he spoke as a child in Kabul.
Finally, after a stint in Bellingham, WA, his family finally settled outside of
Albany, NY.
After taking a high school seminar on the literature and history of Russia, Joe
was hooked. He went on to major in Russian studies at Yale, where he also sang
with the school's legendary a cappella group, the Whiffenpoofs (and likes to
boast that he sang next to Ella Fitzgerald, an honorary Whiffenpoof). After
graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, he completed a master's degree at
the Harvard Russian Research Center and later taught on the Harvard faculty. He
was recruited to the Central Intelligence Agency, but after discovering that a
career in the bureaucracy of the Agency was less exciting than it seemed to be
in the novels of Robert Ludlum — in fact, less exciting than selling insurance —
Joe decided to write instead.
His first book, published in 1983 when he was only 24, was a non-fiction exposé
that resulted in threats of a libel suit. Red Carpet: The Connection Between
The Kremlin and America's Most Powerful Businessmen was the first book to
reveal that the controversial multi-millionaire Dr. Armand Hammer, the CEO of
Occidental Petroleum, had worked for Soviet intelligence in the 1920s and 1930s.
Hammer's attorneys threatened a massive lawsuit, but all of the book's
assertions were later confirmed when Soviet archives were briefly opened after
the fall of the Soviet Union. (This book is no longer in print.)
But Red Carpet was only part of the story that Joe wanted to tell. So he
wrote his first novel – the only way he could legally tell the whole Armand
Hammer saga. Published in 1991, The Moscow Club described events whose
factual truth would only be revealed many years later. Ironically, Joe found
confidential sources were more willing to reveal classified information to him
as a novelist than when he was working as a journalist and academic. The
Moscow Club was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the ten best spy
thrillers of all time and was published in thirty foreign countries.
What followed were three more critically-acclaimed thrillers – Extraordinary
Powers, The Zero Hour (sold to Twentieth-Century Fox for a record
sum) and High Crimes, which became a 2002 Fox film starring Ashley Judd
and Morgan Freeman. Joe was invited on the movie set and even cast for a
nonspeaking role as a JAG prosecutor.
Published in 2004, Paranoia represented a major turning point in Joe's
career, landing on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and
Publishers Weekly bestseller lists, among others. It was his first book to
use the ruthless drive, corruption and conspiracy of the corporate world as
riveting plotline. Called "fun...movie-ready...[with] twists aplenty..." by
Entertainment Weekly, Paranoia has been acquired by Gaumont, one of
the world's largest film production and distribution companies. The movie deal
was announced in April 2009, with Barry Levy ("Vantage Point") set to script the
adaptation.
Hailed as "the CEO of suspense," Joe's next three novels – Company Man,
Killer Instinct and Power Play – were all bestsellers where
things were not business as usual.
Joe's 2009 novel, Vanished, launched a four-book series featuring
corporate security specialist Nick Heller. Trained in the Special Forces, Nick
is a high-powered intelligence investigator – exposing secrets that powerful
people would rather keep hidden. He's a guy you don't want to mess with. He's
also the man you call when you need a problem fixed.
In addition to his fiction, Joe does occasional work for Hollywood and has
written on espionage and international affairs for a number of publications,
including Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and
The New Republic. He roots for the Boston Red Sox, and lives in Boston with
his wife, daughter and a needy golden retriever, Mia, a dropout from
seeing-eye-dog school.
Reproduced from the author's website, josephfinder.com
Joseph Finder's website
This bio was last updated on 12/28/2017. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
 (1).gif)
The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
