Joseph Finder (born October 6, 1958) is an American thriller writer. His books include '' Paranoia'', '' Company Man'', '' The Fixer'', '' Killer Instinct'', ''Power Play'', and the Nick Heller series of thrillers. His novel ''High Crimes'' was made into the film of the same name starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. His novel ''Paranoia'' was adapted into a 2013 film starring Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman, and Harrison Ford.

Early life

Finder was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1958 and spent much of his early childhood in

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and the

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before his family returned to the United States and lived in

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, and outside

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. He is of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

descent. Finder majored in Russian studies at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, where he graduated '' summa cum laude'' and

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. He was also a bass singer in the Yale Whiffenpoofs (1980). He received a master's degree from the

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Russian Research Center and later taught on the Harvard faculty. He said that he "was recruited to the Central Intelligence Agency but eventually decided he preferred writing fiction".

Career

Finder published ''Red Carpet: The Connection Between the Kremlin and America's Most Powerful Businessmen'' (1983), about Dr. Armand Hammer's ties to Soviet intelligence. Finder's first novel, ''The Moscow Club'' (1991), imagined a

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

coup against Soviet leader

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. His second novel, ''Extraordinary Powers'' (1994), was about the discovery of a Soviet mole in the highest ranks of the CIA. ''Paranoia'' (2004) was a ''

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'' bestseller in both hardcover and paperback, as was ''Company Man'' (2005). Finder won the 2007 International Thriller Writers Award for best novel for '' Killer Instinct'' ( St. Martin's Press), published in May 2006. ''Power Play'', published in 2007, was nominated for a Gumshoe Award. ''Vanished'', the first novel to feature Finder's series character Nick Heller, was nominated for the 2010 International Thriller Writers Award for best novel. ''Buried Secrets'', the second Nick Heller novel, won the 2011 ''Strand Magazine'' Critics Award for Best Novel, sharing the award with ''The Cut'' by George Pelecanos. ''Suspicion'' (2014) was the first book to be published under Finder's new contract with Dutton, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; ''The Fixer'', another standalone, followed in 2015. ''Guilty Minds'', the third novel to feature Finder's series character, Nick Heller, was published in summer 2016. Another standalone novel, ''Judgment'', was published in 2019. Dutton published the fourth Nick Heller novel, ''House on Fire'', in 2020. Finder is a founding member of the International Thriller Writers Association and served as Financial Advisor to International PEN-

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. He is also a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. He writes on espionage and international affairs for publications including ''The New York Times'' and ''

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''.

Books

Nick Heller series

# ''Vanished'', , 2009, paperback 2010 # ''Buried Secrets'', , Summer 2011 # "Plan B", 2011 # "Good and Valuable Consideration", in ''Faceoff'', (with Jack Reacher), September 2014 (co-written with Lee Child) # ''Guilty Minds'', , July 2016 # ''House on Fire'', , January 2020

Other novels

*''The Moscow Club'', paperback 1991 (out of print) *''Extraordinary Powers'', paperback 1994 (out of print) *''The Zero Hour'', paperback 1996 (out of print) *''High Crimes'', paperback 1998 *'' Paranoia'', paperback 2004 *''Company Man'' (retitled ''No Hiding Place'' in UK), paperback 2005 *'' Killer Instinct'', (hardcover) 2006 *''Power Play'', (hardcover) 2007 *''Suspicion'', (hardcover) May 27, 2014 *''The Fixer'', (hardcover) June 9, 2015 *''The Switch'', (hardcover) June 13, 2017 *''Judgment'', (hardcover) January 29, 2019 *''The Oligarch's Daughter'', (hardcover) January 28, 2025

Nonfiction

*''Red Carpet: The Connection Between the Kremlin and America's Most Powerful Businessmen''. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston (1983)

References

External links

Official website

Interview
by CBC Radio, 9 March 2024 {{DEFAULTSORT:Finder, Joseph 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American thriller writers Writers from Chicago Yale University alumni Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Living people 1958 births 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Illinois Novelists from Massachusetts Barry Award winners Jewish American novelists Jewish American columnists