The excitement in The Oligarch’s Daughter comes from its ever-surprising plot, as Paul navigates a world where friends become foes, villains can be allies and the path to salvation runs through his own past.” — Wall Street Journal
“Joseph Finder is a writer of thrillers and mysteries, and he's focused on the financial world and with some connection to Russian oligarchs. His next novel is called The Oligarch's Daughter. When you read a novel by Joseph Finder, you're not just reading a story with a plot and some suspense. You're reading about a world of finance and legal connections and betrayals, and so forth. That's one thing a novel can do. It can provide interesting information to people who are absorbing it as they're reading a story.” — Joyce Carol Oates, Writer's Digest
“Finder is at the top of his game, deploying a strong cast of complex characters in this cracking story.” — Financial Times
“Nobody does man-on-the-run, excruciatingly suspenseful thrillers better than Joseph Finder . . . . Deep characterization, cliffhanger suspense, and a wealth of information ranging from Russian spies to survival in the woods and in public spaces make this one of Finder’s best.” — Booklist (starred review)
"Joseph Finder alternates two suspenseful timelines . . . . With a master’s degree in Russian studies and his membership in the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, Finder is very much at home with this tale of what some are now calling the new cold war. The writing is tight, the suspense is unrelenting, and the romance between Paul and Tatanya is well handled as well.” — Associated Press
“Finder deftly fuses the essence of the best Cold War spy novels with modern, high-tech espionage thrillers. . . Creating compelling apprehension, this suspenseful thriller keeps readers off-balance and unsure whom to trust. Finder achieves a perfect one-sitting read.” — Library Journal (starred review)
"In The Oligarch's Daughter, Joseph Finder delivers a searing, action-packed novel that handily wraps a love story inside a political thriller." — Shelf Awareness
“Bear with the book’s sudden shifts of time, between Paul’s life with Tatyana and his later disguised self, on the run with few reliable allies. It’s Finder’s very effective method of ramping up threat and suspense. The revelations of modern espionage here—like 'the only uncrackable safe is one that no one can find to crack'—come in quick bursts of surprise, seasoned by a gently sardonic viewpoint that echoes F. Scott Fitzgerald about the very rich, who 'are different from you and me . . . hard, and cynical where we are trustful.'” — New York Journal of Books
“With its breakneck pacing and constant stream of revelations, The Oligarch’s Daughter is a truly riveting read. Finder skillfully keeps the reader guessing, ensuring that every page turn brings new surprises and heightened suspense. I just couldn’t stop reading once I started. This spy novel was that exciting! Check this one out and you’ll be glad you did.” — MSN.com
"A tense and dizzying spy novel." — Vicksburg Post
"Joseph Finder taps into the public’s fascination with oligarchs, the Russian ones and now the ones we have cropping up in the U.S. No matter where they live, oligarchs amass their wealth by cozying up to heads of state or those with political power. . . . The Oligarch’s Daughter is a compulsive read.” — Woman Around Town
"The suspense level is literally at the heart-in-your-throat range, and the pages feel like they are turning themselves. Joseph Finder has another classic on his hands and once again proves that he still has his finger on the pulse of Russian-infused thrillers." — Bookreporter.com
"This is an intense psychological thriller that starts off fast and never lets up. Author Joseph Finder has written one of the best thrillers of the year already.” — Red Carpet Crash
"Any new novel by Joseph Finder is a ticket to reading pleasure, and this one is hands down his best ever." — Stephen King
"This is Finder at his finest—a perfect everyman-in-peril story, first building an ominous drumbeat of menace, then exploding in action and intrigue and triumph. As good as it gets." — Lee Child
"The pages seem to propel themselves . . . . Finder is a superb storyteller." — David Baldacci
"Joseph Finder has written some of the finest spy novels of our time, and he just keeps getting better. The Oligarch’s Daughter, his latest, rockets the reader into the terrifying story of Paul Brightman, who innocently falls in love with a Russian oligarch’s daughter and finds his life brutally overturned—forced to live under a false name, pursued by Russian killers, and forced to confront a malevolent conspiracy within the US government itself. On display is Finder’s intricate and fascinating knowledge of spycraft, Russia, and intelligence. I highly, highly recommend this unrelenting thriller!" — Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author, with Lincoln Child, of the Pendergast novels
“A pitch-perfect spy novel—flawless pacing, richly drawn characters, and a plot that never quits. These pages practically turn themselves.” — Karin Slaughter, New York Times and #1 international bestselling author
"Joseph Finder is one of the undisputed masters of the thriller genre, and The Oligarch's Daughter is among his very best! It's a taut, emotional, and intelligent novel told at a breakneck pace that will keep readers fanning the pages till the end." — Mark Greaney, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Chaos Agent, a Gray Man Novel
"Finder is back! Breakneck action, compelling guy-next-door protagonist and riveting modern day geopolitics equal a truly breathless Joe Finder thriller, let alone a dash of romance and one of the best wilderness action scenes ever. Come for the twisty plot, stay for the compelling character!" — Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“The Firm on steroids—the kind of book the term page-turner was invented for.” — Linwood Barclay, #1 internationally bestselling author
"Joseph Finder combines various themes from his previous novels and creates his best book to date . . . . Nothing is predictable here, and the payoff is glorious. The Oligarch’s Daughter will be remembered as a classic years from now and should be used as a textbook to teach writers how to craft a perfect thriller. Is it too early to say this is not only the best book of the year but the best book of the decade?" — Jeff Ayers, First Clue
2024-10-26
Marrying a Russian billionaire’s daughter proves to be a very bad move for New York hedge fund manager Paul Brightman.
The beautiful daughter, Tatyana, impresses Paul with her independence, rejecting the excesses of her Upper East Side father to live in a modest East Village apartment and pursue a career as a photographer. Paul loves her street portraits;Artforum not so much. It doesn’t take long for the oligarch, Arkady Galkin, to break down the couple’s resistance to living large, bestowing lavish gifts on them and hiring Paul for his own investment firm. Paul’s doubts about taking the job come to a head when fellow employees start dying mysteriously. That’s enough to prompt him to accept a solicitation from the FBI to spy on his father-in-law. When those amateur efforts are exposed, he fears he will be the next victim and flees—without Tatyana, who won’t leave her family, but with a desperately sought thumb drive. For five years, he lives under an assumed name in a small New Hampshire town, building boats and dating a nice school teacher whom he keeps ignorant of his past—until the day he manages to kill a Russian assassin with a speargun in a scuffle on a boat and dumps him in the ocean, and then Alec Wood, Paul’s friend and the deputy police chief, is found murdered at his house. Disappearing into the gloomy woods, pursued by both the Russians and the FBI, he practices the survivalist skills he learned from his estranged father, who abandoned his family when his son was young to live in a hut. The plot convolutions don’t stop there. If Paul, who narrates the book, were a strong character, he would be able to ride over the forced twists and turns. But, he is such a bland protagonist and so insistent on making dumb moves, it’s impossible to root for him.
A thriller with a decent setup but ridiculous outcomes.
