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klparmley's review against another edition
3.0
Hurricane reading. I didn't realize it was the third in a series. I need to back up.
judithdcollins's review against another edition
5.0
A special thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Stunning Cover!
Following (2015) standalone (now in paperback), 5 Stars The Fixer, New York Times bestseller, Joseph Finder returns with first-rate action, spy thriller of the year, GUILTY MINDS.
Razor Sharp, top-of-the-line thriller author, the proficient storyteller, returns with our favorite mysterious spy, (#3 Nick Heller) the best of the series!
High-powered Nick Heller, Boston-based private intelligence operative meets his latest challenge: Slander Sheet, a prostitute, Washington, Chief Justice, scandal, a dangerous conspiracy, corruption, power, extortion, murder.
A deadline: 48 hours. Tick-Tock.
Nick Heller’s job is nothing more than figuring out who’s lying and why, and to catch them at it. He has a knack for detecting lies. Lies are his business. White lies are the grease that keeps the social engines running.
But lies—real lies are the source of all trouble. He specializes in digging up secrets that powerful people would rather keep hidden. Nick Heller is tough, smart, and cultured.
He does the same sort of stuff he used to do for the government, only for the private sector — individuals, politicians, corporations.
“A lie gets halfway around the world before truth has the chance to put its pants on.”
Slander Sheet is about the publish an expose about Supreme Court Chief Justice’s Jerry Claflin’s relationship with a call girl.
An escort service, Lily Schuyler. They offered the most beautiful, exquisite, and sensual young ladies ever to work in the escort industry. All the girls were ladies and all potential clients were gentlemen.
He has never heard of the name (Kayla Pitts) Heidi L’Amour (five diamonds). He was supposedly given three nights with the hooker by a casino mogul in whose favor he had ruled in a recent case.
An alibi? Electroshock therapy at an inpatient mental health clinic. Depression. He was allegedly seeing a call girl during the same time he was being treated at Sibley. A set up? One of the finest hotels in DC, only a few blocks from the White House.
Nick Heller has 48 hours to discredit the allegation. Who is the power and money behind Slander Sheet?
Things get complicated. Pitts is found dead, an apparent suicide. Who murdered Kayla? Did the defendant intend to commit the crime? Literally, guilty mind.” Who is trying to destroy him? Who benefits?
It doesn’t get any better!
Finder pulls out all the stops with his latest adventure. One of my favorite action thriller authors, whether a standalone or series, Finder, first-class with his research and the latest trends –from plot, pacing, twists, to unforgettable characters. If you have read Finder’s bio you will learn he always wanted to be a spy.
Joseph, you are truly a spy! You were meant to write spy novels. You have to be a spy at heart in order to deliver a convincing dynamic series.
One of the most important aspects of spying is collecting relevant information, which is why it is often referred to as intelligence. To write good spy suspense, takes the same skill set, plus more. You get to create your own characters, scandals, settings, and your superb endings. What could be better?
PS. A rock star with execution, wit, innovation, and non-stop action; top of this genre.
Often I am asked as a female reader why I love spy thrillers? They are edgy, intriguing, sophisticated, contemporary, mysterious, sexy, intelligent, action-filled and dangerous! A fan of political thrillers, crime, mystery, and modern detective techniques = Guilty Minds!
Your “Reverse—Reveal—Surprise” works!
Read more Between the Lines: Joseph Finder “Building the Perfect Hero.” Learn more about Nick and his background by reading the previous books in the series.
Highly Recommend the series as well as his famous standalones!
JDCMustReadBooks
Following (2015) standalone (now in paperback), 5 Stars The Fixer, New York Times bestseller, Joseph Finder returns with first-rate action, spy thriller of the year, GUILTY MINDS.
Razor Sharp, top-of-the-line thriller author, the proficient storyteller, returns with our favorite mysterious spy, (#3 Nick Heller) the best of the series!
High-powered Nick Heller, Boston-based private intelligence operative meets his latest challenge: Slander Sheet, a prostitute, Washington, Chief Justice, scandal, a dangerous conspiracy, corruption, power, extortion, murder.
A deadline: 48 hours. Tick-Tock.
Nick Heller’s job is nothing more than figuring out who’s lying and why, and to catch them at it. He has a knack for detecting lies. Lies are his business. White lies are the grease that keeps the social engines running.
But lies—real lies are the source of all trouble. He specializes in digging up secrets that powerful people would rather keep hidden. Nick Heller is tough, smart, and cultured.
“Born into great wealth–his father, the odious Victor Heller, was the Dark Prince of Wall Street–and then lived in poverty after his father was imprisoned for securities fraud. He is equally comfortable around rich people as well as blue collar. He knows the world of high finance. He went to Yale and worked for a few summers at McKinsey, the consulting firm, but then he rebelled by doing the unthinkable—dropping out and enlisting in the army, where he did a few tours in the Special Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places, and then went into intelligence work for the Defense Department.”
He does the same sort of stuff he used to do for the government, only for the private sector — individuals, politicians, corporations.
“A lie gets halfway around the world before truth has the chance to put its pants on.”
Slander Sheet is about the publish an expose about Supreme Court Chief Justice’s Jerry Claflin’s relationship with a call girl.
An escort service, Lily Schuyler. They offered the most beautiful, exquisite, and sensual young ladies ever to work in the escort industry. All the girls were ladies and all potential clients were gentlemen.
He has never heard of the name (Kayla Pitts) Heidi L’Amour (five diamonds). He was supposedly given three nights with the hooker by a casino mogul in whose favor he had ruled in a recent case.
An alibi? Electroshock therapy at an inpatient mental health clinic. Depression. He was allegedly seeing a call girl during the same time he was being treated at Sibley. A set up? One of the finest hotels in DC, only a few blocks from the White House.
Nick Heller has 48 hours to discredit the allegation. Who is the power and money behind Slander Sheet?
Things get complicated. Pitts is found dead, an apparent suicide. Who murdered Kayla? Did the defendant intend to commit the crime? Literally, guilty mind.” Who is trying to destroy him? Who benefits?
It doesn’t get any better!
Finder pulls out all the stops with his latest adventure. One of my favorite action thriller authors, whether a standalone or series, Finder, first-class with his research and the latest trends –from plot, pacing, twists, to unforgettable characters. If you have read Finder’s bio you will learn he always wanted to be a spy.
Joseph, you are truly a spy! You were meant to write spy novels. You have to be a spy at heart in order to deliver a convincing dynamic series.
One of the most important aspects of spying is collecting relevant information, which is why it is often referred to as intelligence. To write good spy suspense, takes the same skill set, plus more. You get to create your own characters, scandals, settings, and your superb endings. What could be better?
PS. A rock star with execution, wit, innovation, and non-stop action; top of this genre.
Often I am asked as a female reader why I love spy thrillers? They are edgy, intriguing, sophisticated, contemporary, mysterious, sexy, intelligent, action-filled and dangerous! A fan of political thrillers, crime, mystery, and modern detective techniques = Guilty Minds!
Your “Reverse—Reveal—Surprise” works!
Read more Between the Lines: Joseph Finder “Building the Perfect Hero.” Learn more about Nick and his background by reading the previous books in the series.
Highly Recommend the series as well as his famous standalones!
JDCMustReadBooks
jennog's review against another edition
2.0
This was a quick, guilty pleasure read. It reads like a fast-paced, mystery, action movie where each chapter ends on a sentence that sounds like click bait (i.e. "I wasn't ready for what happened next" or something like that). As someone who visits DC a lot, I appreciated the name dropping of places. It made me feel more connected to the story. timely references to House of Cards, UVA's Rolling Stones scandal, Duke's lacrosse scandal. Also the references to places I'm familiar with: Adams Morgan, Upperville, King St. in Alexandria, etc.
The dialogue was corny but manageable.
Not sure if this is a spoiler or not, but the story relies heavily on cell phone tower 'pings' much like Adnan Syed's Serial case. In Serial, we learn that 'pings' are not actually reliable evidence in court, and yet, in this story, they help solve the mystery??
Because I enjoyed everything but the freaking ending, I'm giving it 2 stars out of 5. But I can't remember the last time I hated the ending of a story so much.
Side note: why are all wealthy men in books named Gideon??
Thanks to the Penguin First to Read program for this book.
The dialogue was corny but manageable.
Not sure if this is a spoiler or not, but the story relies heavily on cell phone tower 'pings' much like Adnan Syed's Serial case. In Serial, we learn that 'pings' are not actually reliable evidence in court, and yet, in this story, they help solve the mystery??
Spoiler
Real spoiler alert: Why is the only other character in the book the bad guy? Also, why is rape used as a story catalyst? Such a lazy plot device to motivate a character to turn bad. Why bring in the guy's sister at all? Seriously? I was okay with this book until this was revealed...now I'm disgusted. I was going to rate this book at least 3 stars, maybe even 4 for entertainment value, but now this gets a 1 because it's a low-brow piece of crap. Now I'm just mad at myself for reading this book and enjoying it until this sh*tty ending.Because I enjoyed everything but the freaking ending, I'm giving it 2 stars out of 5. But I can't remember the last time I hated the ending of a story so much.
Side note: why are all wealthy men in books named Gideon??
Thanks to the Penguin First to Read program for this book.
raeanne's review against another edition
1.0
Trigger Warning: Suicide, Kidnapping, Murder, Conspiracies. Bunch of deranged white people running around getting away with shit no POC could.
The Gist:
➜Didn’t realize it was a series
➜Can be read as a standalone with no problem
➜Nick Heller is detached, clinical as is the writing
➜Could easily be an action/thriller movie with some bland, tall mediocre white guy as the lead
➜Obligatory hook up
➜Several damsels in distress
➜Hard to feel anything when the MC doesn’t.
➜Lots of details on the practical skills required to pull everything off.
➜Author clearly did his research.
➜Saw the hidden Bad Guy waaaay early. As soon as his father opened his mouth actually, though I was suspicious beforehand.
➜Some events were obvious, some weren’t, but I can’t say was shocked.
➜Given the intro with “I can tell when people are lying” I expected more than just random gut feelings and unexpected questions.
➜Typical action thriller with former military dude going outside the lines despite protesting he doesn’t do it much and doesn’t like to
➜Really liked Nick’s nephew
➜Recommended for fans of the series and white guys allergic to feelings wanting mindless action.
The Gist:
➜Didn’t realize it was a series
➜Can be read as a standalone with no problem
➜Nick Heller is detached, clinical as is the writing
➜Could easily be an action/thriller movie with some bland, tall mediocre white guy as the lead
➜Obligatory hook up
➜Several damsels in distress
➜Hard to feel anything when the MC doesn’t.
➜Lots of details on the practical skills required to pull everything off.
➜Author clearly did his research.
➜Saw the hidden Bad Guy waaaay early. As soon as his father opened his mouth actually, though I was suspicious beforehand.
➜Some events were obvious, some weren’t, but I can’t say was shocked.
➜Given the intro with “I can tell when people are lying” I expected more than just random gut feelings and unexpected questions.
➜Typical action thriller with former military dude going outside the lines despite protesting he doesn’t do it much and doesn’t like to
➜Really liked Nick’s nephew
➜Recommended for fans of the series and white guys allergic to feelings wanting mindless action.
whaney's review against another edition
4.0
I've rarely been disappointed with Finder's books, and this was no exception. Though I did have a pretty good idea where things were going fairly early on in the book. As my husband always tells me about movies..."what was the point of that conversation?" Lots of turns and things going on.
nathaniel_1206's review against another edition
2.0
I'm a hundred pages from finishing this book and questioning whether to do so.
As an exercise in distraction or killing time while traveling, this is a great book. You're not gonna have to think very hard, and the pages turn very quickly.
There is an intriguing hook to this book, a United States Supreme Court Justice is accused of having repeated liaisons with a high priced escort. It's salacious, we've never seen that before, and it's interesting to think what the repercussions of that idea would be. A good hook.
The issue I have with the book, is it takes approximately half the book (170-ish pages) to dispense with that idea. Finder then decides to spin out a conspiracy from that hook. Who's behind the story? Were they after the Supreme Court Justice? I've read about another 140 pages of the conspiracy part of the story, and it's complete boilerplate thriller nonsense. There is nothing interesting about the conspiracy. Finder doesn't have anything else. Or if he does it lies in the remaining pages, but I have no confidence that's true.
Finder hasn't given me enough to keep me interested. Ridiculously wealthy scions. Trashy gossip websites. Super-secret Washington D. C. law firms. It all has the makings of an idea, and with a little work could be original and interesting, but its cut and paste thriller storytelling. Once Finder has resolved the Supreme Court Justice/high priced escort, he hasn't created enough intrigue to keep me interested in the conspiracy. Finder never lays out the conspiracy to do what, so the book goes through the same dumb boilerplate thriller story points. That would all be fine, and tolerable, if Finder could be bothered to point me in a direction, but he really can't. If he knows, he keeps that secret good.
I do have to say while its my first Joseph Finder, I find him much less condescending than other writers of thrillers, which may be the same praise as being the skinniest kid at fat camp. The writing is fine, Finder is never going stop you in your tracks with some turn of phrase. or some clever witticism.
Again, if you forget your book, and are scanning the airport newsstand, desperate to kill time on your flight, Finder is not a bad choice. If he shows up discounted on Kindle, I'm in.
As an exercise in distraction or killing time while traveling, this is a great book. You're not gonna have to think very hard, and the pages turn very quickly.
There is an intriguing hook to this book, a United States Supreme Court Justice is accused of having repeated liaisons with a high priced escort. It's salacious, we've never seen that before, and it's interesting to think what the repercussions of that idea would be. A good hook.
The issue I have with the book, is it takes approximately half the book (170-ish pages) to dispense with that idea. Finder then decides to spin out a conspiracy from that hook. Who's behind the story? Were they after the Supreme Court Justice? I've read about another 140 pages of the conspiracy part of the story, and it's complete boilerplate thriller nonsense. There is nothing interesting about the conspiracy. Finder doesn't have anything else. Or if he does it lies in the remaining pages, but I have no confidence that's true.
Finder hasn't given me enough to keep me interested. Ridiculously wealthy scions. Trashy gossip websites. Super-secret Washington D. C. law firms. It all has the makings of an idea, and with a little work could be original and interesting, but its cut and paste thriller storytelling. Once Finder has resolved the Supreme Court Justice/high priced escort, he hasn't created enough intrigue to keep me interested in the conspiracy. Finder never lays out the conspiracy to do what, so the book goes through the same dumb boilerplate thriller story points. That would all be fine, and tolerable, if Finder could be bothered to point me in a direction, but he really can't. If he knows, he keeps that secret good.
I do have to say while its my first Joseph Finder, I find him much less condescending than other writers of thrillers, which may be the same praise as being the skinniest kid at fat camp. The writing is fine, Finder is never going stop you in your tracks with some turn of phrase. or some clever witticism.
Again, if you forget your book, and are scanning the airport newsstand, desperate to kill time on your flight, Finder is not a bad choice. If he shows up discounted on Kindle, I'm in.
xkay_readsx's review against another edition
4.0
Great thriller. This is my first book by J. Finder and looking forward to the next.
bookedupblog's review against another edition
4.0
This is my first experience with this series, and I did enjoy it. Although it was heavy on the idioms, I found it very much like an episode of Scandal. Nick Heller seems to be a noir-type investigator who never takes things at face-value. It was full of twists, turns and adventure. I enjoyed this edition and I will check out the first two books in the series as well.
Thanks to Penguin and First to Read for my ARC for an unbiased review!
Thanks to Penguin and First to Read for my ARC for an unbiased review!
theannawise's review
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced