Kaplan's reading of his own thriller offers listeners a mixed bag. He's not especially good at creating believable voices for his women characters and his children's voices are even worse. But Kaplan, who has spent two decades as a creative director at various ad agencies supporting many Fortune 500 companies, has obviously poured everything he learned into creating the hopeful voice and disposition of his protagonist, Ken Olson. Kaplan shines as Olson, who has just become divisional director of an Ohio-based plastics manufacturing company. He creates equally vivid and credible villains: a nasty trio including the company's CEO, vice president and a board member-all of whom want to see Olson fail and/or die. Kaplan's knowing thriller makes a good choice for a long business flight. Simultaneous release with the Forge hardcover (Reviews, June 4). (Sept.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
Evil, Inc.
Narrated by Glenn Kaplan
Glenn KaplanUnabridged — 11 hours, 14 minutes
Evil, Inc.
Narrated by Glenn Kaplan
Glenn KaplanUnabridged — 11 hours, 14 minutes
Overview
Ken Olson's world is shattered by a crime his company must cover up at any cost. Stripped of everything but his passion for justice, Olson discovers the dark and dangerous world behind the corporate jets-the hired killers who secretly do the corporation's dirtiest work, the clandestine offshore bank accounts, and the greedy machinations of the lucky few at the top.
Olson's struggle pits him against a host of deadly rivals-the psychopathic CEO who has hijacked the corner office, the brutal killer from the private military underworld, the network anchorwoman without a hint of conscience, the aristocrat who pulls the strings of power, and the hot young actress who makes sex a tool of deception.
Editorial Reviews
A rising exec intent on clawing his way to the top finds that the claws of his competitors and apparent allies are sharper than his in this high-fatality, low-suspense thriller. Ken Olson, a "tall, thin 34-year-old executive with blond hair and pale blue eyes," is on the fast track. Despite repeated pleas from his loving wife, Sandy, to move to a smaller company than Ayvil Plastics, he's determined to impress the new hatchet man, Executive Vice President Tom Pennington, during their tete-a-tete on the way from the airport. It all works better than Ken could have dreamed. Pennington instantly accepts Ken's plan to cut costs instead of closing the plant and names Ken Division Director. But sharks are already circling Pennington himself. Ayvil CEO Arch Paulson, furious that he isn't shutting down Ayvil Plastics, is hatching plots to discredit him with all the fire-breathing gusto of a Shakespearean baddie, and soon a breathtaking act of industrial sabotage claims a thousand lives at the plant. Ken, a broken man, is turned into an avenger by a further backstabbing coup de grace. Joining forces with Sandra's brother, industrial-security expert Phil Lambert, he resolves to go after the men who ruined him. That's a tall order because (1) there are lots of them, (2) they're fabulously wealthy, powerful, manipulative and unscrupulous, (3) they're not necessarily the guys Ken thinks they are (though few readers will be so guileless). Kaplan (All for Money, 1993) keeps the pot boiling vigorously, provides low-key guidance to the Machiavellian plots and counterplots hatching in half a dozen executive suites, and confirms every dastardly stereotype his enormous target audience has about big business:"Mass firing? Mass murder? It's such a short step."On the downside, there's little mystery, less danger to the hero and a clunky prose style that makes Joseph Finder, who owns this territory, sound like Proust.
Glenn Kaplan's Evil, Inc. does what the best thrillers do—it's half a step ahead of tomorrow's headlines.” —James Patterson
“A shockwave thriller, Evil, Inc. is a roaring paranoid delight about the real killers in the boardroom.” —Janet Evanovich
“Evil, Inc. is a terrific, irresistible read. Don't start it if you have something to do the next day.” —Steven Brill, author of After and founder of Court TV and The American Lawyer
“A gripping tale of battle for corporate control fought not with tender offers or proxies, but with murder and sabotage. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.” —Martin Lipton, founding partner of Wachtel, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
"'Where's Timmy?' she shrieked as she pulled up her flannel nightshirt to cover her mouth. 'Timmy!'" Glenn Kaplan, the author and reader, is a man. He shrieks “Timmy!” in a falsetto so unconvincing that it's funny. This is a splendid thriller about a wicked CEO who closes the factory and fires the good manager while weeping crocodile tears. But this is fiction, so he does much more than plunder the pension fund and jet to the tropics. Kaplan’s narrating flaws are forgotten as the intricate plot picks up momentum. The book functions beautifully as everybody's worst corporate nightmare. But if you want to know why professional narrators make a living, then listen to the opening lines. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169747331 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 01/01/2006 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
Evil, Inc.
By Kaplan, Glenn
Forge Books
Copyright © 2007 Kaplan, GlennAll right reserved.
ISBN: 9780765316189
Chapter One The crash sounded like a small bomb going off in the kitchen. “Shit!” said Sandra Olson, watching the puddle of orange juice grow beneath the spout of the sippy cup. “Sit! Sit! Sit!” little Sara cried with delight as she pounded the tray of her high chair. Ken Olson looked up from his coffee and The Wall Street Journal as his wife and child engaged in that daily ritual of mortal combat called breakfast. “Sandy, are you trying to instill all your bad habits in our daughter before she turns three?” Sandy knelt down with a paper towel to clean up the mess. With her other hand she picked up the sippy cup, licked the spout as if to remove the germs it acquired on the floor, and handed it back to Sara. “I think for now, we’re okay. You can’t tell what she’s saying because her elocution sucks.” “Sucks! Sucks! Sucks!” the two-year-old sang out. Sandy winced and silenced little Sara with a spoonful of cereal. “Ken,” she said quietly, “I have a confession to make.” “I’ve got to be at the airport at eight,” Ken said as he gulped down the last of his coffee. The tall, thin thirty-four-year-old executive with blond hair and pale blue eyes was focused on making his getaway. “Pennington wants me to pick him up at the company jet. Me. Just me. After months of sitting incrowded conference rooms trying to make an impression on this guy, I’ve finally got time alone with him. I’ve been working on this town meeting of his for two weeks, and today is the big—” “Kennnn!” Sandy insisted as she pushed her dark shoulder-length hair off her forehead and flashed her big brown eyes. “You’re not listening to me.” Even barefoot in old sweats, wearing no makeup and half her baby’s breakfast, she had the power to stop him dead in his tracks. She cocked her pretty oval face to one side and stood up straight, making her short buxom body as tall as she could, her hands resting defiantly on her full round hips. A pose that just dared him to ignore her. “I said I have a confession to make.” Ken froze in place. “Okay, Sandy,” he pleaded, and raised his watch arm in the air, “please make it fast.” “I don’t know why you’re in such a hurry to go pick up the bastard who’s coming to fire everybody’s ass.” “Listen,” he said, exasperated, “I know for a fact that he’s interested in my turnaround plan. He made that clear at the last meeting of the Leadership Circle. And besides, I hardly think he’d be videotaping himself and all the employees at the town meeting if he were going to announce that everyone’s getting laid off.” She gave him the big brown eyes again, full blast. “Ken, I’ve been job-hunting for you on the Internet.” He started inching toward the door. “I sent your resume to a bunch of headhunters. Made a pretty impressive presentation of your career.” Ken stopped in mid-slink. “You did what?” “I’m trying to get you a new job.” Ken fought a wave of anger. “Jesus, Sandy! You can’t just send my resume around. You have no right. If word got out, do you know what that could do to my career? We get graded on commitment! How do you think I’ve gotten a promotion every year? And made it to the Leadership Circle and got Tom Pennington to notice me and read my reports? I’m really starting to make some headway. Don’t you get it?” “What about your commitment to our life?” Sandy demanded. “What about our freakin’ life?” “What’s wrong with our life?” Ken gestured at the well-appointed kitchen of their three-thousand-square-foot mini-McMansion on the quarter-acre lot in the new subdivision of Beaver Creek Estates, in Beaver Creek, Ohio, just outside Dayton. “My parents never even dreamed of living in a house this nice. It’s bigger than our last house, and it’s got a new designer kitchen.” “What’s wrong?” Sandy asked. “What’s wrong? That company moves you to a new job every time you turn around. This is what? Our fifth house in six years? We’ve got boxes in the living room we haven’t unpacked from the last move. I should have my teaching certificate already, but we’ve never stayed anywhere long enough. So instead, I’m, I’m, I’m assistant head of the goddamn company day care center. We’re such nomads; even I have no choice but to work for that company, too. It’s like growing up in the army with my father all over again.” With her free hand, she gave an exaggerated salute. “That’s not fair,” Ken said. “We are not your father and mother. For one thing, I don’t drink. Two, you are not clinically depressed. And three, I don’t think we’re headed for a divorce. Or is there something I don’t know about?” Sandy took a deep breath. “I don’t give a flying you-know-what about the countertops. And FYI, our glorious new designer dishwasher is on the fritz. Ken, I want us to have a real life somewhere, with real roots, and real friends, and a real community.” Sara started fussing. Sandy stuck a spoonful of cereal in her daughter’s mouth. “Sandy,” Ken said quietly as he reached for the door, “everybody moves around a lot these days. That’s just the way it is. The people in the company, they’re our community.” “You call those corporate robots people?” Ken replied quietly through clenched teeth, “Sandy, I don’t have time for this right now.” “Ken,” Sandy said through equally clenched teeth, “wake up. They’re going to shut down your freakin’ plant and close your division, and all we’re gonna get is a crummy severance package and then it’s going to be twice as hard to find a new job. So I started looking for you now.” “Sandy,” he said, “I really have to go. This could be a very big day in my career.” “Listen, I hear company gossip, too. You think the other mothers who come to the day care center just sing Barney songs? I promise you, that company is going to screw us all.” Ken stood in the open doorway, one foot tapping nervously. “I really have to go now. Will I see you at the town meeting?” “I don’t think so. That’s not exactly a great field trip for twenty kids under the age of four.” Ken turned to leave. “Ken, wait a minute, I want to finish our discussion.” “Sandy, I have to go to the airport.” Sara started crying. Sandy picked up the child to quiet her, bouncing the baby girl on her hip. “Ken, I just want to protect us.” “What do you think I’m trying to do?” Ken said over his shoulder. “I still love you!” she shouted at the closing door. “Even if sometimes you are an asshole.” “Ath-hole!” Sara blurted happily, spraying a mouthful of cereal onto her mother. Copyright © 2007 by Glenn Kaplan. All rights reserved.
Continues...
Excerpted from Evil, Inc. by Kaplan, Glenn Copyright © 2007 by Kaplan, Glenn. Excerpted by permission.
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