Final Target    by Steven Gore Order:  USA  Can Harper, 2010 (2010) Paperback, e-Book     Reviewed by Hilary Williamson A big company with big secrets. Death of a young whistle blower (a SatTek Industries employee) in an auto accident. Then comes the shooting (assumed road rage) of jogger, lawyer and international deal broker Jack Burch, outside his San Francisco Pacific Heights mansion. The latter is quickly on the radar of the man's best friend, PI Graham Gage. After the bullets are extracted, Jack Burch is left in a coma. He will have a lot to face if and when he recovers. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Peterson seeks 'a whipping boy for corporate crime' - and is building a case against Burch with the active cooperation of SatTek President Stuart Matson, who's desperate to reduce his own jail time for embezzling three hundred million dollars from shareholders, in 'a pump and dump with an offshore angle.' Burch did legal work, setting up offshore companies for SatTek. While the lawyer's life hangs on a thread, Gage follows the money trail around the world, only to find it littered with corpses. It ends in the Ukraine, where a gangster friend tells Gage the President's son is deep into dirty stuff. Matson is also involved with a Ukrainian femme fatale, Alla Tarasova. And SatTek was shipping mislabelled technology (with military applications) to the Ukraine. A clear case of treason. Steven Gore, with a thirty year background investigating international and financial crimes, builds a detailed and credible case in Final Target, in which dry financials frequently ignite fireworks of violent action. After the requisite twist at the end, there's a fascinating note by the author, filling in some of the facts on which his fiction is based. If you enjoy financial thrillers, don't miss Final Target. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Mystery books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews