UNFINISHED BUSINESS

A complex thriller set in the cutthroat world of corporate maneuvering.

George Caldwell putters around his empty home, a widower steeped in classic films, Modernist poetry, and orchestral music. He’s retired from his position as a logistics executive at design company International Home Interiors. However, he’s not merely a financially comfortable older man with a taste for culture, but also a Raymond Chandler-esque private detective of sorts. Specifically, Caldwell is a freelance corporate fixer, hired by his old mentor, IHI founder Jim Davis, to see why the company’s CEO, Clifford Stiles, is seemingly looking to fire Amelia Hartung, who has Caldwell’s former job. She’s being blamed for problems at the company that seem to be the work of someone else with impressive computer skills. Amelia and the other workers at IHI fear few things as much being fired, as it represents a life of diminished opportunity. As Caldwell investigates why an Italian factory is mysteriously shutting down, disrupting IHI’s international supply chain, readers are given intriguing insight into the other characters that make up the book’s ensemble, including Amelia’s treacherous colleagues; her husband, who wants “a wife, not a captain of industry”; and various other players who play minor, albeit colorful, roles throughout. Overall, these characterizations help to make Tedeschi’s thriller into an efficient, spirited romp. There are a few unsavory scenes of older male businessmen lamenting the incursion of women in the world of business, or reassuring themselves that their sexist views aren’t actually sexist. But on the whole, this is a read that’s often entertaining, even when its plot turns are unsurprising.

An enjoyably diverting mystery story.