Risky Business: 7 Corporate Crime Thrillers

Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Robert Dugoni

Jenna Bernstein was once a successful CEO at a controversial biotech company. But five years ago, she was accused of corporate fraud by her chief scientist, who threatened to go public with the information. Shortly after the accusation, the scientist was found dead, and fingers pointed to Jenna. Left disgraced after the trial, Jenna is now being investigated once again. This time, it is for the murder of her former partner and lover. Why do these bodies keep dropping around her, and could this master manipulator be the killer, ready to bury any threat to her company?

Attorney Keera Duggan is ready to defend her, despite her hesitations. Jenna and Keera were childhood friends, and Keera is all too familiar with the trouble that seems to follow Jenna wherever she goes. The more time they spend together, the more Keera is convinced Jenna just might be telling the truth, and is determined to prove her innocence — unless this is all another devious game that will allow the killer to run free.

Crash Landing by Delvin Chatterson

In the rapidly-evolving world of computers in the 1990s, Dale Hunter’s business 3D Computer Products is struggling to stay afloat. His business associate, Bobbie Brydon, seems to be causing more harm than help. Then one night, a deadly event turns everything on its head. Lisa Brydon, Bobbie’s daughter, comes running, announcing that Bobbie has shot himself in his office.

This fast-paced novel follows business owner Dale Hunter as his work leads him to brushes with a dark world of crime. This time, his business, his family, and his freedom are all at risk as he’s implicated in a crime he swears he has nothing to do with … or does he? As confidants, reporters and detectives dive into the mystery, more and more secrets are uncovered, which only brings more questions to the surface. Could it really have been just a suicide, or could it be murder? But who wanted Brydon dead? A gold-digging ex-wife? An angry business partner? The debt-collecting local Mafia? And can they solve it before someone else gets caught in the crossfire?

(Read the review and check out the previous book in the series)

Squeeze Plays by Jeffrey Marshall

This gripping thriller explores the upper reaches of the newspaper and global banking worlds as they collide with the unsavory manipulations of a foreign power. Winston Crumm’s newspaper empire is failing in the digital age and is in desperate need of cash. Corbin van Sloot is the CEO of Whitehall Banking Group, the company that is holding over $15 million of Crumm’s debt, so he calls the loan in order to protect his bank, should the newspaper empire go under.

When a rich Russian oligarch with no moral compass invests in Crumm’s company, there are strings attached — he wants to use the newspaper as his own personal public relations tool. His goal is to ease his entrance into New York society and take advantage of the connections and business opportunities that entail. And he isn’t afraid to exploit and blackmail people to achieve his nefarious goals. A diligent reporter for the Financial Times begins to unravel the many layers of finance, greed and passion in order to display their plots and schemes in one massive front-page expose.

(Read the review)

All Her Little Secrets by Wanda Morris

Ellice Littlejohn is living a successful life as a corporate attorney in Atlanta, making use of her Ivy League law degree. She’s also in a relationship with a well-off, charming, white man, who just so happens to be her boss. So when she discovers her lover’s dead body in his office, her instinct is to walk away. Her dark past and a collection of secrets means she is not willing to be the one to call the police. 

But nobody in the office grieves the tragedy, and the police are beginning to grow suspicious. Especially when Ellice, the company’s only Black attorney, is promoted to fill her boss’ seat. But more power means an inside look at the company, and when she learns of shady dealings behind the scenes, she’s faced with an impossible dilemma. The past comes racing back, and she’s determined to stop a sinister conspiracy from putting her in the spotlight, once again…

(Read The Big Thrill’s interview with the author)

The F Place by Christine Strobush and Sonal Trivedi

The two primary products of The F Place, a fictitious multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical company, are drugs to help people combat depression and control bipolar disorder. So it’s ironic that the company leaders are greedy, conniving and immoral, the last people you’d expect to have any interest in the wellbeing of others. But after experiencing rapid growth, The F Place finds itself in a downward revenue spiral. Much of its future hinges on the success of a product that the company’s top executives want to rush to market by sidestepping important safety procedures and protocols. This leads employees into moral conflict, as they face corporate demons, suspicious managers, hidden agendas and toxic workplace culture.

Co-written by two business partners, the book is not just a business thriller. It is also a study in navigating corporate landscapes, dodging landmines, examining political correctness, and finding one’s way to a successful company and satisfying career.

 (Read the review)

The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci

Travis Devine hates his new job. Every morning he hops on the 6:20 a.m. train to Manhattan to work as an entry-level financial analyst at one of the world’s most prestigious investment firms. At his new job in the financial sector, he’s serving a billionaire who may be involved in some shady business.

A mysterious email informs Travis that his coworker and former girlfriend is dead on the 52nd floor of their offices. Initially believed to be a suicide, the police quickly determine that Sara’s death is a homicide. Unfortunately for Travis, he’s the only one who’s received this email, and all evidence points to him as being the sole suspect in her murder. And he has no alibi. Travis’ past comes calling when he’s approached to — or as he sees it, blackmailed into — secretly assisting a government investigation into his boss and the firm. Could international espionage, money laundering and SEC violations be connected to his ex’s murder?

(Read the review)

The Cage by Bonnie Kistler

Two colleagues get into an elevator together. But when the doors open again: one of them is dead, from a fatal gunshot wound. The company is an international fashion conglomerate, and it’s a late night at the office for one human resources director and a company lawyer. The two professional women make their way down from the 30th floor, and one of them doesn’t survive. Is it murder? Suicide? A freak accident? Red herrings, misdirects, secrets, and difficult truths will come to the surface as the story progresses. 

Combining The Firm and The Silent Patient, this is not your ordinary business thriller. Fashion, finance and white-collar, or white-shoe, crime overlap in a fast-paced thriller with legal intrigue. Is the company everything it says it is, and are these women everything they appear to be?