(FORTUNE Magazine) – At long last someone has done for executives what John Grisham did for lawyers: create fictional ones sufficiently three-dimensional to care about. Nick Conover, protagonist of Joseph Finder's new novel, Company Man (St. Martin's Press, $24.95), is CEO of a firm that was once the biggest employer in town--and Conover used to be the local hero, until he had to start laying people off.

Now he's persona non grata, and even security guards and surveillance cameras in the ritzy gated community where he lives aren't enough to stop someone from breaking into his house and spray-painting threats on his living room walls. There's more: Conover recently lost his wife in a car accident; his teenage son has fallen in with a dubious crowd and barely speaks to him; and at work he begins to suspect that his most trusted underlings are in cahoots with some slick private-equity investors to kick him out of his job.

Conover is so decent and likable that the gradual unraveling of his happy, successful life goes beyond suspenseful, all the way to excruciating. Okay, he's fictional, but you actually find yourself worrying about the guy. Between a murder, a tenacious but tender-hearted black female cop (I see Halle Berry in the role), a steamy love affair with a duplicitous vixen, and a cleverly drawn character clearly based on Warren Buffett, the book doesn't slow down for a second.

Here's a prediction: Once Company Man comes out in paperback, airport book- stores will be hard-pressed to keep it in stock. -- Anne Fisher