A Cool Billion

by Michael C. Perkins

Money. Greed. Power. Welcome to Silicon Valley, a place where wealth is counted not in millions, but in billions of dollars; where the ambition is to own not a fleet of cars, but a hangar full of planes; and where the Forbes 400 list serves as a de facto Social Register. This is the world so vividly captured in this insightful debut novel. Written by the ultimate Silicon Valley insiders, Michael C. Perkins and Celia Núñez, A Cool Billion gives readers a glimpse of the exclusive and frenetic world of the decade's new power players. A Cool Billion is a classic tale of avarice and ego, with a 21st century An ambitious journalist, Steven Cavanaugh, pushes a friend to dig up confidential information about the high tech startup where she works. She agrees, and turns up dead the next day. Enraged and guilt-ridden, Steven pursues the man he suspects killed her—until he stumbles onto a billion-dollar conspiracy. Now the race is the conspirators are after Steven, and his only hope for survival is to elude them long enough to unravel their identities.

Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

About the author

I support good books and my GR connections.

Reviews

[Dave Wooldridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published in 2000, this early Internet biz mystery novel feels very dated in 2011, but it is still a decent thriller. Although the story is rather formulaic with some cliche dialog, it moves at a quick pace, making it a fun beach read.

[Michael perkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm back!

[Londa · Rating 2 out of 5]

October 2009 book club selection: Maureen Dudley
A little murder mystery by a local author. It is one of those books that is better in retrospect than while reading it. I was really bugged that the authors chose to keep the whole book in the first person present tense. Apparently it distracted me a lot. Set during the dot-com bubble, it was already surprisingly dated. I enjoyed the tour of the bay area locations, and the story line was easy to follow along with. Almost seemed like a made-for-TV script.

[Mark B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad first effort. Perhaps a little dated (pagers? :-) ) but sympathetic characters and a decent plot.