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To Kill A Unicorn
American Fiction Awards finalist for Best Mystery Novel
National Indie Excellence Awards finalist for Best Suspense Novel
A high-tech mystery that Kirkus Reviews calls "A thrilling crime drama that paints a shrewd portrait of Silicon Valley."
At this Silicon Valley startup, murder is a feature, not a bug…SüprDüpr is the hottest startup in Silicon Valley until one of the company’s physicists disappears and hacker Ted Hara sets out to find his missing friend.
Led by a glamorous young scientist and funded by billionaire crypto investors, SüprDüpr promises to revolutionize transportation. But as Ted investigates the secretive company, nothing is what it seems.
Are the millions the company is spending building a homeless shelter truly corporate philanthropy? Or is the company a complex real estate scam? As the homeless residents of San Jose begin disappearing, too, it appears something far more sinister is happening downtown. But why was his friend searching for a pair of elephants before he disappeared?
Days away from the technology unveiling that will confer unimaginable riches on the company’s investors, Ted becomes trapped in a web of corruption protecting its founder. While avoiding the police, he has to find out why people are disappearing before it’s too late.
A crazy ride through the high-tech world of Silicon Valley, To Kill a Unicorn shows how far startup founders are willing to go to build their unicorns.
National Indie Excellence Awards finalist for Best Suspense Novel
A high-tech mystery that Kirkus Reviews calls "A thrilling crime drama that paints a shrewd portrait of Silicon Valley."
At this Silicon Valley startup, murder is a feature, not a bug…SüprDüpr is the hottest startup in Silicon Valley until one of the company’s physicists disappears and hacker Ted Hara sets out to find his missing friend.
Led by a glamorous young scientist and funded by billionaire crypto investors, SüprDüpr promises to revolutionize transportation. But as Ted investigates the secretive company, nothing is what it seems.
Are the millions the company is spending building a homeless shelter truly corporate philanthropy? Or is the company a complex real estate scam? As the homeless residents of San Jose begin disappearing, too, it appears something far more sinister is happening downtown. But why was his friend searching for a pair of elephants before he disappeared?
Days away from the technology unveiling that will confer unimaginable riches on the company’s investors, Ted becomes trapped in a web of corruption protecting its founder. While avoiding the police, he has to find out why people are disappearing before it’s too late.
A crazy ride through the high-tech world of Silicon Valley, To Kill a Unicorn shows how far startup founders are willing to go to build their unicorns.
362 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 30, 2025
About the author
DC Palter
5 books25 followersDC Palter is a startup founder and venture investor, with twenty-five years experience leading tech companies. His articles on venture funding are followed by tens of thousands of startup founders.
Living in Japan for many years as a research engineer, he became the first non-native person certified by the Japan Society as a Japanese language instructor. He’s the author of Colloquial Kansai Japanese, a guidebook to the Osaka-Kyoto dialect published by Tuttle, and editor-in-chief of Japonica, a daily journal of Japanese culture.
He is the first-ever winner of the Little Tokyo Fiction Contest for short stories in both Japanese and English. His first novel, To Kill a Unicorn, was a 2023 American Fiction Awards finalist for Best Mystery Novel and Best Debut Novel.
DC holds an MFA in creative writing along with degrees in engineering, marketing, and law. Together with his wife, a leading ikebana artist, he splits his time between Kobe, Japan and the Silicon Beach area of Los Angeles.
Living in Japan for many years as a research engineer, he became the first non-native person certified by the Japan Society as a Japanese language instructor. He’s the author of Colloquial Kansai Japanese, a guidebook to the Osaka-Kyoto dialect published by Tuttle, and editor-in-chief of Japonica, a daily journal of Japanese culture.
He is the first-ever winner of the Little Tokyo Fiction Contest for short stories in both Japanese and English. His first novel, To Kill a Unicorn, was a 2023 American Fiction Awards finalist for Best Mystery Novel and Best Debut Novel.
DC holds an MFA in creative writing along with degrees in engineering, marketing, and law. Together with his wife, a leading ikebana artist, he splits his time between Kobe, Japan and the Silicon Beach area of Los Angeles.
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