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Rascal Money
When American Interdyne Worldwide Inc. and its bumbling president, Brian Shawby, announce a planned corporate takeover of the nation's second largest computer company, PegaSys Inc., CEO Scott C. Thatcher believes the attempt will be a laughable failure. But there are other forces at work -- most importantly a Japanese businessman still bitter over WW II and eager to gain a foothold in the American computer industry -- and PegaSys is soon in real danger of being lost. Heading up the defense team are corporate hot shots Mike Ash and Louise Bowman, who are also secretly in lust and perhaps even in love, struggling to hide their affair from the straitlaced Thatcher as they try to save his company. Adding to PegaSys' troubles is a mysterious computer hacker known only as Wintergreen, who seems able to penetrate any security system
376 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
42 people want to read
About the author
Joseph R. Garber
10 books22 followersJoseph R. Garber was an American author, best known for his 1995 thriller Vertical Run and for the articles he wrote on technology for Forbes magazine.
Garber was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, moving often as an army brat. He attended the University of Virginia, but quit to join the U.S. Army himself, eventually graduating from East Tennessee State University in 1968 with a philosophy degree.
Garber worked for AT&T as a business long-distance consultant and a writer for the AT&T in-house magazine. He then worked as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton for a decade, writing fiction and non-fiction freelance in his spare time. After a prolonged flu, he quit his job and moved to Woodside, California, where he wrote for Forbes magazine and as a consultant in Redwood City, California until he was laid off.
Garber had written a manuscript, In Search of Shabbiness, as a response to the Tom Peters best-seller, In Search of Excellence. On the advice of literary agents, he rewrote it as the novel Rascal Money.
In 1995, his second novel Vertical Run, a corporate thriller, became an international best-seller. The book's setting is 200 Park Avenue, the address of Booz Allen. It was bought by a Hollywood studio in the 1990s only to be shelved in pre-production. His third novel, In a Perfect State, was published in 1999. His fourth novel, Whirlwind, with a retired CIA agent as protagonist, was published in 2004.
Garber died of a heart attack on May 27, 2005
Garber was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, moving often as an army brat. He attended the University of Virginia, but quit to join the U.S. Army himself, eventually graduating from East Tennessee State University in 1968 with a philosophy degree.
Garber worked for AT&T as a business long-distance consultant and a writer for the AT&T in-house magazine. He then worked as a consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton for a decade, writing fiction and non-fiction freelance in his spare time. After a prolonged flu, he quit his job and moved to Woodside, California, where he wrote for Forbes magazine and as a consultant in Redwood City, California until he was laid off.
Garber had written a manuscript, In Search of Shabbiness, as a response to the Tom Peters best-seller, In Search of Excellence. On the advice of literary agents, he rewrote it as the novel Rascal Money.
In 1995, his second novel Vertical Run, a corporate thriller, became an international best-seller. The book's setting is 200 Park Avenue, the address of Booz Allen. It was bought by a Hollywood studio in the 1990s only to be shelved in pre-production. His third novel, In a Perfect State, was published in 1999. His fourth novel, Whirlwind, with a retired CIA agent as protagonist, was published in 2004.
Garber died of a heart attack on May 27, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 6, 2014
It is a tragedy that we will not have Any new works from Garber in the future. This first novel of his started painfully slow but the characters, plot and conclusion turned it into a wonderful read. Rest in peace Joseph Garber. The literary world will sorely miss your works.
April 28, 2019
This book is entirely different from the other books Joseph Garber has written. It is full of humor, some of it laugh-out-loud type. It was surprisingly tense but not really action oriented. It was written in 1989, before smart phones, and tablets, and is therefore somewhat dated. The morals presented in this book reflect how much the morals of today’s society have changed from the 1990s, it is definitely a thinking persons book. It was philosophical and entertaining at once. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
February 27, 2022
Interesting but little staying power
August 1, 2008
This glorious book is without doubt the best book I've read this year. An 80's business takeover thriller, with sex, money, and murder, Garber combines marvelous prose with guttural action in what can only be described as sublime reading.
I picked this book up for airplane reading based off my earlier reading and purchase of another Garber book called Vertical Run. (I never do seem to read things chronologically, this book was set before Vertical Run.) The protagonist, Scott C. Thatcher III, is a Connecticut yankee trying to make a living and run a business entirely above-board in a world of crooks, treachery, and threats. He encouters enemies foreign and domestic, and despite the arch overtones of US vs. THEM, the text remains engaging while delivering several good laughs, rather a lot of laughs actually.
Accustomed as I am to rye, sardonic humor, this book delivers big. (As does the sequel, but that's for another time.)
I picked this book up for airplane reading based off my earlier reading and purchase of another Garber book called Vertical Run. (I never do seem to read things chronologically, this book was set before Vertical Run.) The protagonist, Scott C. Thatcher III, is a Connecticut yankee trying to make a living and run a business entirely above-board in a world of crooks, treachery, and threats. He encouters enemies foreign and domestic, and despite the arch overtones of US vs. THEM, the text remains engaging while delivering several good laughs, rather a lot of laughs actually.
Accustomed as I am to rye, sardonic humor, this book delivers big. (As does the sequel, but that's for another time.)
January 30, 2013
This book was okay, but a disappointment after reading Vertical Run.
February 7, 2013
Very different from Vertical Run. Odd that this is his first book, but that it's so vastly different from his follow-ups.
December 6, 2014
I read this years after I read Vertical Run (my favorite Garber novel). It took a while to get into the story, but I'm glad I read it. Not my typical read, but I enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews