Reading: Jakob Kerr: Dead Money
About Dead Money:
In her job as unofficial "problem solver" for Silicon Valley's most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde's gotten used to playing for high stakes. Even if none of those tech-bro millions she’s so good at wrangling ever make it into her pockets. But this time, she's in way over her head—or so it seems. The lightning-rod CEO of tech's hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in "dead money" frozen in his will. As the company's chief investor, Mackenzie's boss has a fortune on the line—and with the police treading water, it's up to Mackenzie to step up and resolve things, fast. Mackenzie's a lawyer, not a detective. Cracking this fiendishly clever killing, with its list of suspects that reads like a who's-who of Valley power players, should be way out of her league. Except that Mackenzie's used to being underestimated. In fact, she's counting on it. Because the way she sees it, this isn't an investigation. It's an opportunity. And she'll do anything it takes to seize it. Anything at all. Featuring jaw-dropping twists and a wily, outsider heroine you can’t help rooting for, Dead Money is a brilliant sleight-of-hand mystery. Written by a longtime insider, it is also a dead-on snapshot of the Valley's rich and famous—and a glimpse at the darkness lurking behind the tech world's cheery facade.
Jakob Kerr is a lawyer and communications executive working in the tech industry. He was one of the first employees at Airbnb and spent over a decade shepherding the company from tiny startup to global phenomenon. He has also been a bartender, sportswriter, and—for one disastrous afternoon—the driver of an ice cream truck. After fifteen years in San Francisco, he recently returned to his native Pacific Northwest, where he now lives with his wife and children. Dead Money is his first novel.
Eli Saslow is a reporter for The New York Times, and the author of Voices from the Pandemic, Ten Letters, American Hunger, and Rising Out of Hatred, which won the 2019 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He was awarded The Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2014 and Feature Writing in 2023 and was a Pulitzer Finalist in Feature Writing in 2013, 2016 and 2017.
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