A Cool Billion
by Celia H. Nunez, Michael C. Perkins

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Book Reviews of A Cool Billion

Book Review: Murder and Mayhem in Silicon Valley
Summary: 5 Stars

I'd recommend this book as entertaining suspense fiction for both Silicon Valley insiders and for people who are intrigued by how the Internet industry works. Though it is definitely a work of fiction to entertain not educate, there are still some basic explanations of how a number of business things get done in Silicon Valley.

Those asides are not always nice -- especially about the financial backers of the Internet Boom, investment bankers and venture capitalists. There's noticeable disapproval of dotcom greed. (For more in-depth information on topics like how the venture capital financing and IPO of Internet companies often work, "The Internet Bubble" is a useful read. It was co-authored by the same Michael Perkins who co-wrote this book.)

On the characters: they don't seem to be a direct who's who, but composites of some of the industry figures that are familiar to subscribers of "The Industry Standard," "Upside," "Business 2.0," and of course "Red Herring" magazine. "Digital Business," the publication where the novel's hero, Steven Cavanaugh, works, does seem to resemble "Red Herring" more than any of these other magazines. (Except for the comment about it always being published on time!)

I read the book in one sitting, and enjoyed it, save for only one implausible thing, and it's a doozy! (The rest of the book feels very well-researched.) The mystery is: How in the world can the female lead, Angela Madrigal, BY HERSELF (!) afford a one-bedroom apartment (even if it's tiny) with a RESERVED PARKING SPACE, in the far from cheap Noe Valley area of San Francisco, on just her junior reporter's salary! Especially when presumably she has a bunch of grad school debt and no trust fund, having grown up in a poor neighborhood. (And she seems like a nice girl in the novel too....)

All in all, a good, entertaining read, with a nice whodunnit twist at the end.

Summary of A Cool Billion

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 twist: 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 on: the conspirators are after Steven, and his only hope for survival is to elude them long enough to unravel their identities.

Literature & Fiction Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction
• Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue
• Technothrillers