How long would you wait to get everything you ever wanted? How patient could you be? How tenacious do you think you are? If your one shot is only a nebulous gleam in your eye, how do you hold on?

Mackenzie Clyde didn’t come all the way from living a lonely and bullied childhood in Reno only to play tiddlywinks for some legal department in a Silicon Valley startup. She promised her mom she wouldn’t stop until she had it all. That doesn’t mean break the glass ceiling; that means invent a new one that’s better than the glass one. That means making herself feared and hated by Silicon Valley tech bros and a confidante of a powerful venture capitalist. She knows secrets, people, and money. That’s why her boss sends her in to assist the FBI with an investigation into the murder of a tech mogul who could’ve only been killed by one of the other members of his C-Suite. 

Dead Money is an absolutely fantastic thriller by debut author Jakob Kerr. I would say it was the best book in my batch of ARCs that were published in January. Kerr’s breakneck pacing reminds me of Alison Gaylin a little, the fabulous twists, turns, and betrayals remind me of Robert Dugoni, and the emotional weight reminds me a bit of one of my favorite thriller writers ever, Jordan Harper. 

I love a great technothriller and I love a great thriller about people who have more money than humanity. Dead Money meets somewhere in the middle of that, where the technology meets with the money and shakes hands. The problem is the money being in the hands of either the corrupt or the old, white, and privileged and the tech being in the hands of the young, naive, and hubristic. One plays the long con and the other has the attention span of a squirrel. Someone has to cover the middle ground. What does the middle ground do when no one’s looking?

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Crime Thriller/Murder Thriller/Suspense Mystery/Suspense Thriller