Cash Out

In this genial but tepid first novel—a slightly madcap look at the get-rich-quick mentality of Silicon Valley circa 2008—Dan Jordan is about to “cash out” from his lucrative job as a speechwriter for his high-profile CEO. In three days, his stock options will net him over a million bucks; the former journalist who sold out will be able to leave the rat race and chill on the California coast with his wife and two sons. But first, he must deal with the “two little geeks” jeopardizing his future by threatening to make public a number of incriminating documents, including “off the record” e-mails he sent to a reporter exposing his boss as a cutthroat womanizer. If Jordan’s “misdeeds” are exposed before his options vest, he’ll lose everything. And why is a strange man in a blue blazer suddenly threatening our hapless hero? People’s motives generate some suspense, and Bardsley is smart about Silicon Valley culture, but the protagonist is unsympathetic. He tells himself that he’s purer than the greedy, ambitious world he inhabits, but he’s happy to profit from it—and he readily admits that he’s as much of a scumbag as the geeks make him out to be. Most readers will root against him, and with good reason. Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management. (Oct.)