Loved the Silicon Valley angle and the start up companies in the valley. I'm from that business and the quotes are hilarious. The Venture Capital people are described well and the premise is intriguing. I did get tired of Ted's character always using his full name, Ted Valmont. Didn't quite understand that. ( )

Gives a spot-on description of the venture capital world and Silicon Valley. ( )

Local details are interesting... ( )

As a telling relic from the dot.com era, this book is sterling. The photos alone are worth the price of admission. I'm delighted to own it, as a sort of supplemental instructional tool for when I tell my grandkids how their grampa and I went from being worth 2.5 million one day to nothing the next. But that's another story.

MC has tried to cram way too much story into this book, and while I admire the effort (and prefer it by far to the reverse affliction, the dreaded so-highbrow-nothing-happens), the effect is that nothing gets fully developed and the book suffers from a serious identity crisis.

It could have done fine as a straight-up p.i. frolic, except that's the aspect I like least. Ted Valmont (seriously!!!), his girlfriend, colleagues, and the bad guys are so stock that it's hard to take them seriously. Ted also suffers from being terribly unlikeable, as well as having the unfortunate liability of being called by both his first and last name by MC all through the book. Very distracting - and where was the editor?

There is promise in both his brother's affliction and in the science surrounding a cure. But that's another book, one that fizzles out in this story. Ditto the tangent of the brilliant, crazy researcher and his wife (my favorite characters in the story).

There's a thick globby frosting of elements that are sort of de rigeur for SF-area fiction - wine country, sports cars crossing the bridge, top restaurants and hotels in the city, over-the-top gay men, etc. The problem is that one really ought to limit oneself to a "one from column A, one from column B" approach when reaching into this particular cookie jar, or the pastiche gets clunky. (oh dear, i got so excited i mixed all my metaphors :)

One little note worth pointing out - MC writes sex like a hot-blooded romance writer, and I mean that as a compliment. Haven't read his other books, but i hope he keeps up the good work.

This is the sort of first effort that bodes very well for the future, and I'm looking forward to seeing what MC's been up to. ( )