Rascal Money

Business analyst and consultant Garber has a good time with his first novel, and readers will too. When American Interdyne Worldwide Inc. and its bumbling president, Brian Shawby, announce a planned corporate takeover of the nation's second largest computer company, PegaSys Inc., CEO Scott C. Thatcher believes the attempt will be a laughable failure. But there are other forces at work--most importantly a Japanese businessman still bitter over WW II and eager to gain a foothold in the American computer industry--and PegaSys is soon in real danger of being lost. Heading up the defense team are corporate hot shots Mike Ash and Louise Bowman, who are also secretly in lust and perhaps even in love, struggling to hide their affair from the straitlaced Thatcher as they try to save his company. Adding to PegaSys' troubles is a mysterious computer hacker known only as Wintergreen, who seems able to penetrate any security system. In this outrageous yet pointed commentary on contemporary business, Garber's targets range from Hollywood producers to Rastafarian cab drivers, mobster-run labor unions to Japanese executives. A significant message about the manner in which we do business today is hidden in all the hilarity. (Oct.)