No Way Back

In this uneven financial thriller from Klein (Con Ed), onetime Silicon Valley salesman Jim Thane reluctantly agrees to try to turn around a failing software company in Florida. His former career is over after the corporate high life led to addiction (alcohol, drugs, and gambling), his young son has drowned (while in Thane’s care), and his wife is (understandably) shell-shocked by the losses she has suffered. Thane has bucked his addictions by the time he takes over at Tao Software, but he encounters a new set of challenges: the company is in deep trouble and will run out of cash in a matter of weeks. Meanwhile, the previous CEO has disappeared without a trace, and Thane finds himself in much deeper waters than he anticipated. Klein, the founder of several tech companies in Silicon Valley, clearly knows the business world, but the pervasive, less-than-credible malevolence (and graphic, gratuitous violence) may strike some readers as at odds with Thane’s comic narrative voice. Agent: Lukas Ortiz, Philip Spitzer Agency. (Apr.)