It was so nice to have some originality and relevance in this thriller. You will enjoy this if you’ve ever wondered about the enormity of the sums involved in tech valuations and venture capital and thought about where all the money originated. Well done.

Mackenzie Clyde is in over her head. She needs to solve a murder to free up billions in "dead money" that is held up in the will. As she tries to keep her job, keep her boss happy, & solve the murder, she has to dig deep within & get everything done.

Dead Money by Jakob Kerr is not something I would normally read and suffice to say, it ended up being an incredible read! Fully automated cars make me think of Waymo's and I couldn’t help but think of those and other things as I went on this adventure ride of a book. It seriously blows my mind that this is a debut, and it is so complex and expertly plotted! I was also in awe that Kerr was one of the first employees at Airbnb, and it’s clear that he brought his tech company startup knowledge to this story. The pacing is nonstop, and the combination of present day mixed with Mackenzie’s past just upped the ante even more.

I say audiobook all the way for this one, and Rachel Music slayed the narration. I had to listen to this at a 2x speed and didn’t hate it so that is definitely saying something. Music’s pacing was on point the entire way through and she made me feel every bit of tension in the storyline. This would make an incredible movie or miniseries, and I would love it if someone decided to put it onscreen. I haven’t read very much fiction set in Silicon Valley and this look at the dirty side of it was impeccable. I had never heard the term dead money prior to reading it and it was an eye opener to say the least. I loved Mackenzie and you can’t tell me otherwise.

Read this if you are looking for a seriously suspenseful storyline, secrets and dirty deeds aplenty, and unique plots!

Audiobook Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The only reason this was not a 5 star for me is because towards the end I felt a few scenes just lacked or weren't needed. But the twist and turns within this book were great! I loved how it was written with one part at the end. It was not something I expected. Pretty much two stories in one. Great read.

This debut novel is a twisty, thrilling ride. I was hooked immediately by Kerr’s propulsive writing and could easily imagine the Silicon Valley culture he created. The characters were complex puzzles with lots of secrets and I loved how he slowly revealed all their pieces. If you like a tech thriller or white collar crime story, you’ll love this cinematic story!

I love to read a book that I hope turns into a movie. With its twists throughout the story, Dead Money by Jakob Kerr keeps you guessing throughout the book.

My Thoughts on Dead Money:
I enjoyed this mystery adventure that took me on a ride through the tech industry. I have toured the Google building in Denver, and I pictured the story taking place in a building just like it. I had to keep guessing who killed Trevor Canon, the CEO, and I love that in a story. I was right, but I kept second-guessing myself as Kerr slipped in clues along the way.

I loved the character of Mackenzie. Kerr did a great job of creating her character, showing the strengths and weaknesses of Mackenzie’s personality. She wanted to succeed so badly, and she was willing to do what it takes to try to find the murderer.

I was surprised to read that this is Jacob Kerr’s debut novel. As an English teacher, I know strong writing when I read it, and I know this is just the beginning of Kerr’s writing career. As I said, I hope that this book is turned into a movie. I would definitely pay to see it.

I gave this book four out of five stars. I read it quickly and enjoyed the story line.

In DEAD MONEY, by Jakob Kerr, a tech CEO has been murdered and Mackenzie Clyde, a lawyer and "fixer" for a prominent venture capitalist, has been sent by her boss to investigate the murder and the stability of the company after this devastating news. Mackenzie finds more questions every step of the way and roadblocks that seem to come with each question. As secrets are revealed, will the whole truth come out before something else catastrophic happens?
What makes the novel so fun to read is the Kerr leaves breadcrumbs everywhere. The reader often knows they are breadcrumbs as they come across them, but don't know what they mean until later. As a reader, when you remember that breadcrumb when it's important later, it can be a dopamine hit of happiness that you have figured something out and while reading this book that happened to me often. Load of trust. deceit. regret, posturing, espionage, misdirection, and hidden agendas. Kerr writes most of his characters with a guarded and initial unwillingness to cooperate. So the rare exception is all the more entertaining. The main character, Mackenzie, presents as a fairly open book, but as the plot progresses and the reader is taken through some flashbacks, we learn so much more about Mackenzie that what was initially presented. While it is clear that the book in heading for a spectacular finish, it is at the same time a delightful shock to the reader.
Excited mystery/thriller from beginning until the end, DEAD MONEY does everything right: good characters, compelling story, stupendous ending.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

Mackenzie Clyde is NOT a fixer. She is the chief "problem solver" for a ruthless venture capitalist. When the founder and head of one of her boss's investments is murdered in his office, Mackenzie is soon on the case. Especially when the contents of his will are disclosed saying nothing can be disbursed and no one can be named his successor until his murder is solved. Thus his vast fortune and company are dead money.

Mackenzie's boss pulls some strings and gets her assigned to work with the FBI after the San Francisco police are unable to make any headway, but the agent she works with is not happy to have her and doesn't give her much information about the case. . But when her knowledge of how the techies in Silicon Valley work and think proves useful he comes to appreciate she has something to offer. And this knowledge of who the players are becomes vital as the case meanders around California and finally comes to an explosive climax at the Burning Man Festival.

Mackenzie is an interesting new character and I would not mind hearing more about her in the future.

Wow, this book was simply amazing. Authentic is a good word to describe this book. You can tell Jakob knows what he is talking about by the way he describes Silicon Valley in this book. I felt myself rooting for the main character throughout the book and could not wait to read the next page. Awesome job Jakob!

Dead Money makes you feel like you are immersed in a suspenseful, smart, action-packed crime movie. Having no idea what to expect when I started it, I was beyond pleasantly impressed. Set in San Francisco, the techy world is so intriguing to me. The author’s way of describing things with the perfect amount of detail causes you to feel like you are right there with the characters. Mackenzie is such a good character. And brilliant. I thoroughly enjoyed this. And the icing on the cake was a couple of unexpected pages of Steph Curry praise. Anyway, it’s good. Very good. Go get a copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam Books for the advanced copy.

A deep dive into the high tech world with a little espionage and money laundering to make it even more invigorating. Mackenzie is hired to protect the company…. But what happens when the boss becomes paranoid and then killed? That’s the crux of this high intrigue thriller! Thanks to NetGalley for the read.

Mackenzie works for a very high powered venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. When a client that her boss paid a lot of money to is murdered, he asks her to join in with the FBI on the case. It is beyond her scope of expertise, she is fixer for him, but she joins in. There are a lot of twists and turns. The scenes at Burning Man are really exciting. The ending is a mind bomb! Didn't see that one coming!

I am a Bay Area gal so I love all the descriptions of our beautiful area. I love when I know exactly where they are talking about. A really good read with a great ending.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for a copy for review.

Dead Money is a thriller about a venture capital fixer joining an FBI murder investigation in this mix of police procedural and tech company politics where money is everywhere and nowhere. There are dual timelines of both Mackenzie Clyde's past and present ultimately converging at the end. The story is clearly well plotted. The beginning of this was gripping. I was interested from the first page, and I read this rather quickly. There's a lot of telling during the ending though, and I found that an unsatisfying ending. I wanted something more shocking, but this falls a bit short for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam, Random House Ballantine for this ARC!

Refreshing in its' unpredictability. A great read!

I found this book to be a breath of fresh air. In a time where thrillers seem to be getting more and more predictable, the author weaves a nuanced and layered story that keeps you engaged with plenty of “aha!” moments that force you to reevaluate your past assumptions.

We follow the lead character, Mckenzie Clyde in two timelines; the present, where she’s working to solve a murder, and the past, where we understand what makes her tick. These paths converge well, and the switching back and forth never take you out of the story. I liked how the progression if the story kind of drew an outline of events, and the author filled in details at different points along the path to bring you in further.

All in all a thoroughly engaging read. I will be looking for more from Jakob Kerr in the future.

Published by Bantam on January 28, 2025

Dead Money is an engaging whodunit set in the world of venture capital and technology startups. Trevor Canon is the CEO of Journy, a company that seems to combine Lyft-like services with Lime-like rentals. Journy has not yet gone public but is expected to make Canon even wealthier when it does.

Canon is murdered in his office while he’s working late. Shortly before his murder, Canon changed his will to specify that, in the event of his murder, his shares in Journy could not be distributed to other investors in the company until the murderer is convicted.

The company’s executives each own a piece of the company, as does Hammersmith Venture, the venture capital firm that financed Journy’s startup. Journy’s five key executives carried keycards that would have provided access to the elevator leading to the CEO’s office, making them the prime suspects.

Mackenzie Clyde is a lawyer employed by Hammersmith Venture. Mackenzie does not perform traditional legal work. She investigates and troubleshoots problems, reporting directly to the firm’s CEO, Roger Hammersmith. Mackenzie is not impressed by the tech industry, which she describes as “a giant, soulless, self-propelling machine that runs on its own bullshit.” Sounds about right.

Intermittent flashbacks provide insight into Mackenzie’s nature. She grew up feeling freakish because of her unusual height. She took refuge in basketball until a male student who read and copied her essay falsely claimed that she copied his work. School officials knew the kid was lying but his father was rich and important so they suspended Mackenzie (but not the male) from extracurricular activities. That experience might cause some people to resent the privilege that attends wealth, but it motivated Mackenzie to acquire wealth of her own.

Mackenzie’s mother taught her to seize opportunities — specifically, opportunities to become wealthy — because power is the only shield against the powerful. Mackenzie went to law school and accepted a job with a Big Law firm. Before she started, she met Eleanor Eden, a woman who wrote a bestselling book about how women can shatter the glass ceiling. Mackenzie called out the book as bullshit, earning Eleanor’s admiration. Eleanor admits the book was full of nonsense but writing it was an end to a means.

Eleanor advised Mackenzie to ditch Big Law and move to the West, where opportunities for success abound. Mackenzie took a job as in-house lawyer with Hammersmith Venture. How she became Roger Hammersmith’s personal fixer is a mystery I won’t spoil.

In fact, saying much more about the plot would risk spoiling it. It is enough to know that Hammersmith designates Mackenzie as his liaison to the FBI, which takes over the investigation of Trevor’s murder. Mackenzie works closely with Agent Jameson Danner, whose father is a wealthy senator, as they interview the prime suspects and work their way to a reveal of the killer’s identity.

Although three of the four key characters — Mackenzie, her mother, and Eleanor — are morally suspect, they all justify their actions with the conviction that opportunities are meant to be seized, even if others must suffer. This seems suspiciously similar to the philosophies that drive Silicon Valley startups and Big Law, philosophies that Mackenzie seems to find appalling, but Mackenzie’s beliefs are more nuanced (and less admirable) than they first appear.

Danner at least is law-abiding, but he suffers from the usual law enforcement belief that using other people to build a criminal case is always justified — all the more so if the manipulation advances his career. Fortunately, fictional characters don’t need to be morally stalwart to be interesting. Whether they are right or wrong, the characters act consistently with their beliefs. I can’t say I cared about any of the characters by the novel’s end, but I didn’t dislike any of them, and I admired Jakob Kerr’s willingness to take chances with characters who might turn off readers with their unsavory behavior.

I also appreciated an offbeat plot that doesn’t depend on a tough guy saving the day by being tougher than everyone else. Dead Money is carefully constructed to give the reader an opportunity to piece together clues in search of the killer’s identity. The final reveal is surprising and surprisingly believable. A clever reader might guess parts of the answer but I doubt that most will work it out entirely. Kerr nevertheless plays fair by giving the reader a reasonable opportunity to solve the puzzle. Those elements combine to make Dead Money one of the smartest crime novels I’ve read in the last several months.

RECOMMENDED

A fascinating and compelling thriller set in the tech bubble of Silicon Valley. I started this book somewhat uncertain about what I was getting into, but by about halfway through I realized I was utterly sucked in. Mackenzie is a fantastic lead, taking us along the investigation. The twists and turns kept coming throughout, but still made sense rather than being overly disconnected from any potential reality. Kerr is now on my authors to watch list.

Dead Money by Jacob Kerr was a deliciously twisty techno thriller and I really enjoyed it!

The beginning was a little slow burning but very intriguing as a Founder of a major tech company is found murdered. Mackenzie is a “fixer” for a firm who invested heavily in the tech company and teams up with an FBI agent to solve the murder.

Days before the murder takes place, the Founder had added a clause to his will whereby all funds (billions!) will be tied up if he is murdered until the case is solved. This is what’s known as “Dead Money”.

The action ensues as unforeseen twists are unveiled and I loved it all! There were definitely a couple of late nights of reading turning the pages as quickly as possible.

*Thanks so much to partner Random House/Ballantine and to NetGalley for the gifted eARC!*

I agree with all the reviews calling this a twisty, banger of a mystery. It is well written, and the plot moves along quite fast. So much is happening all the time with great characters, especially the strong women. The deft switching of chapters between before and after the murder was well crafted to help understand the motivation of the characters. This is a really good, impressive debut novel. Thank you NetGalley for providing the ARC.

I need more books starring the main character - she was absolutely fantastic. This is a Netflix series in the making, unfolding before us.

This manages to be so rooted in reality (the ways it feels very real and contemporary are almost too well done) while also being so fast paced and escapist that all I wanted was to read this book. Mackenzie's chapters from the past are fascinating and as you follow them the investigation becomes even more interesting. A pitch perfect ending left me really happy with how this entire book went.