Escape Velocity - Softcover

"Wolfe made her debut in 1989 with The Last Billable Hour, which won an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Her accomplished, amusing follow-up, a thriller set in California's Silicon Valley, stars paralegal Georgia Griffin. Georgia, who has escaped from Piney, Ark., to a paralegal job at Lumina Software, sets out to impress her boss, general counsel Ken Madigan, and to earn enough money to move out of her car and to bring her 15-year-old sister, Katie-Ann, to live with her. When Georgia discovers that some Lumina staff members are unproductive or obstructive or crooked, she decides to use the skills that she learned from her con artist father, who's currently in prison, to neutralize her adversaries in such departments as sales, legal, and personnel. Her efforts bring positive changes as well as deadly danger. Wolfe, a lawyer who knows the high-tech world, makes a very welcome return, and readers will hope they won't have to wait another 27 years for her next book." -Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW) "Wow. Edgar winner Susan Wolfe is back big time-with a cleverly written, wickedly hilarious, and surprisingly touching financial thriller. Or is it? The marvelous Georgia Griffin will win you over, continually surprise you-and then sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. Loved it." -Hank Phillippi Ryan, winner of the Anthony, Agatha, Macavity and Mary Higgins Clark awards and author of Say No More. "Continuous action, sharp intrigue and memorable characters captivate in this coiling plot of a thriller. This one is definitely ahead of the pack." -Steve Berry, New York Times best-selling author of The 14th Colony "Susan Wolfe's new book is wryly funny, suspenseful, and clever, and gives us an eye-opening look inside the high tech industry." -Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply and Ill Will "Instantly addictive and disconcertingly credible, Escape Velocity will send the unwary reader pell-mell through the mazy proceedings and gamesmanship of corporate Silicon Valley. If the adrenaline rush isn't enough, then the endearing vigilantism will close the deal. I never knew how much I wanted to know about the legal and economic ins-and-outs of the tech industry until Susan Wolfe, uniquely positioned to illuminate both, decided to writer this exhilarating novel." --Lynn Stegner, award-winning author of For All the Obvious Reasons and nominee for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize "Readers craving full-on immersion in the ethos of Silicon Valley will love every page of Escape Velocity. Susan Wolfe's cast of colorful villains, con artists, and just plain folks caught up in high-stakes industry games is painstakingly drawn and always unpredictable. Good, clever fun with a thriller of an ending." -Laura Benedict, author of The Abandoned Heart "A financial and legal thriller with rich character development that creates an absolutely compelling stay-up-all-night read." -Alice LaPlante, award-winning author of Turn of Mind "Was there ever a more appealing character than this clever, hard-working Georgia Griffin of Piney, Arkansas, who has inherited her father's genius for the con? Not only highly entertaining, but also insightful and informative about Silicon Valley's high tech industry, whose principles are not always what they claim." --Barbara Babcock, Professor Emerita of Stanford Law School, and author of Fish Raincoats: A Woman Lawyer's Life

Georgia Griffin has just arrived in Silicon Valley from Piney, Arkansas, on very bald tires, having firmly rejected her beloved father's life as a con artist. Her father is in jail and a certain minister is hugging her mother for Jesus while eyeing Georgia's little sister, Katie-Ann. Georgia desperately needs to keep her new job as a paralegal for Lumina Software so she can provide a California haven for her sister before it's too late.

While she's still living in her car, Georgia realizes that incompetence and self-dealing have a death grip on her new company. She decides to adapt her extensive con artist training--just once--to clean up the company. But success is seductive. Soon Georgia is an avid paralegal by day and a masterful con artist by night, using increasingly bold gambits designed to salvage Lumina Software. Then she steps into the shadow of a real crime and must decide: Will she risk her job, the roof over her sister's head, and perhaps her very soul?