The Pelican Squadron (ePub)

A tale of greed, revenge, love, and redemption in the golden age of Silicon Valley.

Set on the picturesque northern California coast, it's a story of what happened to a group of people who live in Silicon Valley before and during the internet bubble of 2000. It's a business story, a crime story, a love story, and a story of friendship in a world where greed and money rule, but some people and some things are worth fighting for.

It begins when a group of people arrives in San Francisco after having survived the Second World War. Two of them set up a successful business, retire, and move to the idyllic coastal town of Pescadero. Ruthless investors steal the company of a young technology founder he started in his Stanford University dorm room. He throws up his hands, leaves the treacherous world of Silicon Valley startups, and moves to Pescadero to drop out and become a hermit. Kismet intervenes when he meets one of the retirees on a beach. Unwilling to let private equity investors get away with their crimes and her new friend throw his life away, a retired businesswoman befriends him. Together they forge a friendship and a partnership to wrestle his company back and avenge the death of another friend, another business owner who was cheated out of his company decades before by the same investors.

While they battle untrammeled greed and personal vendettas in streets, backrooms, and conference rooms and the golden age of the internet comes to an end, a private detective uncovers a shocking crime when he searches for the missing parents of the young founder as the battle for ownership of the company reaches a climax.

The Pelican Squadron raises existential questions about the values and meanings we give our lives.