Picks and Shovels: A Martin Hench Novel [Paperback]

New York Timesbestselling author Cory Doctorow returns to the world ofRed Team Bluesto bring us the origin story of Martin Hench and the most powerful new tool for crime ever invented: the personal computer.

The year is 1986. The city is San Francisco. Here, Martin Hench will invent the forensic accountant--what a bounty hunter is to people, he is to money--but for now he's an MIT dropout odd-jobbing his way around a city still reeling from the invention of a revolutionary new technology that will change everything about crime forever, one we now take completely for granted.

When Marty finds himself hired by Silicon Valley PC startup Fidelity Computing to investigate a group of disgruntled ex-employees who've founded a competitor startup, he quickly realizes he's on the wrong side. Marty ditches the greasy old guys running Fidelity Computing without a second thought, utterly infatuated with the electric atmosphere of Computing Freedom. Located in the heart of the Mission, this group of brilliant young women found themselves exhausted by the predatory business practices of Fidelity Computing and set out to beat them at their own game, making better computers and driving Fidelity Computing out of business. But this optimistic startup, fueled by young love and California-style burritos, has no idea the depth of the evil they're seeking to unroot or the risks they run.

In this company-eat-company city, Martin and his friends will be lucky to escape with their lives.

Cory Doctorowis a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, includingThe Lost Cause, a solarpunk science-fiction novel of hope amidst the climate emergency. His nonfiction bookThe Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computationis a Big Tech disassembly manual. Other recent books includeRed Team Blues, a science fiction crime thriller;Chokepoint Capitalism, nonfiction about monopoly anl³˜