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The Swiftpad Takeover #1
Digging Up New Business: The Swiftpad Takeover
Today business is about eyeballs on the screen. Narcissism is the shiny object that always attracts, and today it drives the bottom line. You have to be the star in your own show, and now, with the Internet social media sensation SwiftPad, there are new episodes about you each time you connect!
A new girl in the Rose City has a plan to capture the whole world’s attention. She hooks up with a local pothead/Lothario to create SwiftPad, a renegade social media app that promises to convert the world’s fascination with itself into billions in cash for the crew and their backers.
But when a sadistic killer’s handiwork is uncovered, new clues to an old crime point to Portland’s IT community. He is out there, using his high-tech talent to mock efforts to catch him.
More than a Tech-Thriller, Digging Up New Business The SwiftPad Takeover is also a raffish, satiric account of how we are coping with the sweeping changes of recent decades.
A new girl in the Rose City has a plan to capture the whole world’s attention. She hooks up with a local pothead/Lothario to create SwiftPad, a renegade social media app that promises to convert the world’s fascination with itself into billions in cash for the crew and their backers.
But when a sadistic killer’s handiwork is uncovered, new clues to an old crime point to Portland’s IT community. He is out there, using his high-tech talent to mock efforts to catch him.
More than a Tech-Thriller, Digging Up New Business The SwiftPad Takeover is also a raffish, satiric account of how we are coping with the sweeping changes of recent decades.
318 pages, Paperback
First published September 21, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 22, 2019
New, abstract social media platforms, a serial killer, the insides of the corporate tech world, all set in our beloved Portland and nearby environs. The cast of characters is a diverse bunch and the plot moves along quickly. My favorite passages include loving descriptions of those who inhabit the Rose City: “…it wasn’t a simple, one-size-fits-all anti-style. There were tribes with particular missions – runners, grungers, bicyclers, beer crafters, cheese-makers, vegans, purveyors of the salted meats (and various subcultures of that, munchers of port fat mixed with grains and beans, fish-eaters, free-ranger bird eaters, who called themselves semi-vegans…”
April 26, 2021
“Digging Up New Business: The SwiftPad Takeover” is the first book in The SwiftPad Trilogy by S. Lee Barckmann. If you’re looking for a book that offers a slew of fads that were very real in recent generations, this is it! And even though you may feel like you’re going through news headlines from the 1980’s and 90’s at times—the actual concept this author came up with that envelops all these things is truly a “unique” one.
Ah…social media. In Rose City we met up with a new girl who has just arrived in town and has both the imagination and the smarts to become a ‘player’ in the social media world. Fate leads her to meet up with a marijuana-loving Don Juan-type who works with her to create SwiftPad. Yes, this is a new app (something that seems to be in the headlines each and every day of our present lives). Yet, this app actually feeds off society, itself, and has the power to make the world say ‘so long’ to the highly profitable and popular Facebook.
It’s a fact that narcissism is something that this world would not be able to live without. After all, we are constantly craving information, from celebrity break-ups to hideous crimes, and SwiftPad provides that and a whole lot more. What it also dredges up is brand new data that could help solve a crime that happened in Portland long ago.
Enter…a serial killer. Think of Bundy and add an even more sadistic layer to the package. Not only is this new SwiftPad going to disturb the killer’s daily life, but it will also have the hideous mind focusing on the people behind the app. From learning about the innerworkings of a conglomerate that attempts to monopolize all other businesses within the electronics industry in order to increase its already overflowing coffers (Microsoft, anyone?); to finding out the cool backstories of the entire SwiftPad team, every page offers something new to keep the reader riveted.
The satire that is offered in this tale is brutally honest, hysterical, and unforgettable. But, remember, this is not a dystopian world; this is a very real, bare bones, trash-talking world that all of us have lived through – and are still living through to this day. As a reader who loves reality as much as the gritty suspense that a book like this provides, there is also that underlying current that shows how much we’ve seen and survived over the past decades, and how much we’re most likely going to see before we say adieu to this life.
This is an exceptional ‘show’ that, thankfully, had to have three books to expand the story and continue to enthrall readers.
Ah…social media. In Rose City we met up with a new girl who has just arrived in town and has both the imagination and the smarts to become a ‘player’ in the social media world. Fate leads her to meet up with a marijuana-loving Don Juan-type who works with her to create SwiftPad. Yes, this is a new app (something that seems to be in the headlines each and every day of our present lives). Yet, this app actually feeds off society, itself, and has the power to make the world say ‘so long’ to the highly profitable and popular Facebook.
It’s a fact that narcissism is something that this world would not be able to live without. After all, we are constantly craving information, from celebrity break-ups to hideous crimes, and SwiftPad provides that and a whole lot more. What it also dredges up is brand new data that could help solve a crime that happened in Portland long ago.
Enter…a serial killer. Think of Bundy and add an even more sadistic layer to the package. Not only is this new SwiftPad going to disturb the killer’s daily life, but it will also have the hideous mind focusing on the people behind the app. From learning about the innerworkings of a conglomerate that attempts to monopolize all other businesses within the electronics industry in order to increase its already overflowing coffers (Microsoft, anyone?); to finding out the cool backstories of the entire SwiftPad team, every page offers something new to keep the reader riveted.
The satire that is offered in this tale is brutally honest, hysterical, and unforgettable. But, remember, this is not a dystopian world; this is a very real, bare bones, trash-talking world that all of us have lived through – and are still living through to this day. As a reader who loves reality as much as the gritty suspense that a book like this provides, there is also that underlying current that shows how much we’ve seen and survived over the past decades, and how much we’re most likely going to see before we say adieu to this life.
This is an exceptional ‘show’ that, thankfully, had to have three books to expand the story and continue to enthrall readers.
January 13, 2016
I really enjoyed the second book of Lee Barckmann - Digging Up New Business. Although, I'm not technically inclined, I did find the story of the tech company interesting and really enjoyed the murder mystery connected to the story. The character development was excellent and I really liked the character reference at the beginning of the book. It was an exciting read and kept you on the edge of your chair wanting to find out who the murder was and the motive.
I also like the reference to different locations around the Portland area and how Lee used the local fare as a part of the story to keep the reader engaged.
Elizabeth Kabush
I also like the reference to different locations around the Portland area and how Lee used the local fare as a part of the story to keep the reader engaged.
Elizabeth Kabush
February 19, 2018
This is a great book. It was really engaging and had many twists and turns that kept me interested from beginning to end. The characters had rich interesting personalities and the dialog between them was among the high points of the book. It was funny, suspenseful, insightful and is a realistic and fascinating look in to the high tech industry. I really enjoyed the book and I highly recommend it. It would make a great Christmas present for friends, family or for yourself...I think we will see a hit movie based on this book soon!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews