Snake Oil

From the author of Girl in the Rearview Mirror comes a stunning novel set in the high-stakes world of Silicon Valley.

Radical is a fast-growing wellness startup, rumored to be approaching “unicorn” status. But on the night of a booze-fueled party celebrating another round of venture capital investment, a woman’s body is found outside the company’s San Francisco HQ. Did she fall from the roof? Did she jump? Or was she pushed?

Rhoda West, Radical’s luminous founder-CEO, has attracted both avid followers and vocal detractors in the building of her wellness company. Her Instagram page exhorts followers to #bebetter, showcasing intimate glimpses of Rhoda’s glamorous personal life alongside promotions for the mysterious, cult-status products created in Radical’s secretive Lab.

Dani, her enthusiastic employee and a “radigal”, has fully immersed herself in the Radical lifestyle, eagerly testing products while covering up a pregnancy she’s not sure she’s ready for. When @Radicalidiocy, a twitter account devoted to lambasting the company online, starts to expose company secrets, Dani suspects her colleague and on-the-rocks friend Cecilia, a disgruntled customer service rep, might be running the account.

As Rhoda engages in a cat-and-mouse chase with the Twitter author and struggles to maintain her power against mounting pressure, the women’s ambitions and beliefs will clash—with deadly results.

A page-turning literary thriller, Dimberg’s new book is an incisive examination of the high-stakes startup world, where the reputation of a leader carries outsize influence on the value of a brand, and the barbed double-standards applied to female CEOs.