When Ian Michaels, a Silicon Valley hotshot, discovers a young, beautiful woman stabbed to death in his house, it takes him a moment to realize that the still-warm corpse is his maid. Far from the gray-haired, cookie-baking grandmother he imagined her to be, Gwendolyn was a stranger to Ian, but her family, old boyfriend, and the Palo Alto police seem to think they were a couple. And despite his best efforts to prove otherwise, the evidence against Ian is growing. It looks like someone is framing Ian for murder, but who? An executive at a tech firm, Ian is anxious to prove his innocence to his boss and mentor Paul Berk, a Silicon Valley legend. As the investigation heats up so does Ian's interest in Gwendolyn's sister, but can she be trusted?

"Carries the reader triumphantly from one climax to the next. Taut, tight, suspenseful."—Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT and THE PARIS VENDETTA "SMASHER swings seamlessly from the cutthroat maneuverings of Silicon Valley to the equally competitive world of particle physics, and yet Raffel never forgets that this is a story about people. A smart, humane, compelling read." —Marcus Sakey, award-winning author of THE BLADE ITSELF, AT THE CITY'S EDGE, and GOOD PEOPLE "Take a taut roller-coaster ride behind Silicon Valley's doors. Hold on and prepare to stay up all night." —Cara Black, bestselling author of the Aimée Leduc series Smash and Grab As Accelenet CEO Ian Michaels battles a ruthless Silicon Valley billionaire for control of his company, his wife, deputy D.A. Rowena Goldberg, is targeted for death by an unknown assassin. Michaels must use his brains and business acumen to navigate a deadly trail of corporate and academic hostility, greed, and revenge as he races to find the assailant.