SMASHER

When a prosecutor is put into a coma by a mysterious hit-and-run driver, her beleaguered husband seeks justice.

Since the murder of his housekeeper was tidily solved (Dot.Dead, 2006), Ian Michaels’s life has finally settled down, or so he thinks. He’s happily married and is CEO of Accelenet, a Silicon Valley computer firm. Unfortunately for Michaels, Ricky Frankson, head of Torii Networks, is determined to take over Accelenet by any means necessary. Michaels wants to devote his energy to fighting off Frankson by finding alternate investors, but his attention is diverted when Michaels’s mother insists that he look into the death of her Aunt Isobel 40 years ago. The sole female Stanford Ph.D. candidate in physics in a cadre of men, Isobel died in a car accident just weeks before her colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize, and Michaels’s mother is certain that the timing is more than coincidence. As if these tasks weren’t enough, Rowena Michaels, a deputy for the D.A., has had death threats from the defendant in her latest case. While the couple is on a morning run, Rowena is struck down by a rogue car. As she lies comatose in the hospital, Michaels must figure out which of many plausible suspects is behind the attack.

Silicon Valley fans will appreciate the use of the location and the tech talk and overlook Michaels’s pretentious behavior over his ritual tea.