Author: Glenn Ogura

Publisher: IUniverse Inc

ISBN: 978-1-4759-8855-0

Debut authors are frequently advised that they should not quit their day job to become full-time writers until they are quite sure they can make it as a professional. After reading Glenn Ogura's Startup, I will go out on the limb and and predict that this is one author who will shortly become a household name and perhaps he should roll the dice to devote full time to his writing.

Startup is a smashing achievement which breaks out with a Prologue where readers are introduced to the three principal characters of the novel, Mary Anne Henley, her boyfriend Zack Penny and her father Allen Henley, CEO and founder of the family corporation DisplayTechnik. Zack is an engineer in the employ of Allen. Mary Anne is in the process of pulling off an act of unprincipled betrayal that will plunge into shocking ramifications pertaining to Zack as well as her relationship with him as well as her father.

Pressured by her tyrannical and egotistical father, she steals an important paper from Zack's home office while he is sound asleep, after the two had made love in the adjacent bedroom. Earlier in the evening Mary Anne had endeavoured to find out if Zack was involved in some kind of devious double-dealing that caused her father to lose trust in her boyfriend. All of this now sets the stage for a nail biting and torturous yarn that will keep you glued to your seats until the very end.

As we are about learn, Zack and his partner, Paul Ryerson are involved in a secret start-up of a high-tech company named Imagination. They succeeded in attracting venture capitalists who invested millions of dollars in the enterprise. The product they were going to launch was the next generation of flat panel displays which were so paper-thin that you could roll it out like a carpet. This was based on a polymer formula that one of the engineers had discovered during his spare time while working for DisplayTechnik.

Allen freaks out when he figures out that Zack is about to stab him in the back and go on his own, and before he has the satisfaction of axing Zack, he quits. It is at this point where Allen is adamant in destroying Zack and his team of engineers that were recruited from DisplayTechnik and he instructs his team of high power attorneys to do everything in their power to make sure that this happens, even if it means using devious illegal tactics. Allen misleads his attorneys in accepting the false premise that Zack and his team of engineers had misappropriated intellectual property belonging to his company, which turns out to be a figment of Allen's treacherous imagination. Moreover, he is a man without any moral scruples and has used his own daughter to manipulate the situation.

I have to hand it to Ogura, his mastery of plot development is spectacular considering that there is never a dull moment filled with the unexpected that plunges readers into the characters inner lives. The premise or nucleus of the narrative, which, as previously mentioned, begins with the Prologue, has enough potency and substance for the author to immediately set his story on fire propelling it like a ballistic missile for the next 474 pages. All I can say is “wow” this guy can write! This is something we rarely see in a breakout novelist, particularly when he also succeeds in achieving a strong emotional appeal with his readers. Bravo! I am looking forward to reading more from Glenn Ogura.

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