The Ghost of Silicon Valley — William D. Blankenship

Can one of Silicon Valleys premier software companies be haunted? Impossible, says Bobby Race, CEO of the company and a powerful force in the information industry. Dont be so sure, counters Kevin Pierce, a talented but down-at-the-heels portrait artist who knows too well that supernatural life does exist. Kevin has been saddled for ten years with his own personal ghost Sport Sullivan, a cynical, street-wise gambler murdered in 1920. Desperate to save his company from the embarrassment of a haunting, Bobby Race hires Kevin to rid the company of its ghost under the guise of painting Bobbys portrait. The ghost appears to be Cynthia Gooding, a company employee who died in a suspicious accident at company headquarters. Along the way Kevin becomes involved with two very sharp, quite different career women. Dorothy Lake is an emotionally buttoned down genius programmer who wants Kevin more than she will admit. Jenny Hartson, executive secretary to the CEO, is a health and exercise fanatic who wants to break Kevin of his dependency on Carta Blanca beer. Throw in Izzy Valentine, a gangster trying to buy (or threaten) his way onto Bobbys board of directors; Big Sam Cody, the best car thief in San Francisco; and Pure John Braggia, a thug with excellent manners. With the help of Sport Sullivan (an ethereal cousin to Dr. Watson), Kevin must walk through a mine field of these dangerous characters to uncover the reason Cynthia Goodings ghost is haunting the executive suites of Silicon Valley.