PopCo — Scarlett Thomas

“The code-breaking and -making heroine of [this] smart, engaging novel takes a critical view of the corporate marketing of cool . . . a captivating heroine.” -- Publishers Weekly

Twentysomething Alice Butler is a bit of an introvert, but it hasn't stopped her from landing a job at the UK office of globally successful -- if slightly sinister -- toy company PopCo. There's no dress code, but that doesn't keep Alice's coworkers from commenting on her “Bletchley Park look” outfits. Now the CEO wants the creatives on the staff to attend what the organization calls “Thought Camp” and invent an insidious product that will part as many teenage girls from their allowances as possible. Alice isn't feeling so comfortable about her supposedly cool new job. But she has another problem to solve first.

She's started to receive bizarre encrypted messages, and they may have something to do with her cryptanalyst grandfather; her long-disappeared father; a centuries-old manuscript; and the possibility of buried treasure. Alice is convinced the engraving on the necklace she's been wearing since she was ten years old holds the key to it all. But the secrets she uncovers may take her by surprise, in this highly original novel that blends code, mathematics, marketing, mystery, and more, “a sort of Harriet-the-Spy-meets-Douglas-Coupland with a Treasure Island twist” (Daily Candy).

“How many novels can you think of that leave the reader with an intriguing puzzle to solve, plus a cake recipe, plus a crossword and a list of the first thousand prime numbers? Clever, likeable, frothy, zeitgeist-chasing.” -- Time Out London