Books*Reviews*Etc: THE BIG DISRUPTER & Giveaway by Paul Markun 10th

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is pleased to bring you
THE BIG DISRUPTER
(Thriller)
by
Paul Markun

Release day blitz - July 1
Virtual Book Tour - July 1-September 30

Publisher: Portfolio

Publication Date: June 13, 2014

Pages: 454

ISBN: 978-0-9914862-0-5

Genre: Thriller

An anonymous donor creates a prize for One Billion Dollars to inspire social entrepreneurs to promote world change. Lionel Lane, an idealistic entrepreneur, partners with his brilliant ex-girlfriend Maxine Gold to turn around his struggling San Francisco-based company Double Vision Beverages to compete for the Big Disrupter Award.
With the help of a venture capitalist and an eccentric financier, Double Vision expands into energy drinks using the pure water from the mountains of Telluride, Colorado. Talented 21-year-old extreme skier, Reddi Christiansen, becomes the face of their quest for the youth market.
One by one the leading competitors in the Big Disrupter fall victim to unexplained tragedies. The police are mystified. The prize for social good becomes a death trap, but too rich to resist. Desperate for protection, Lionel, Maxine and Reddi enlist a former Navy SEAL cyber guru. The faster they race towards the approaching award deadline, the more the escalating dangers threaten to spin them off a cliff.

Paul Markun grew up an entrepreneur and dreamer, starting with his first paper route at age nine in the Canal Zone of Panama.
Living in Telluride, Colorado, he started four companies with best friends before he was 24, including Fly By Night Builders, The Illusions Company, High Country Trekkers–you get the idea; great names, cool ideas, not much income.
He moved to Silicon Valley, got more education and tech experience, and started SoftIRON Systems and Fullspeed Networks, and rode the wave of the late 1990s to success. He sold SoftIRON Systems to the Williams Company (WilTel), a Fortune 300 company. In 2001 his company Fullspeed was acquired by Callisma, which became Pac Bell and then AT&T. You know them, right?
In the first decade of the 2000s, he joined fellow entrepreneurs to lead marketing for Netcordia, which later IPO’d as Infoblox (NYSE:BLOX). He also ran marketing for Sitecore, a web software company, growing it 10 X from an $8 million fledgling niche provider to an established global corporation. Paul continues to be involved with emerging companies to this day.
Paul met his wife Rachel, an attorney, when he was 18 and she was even younger at the University of Chicago. Their fountains of inspiration are their two sons and a daughter.
A passionate story teller, he turned his energies to writing about topics and characters close to his own heart. His first novel is The Big Disrupter.

Book Excerpt:

Telluride, Colorado

   Reddi Christiansen’s work clothing was in a heap at her feet. She peeled off her bra and underpants and threw them on top with relish. A breeze came through the open windows and she shivered, her long red ponytail shaking down her back. Crap, she forgot to close the curtains.
   “Wolfie, scare them away,” Reddi whispered. Wolfie stretched her long frame, pushing her huge chest and front paws forward, extending like a telescope. Her deep howl rumbled the old glass panes in the one room house.
   Reddi laughed and rubbed her fingers through Wolfie’s fur. Turning her back to the windows facing the quiet street, she pulled on her stretch shorts, hopping from one foot to the other. She tugged her sports bra and tank top over her broad freckled shoulders.
   “Fine, we’re respectable now. You ready to run to the top of the pass?”
   Wolfie jumped up. The fur covering her one hundred twenty pound frame was snow-white. She sat and cocked her head to the side, tuning her vertical ears towards Reddi. The black markings around her curious blue eyes created a theatrical mask on her white face. She was a Wolfdog. Part Arctic wolf, part Siberian husky, and every bit Reddi’s best friend.
   “Okay, get your leash.” Wolfie sprung over and picked up her leash, swinging it like a lasso. Then she pranced and juked side to side, with motion as fluid as mercury.
   “Save some for 13,000 feet, darling,” laughed Reddi. The old door creaked as it opened. Wolfie rushed onto the weathered front porch, leaping over a hand-drawn railing. As she landed she spun about, kicking up a dusty cloud in the dirt street.
   Reddi rolled her mountain bike into the bright sun, the warmth feeling glorious on her skin. She slipped on her riding shades and pulled her ponytail out the back of her helmet. She glanced down the row of cribs along her street. Each was small with simple wood framing, former bordellos where madams entertained during the town’s boomtown mining era.
   A mahogany-tanned guy with a shock of curly black hair was loading a hang glider on his truck. She waved. “Hey, Crazy Jack.”
   He paused, balancing the kite with one hand on the rack. “Heading up, Reddi?”
   “Yeah, me and Wolfie. To Imogene Pass.”
   He shoved the kite on the rack and walked towards her, thick calves below his baggy shorts. “Good news. The new demo skis from Volkl came in. Your comps. Maybe come by the ski shop after your ride?”
   “Whoohoo! For me? Really?” With a quick crank she glided over, standing on one pedal. Wolfie playfully circled them.
   “I promised. No way a skier like you should have to buy skis. This winter fifty people will come buy a pair from me, because they saw you on them.” His face crinkled in a smile around his mountaineering sunglasses, which made him appear a decade younger.
   “You’re the best.” She threw her arms around his shoulders and squeezed, her six-foot frame a half-foot taller than his.
   Reddi knew Jack often had free deals for her. But she didn’t realize how special he believed her to be. He had watched her outcompete the boys in adventure sports since she was eight. Then she blossomed. With the face of an unaware movie star, from the cliff-launch cheekbones, perfect complexion to waves of red hair. He smiled at her like a proud uncle.
   She shook her bike handlebars, like Wolfie wagging her head. “When should I come by your shop?”
   “Whenever. After your ride or after work. I’ll be there.”
   “See you then. So excited, Jack!” Reddi beamed a megawatt smile, feeling like a kid at Christmas. She launched up the dusty street with a hard push and a wheelie, whistling at Wolfie.
   Crazy Jack couldn’t help but admire the muscular arms pulling on the handlebars, and the sculpted hips and calves cranking effortlessly. “One hell of an athlete,” he muttered, shaking his head.
   In six blocks Reddi and Wolfie had passed through town and reached the former mining road that would lead them to the top. She called, Wolfie ran closer, and she grabbed the leash and stuffed it into her Camelback. She started the timer on her sport watch and immediately increased her pedal speed. The air smelled like spruce trees. She breathed deeply and pushed herself to break her personal best. As she rode she dreamed of being an Olympian.

REVIEW
The story is about Lionel Lane. His company Double Vision Beverages is barely staying above water. He is so desperate that he decides to enter and hopefully win, the Big Disrupter, which is the biggest entrepreneur award ever offered. The prize, One Billion Dollars. Lionel and his ex girlfriend, Maxine team together with the help of a 21 year old skier, Reddi Christiansen. Their hope, to add to Double Vision, energy drinks and introduce them into Telluride, Colorado.

Then tragedy strikes. It seems that the competitors for the Big Disrupter are falling like flies, unexplained tragedies are striking them. The prize, which is supposed to be for the best of best has become a sentence for death. They begin to hurry with a great speed to win this One Billion Dollars without becoming the next victims.

The story was a real cliff hanger. As the pages turned, the reader wasn't sure if Lionel and his crew were the next victims or if they escaped for the moment. This book was a different read for me. The excitement of a prize of One Billion Dollars for winning the Big Disrupter. Who wouldn't be excited over that? The author kept the suspense building as the Double Vision Beverage company was always just a little step ahead of disaster. I enjoyed the different approach of this mystery. Why were the competitors dropping dead? Was this intentional from the Big Disrupter or was it just chance? This was a well written, suspenseful mystery with a different kind of plot.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves mysteries.

I was given a complimentary copy of THE BIG DISRUPTER from the author, Paul Markun and PumpUpYourBook for my view of the book. No other compensation took place.

I would give this book 4 STARS.

LINKS
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Connect with Paul Markun:
Website: http://www.paulmarkun.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paul.markun

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pmarkun

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8304205.Paul_Markun

http://bemiown.blogspot.com

http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2014/05/28/pump-up-your-book-tours-presents-the-big-disrupter-virtual-book-tour/

http://www.shelfari.com/books/37710360/The-Big-Disrupter

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Disrupter-Paul-Markun-ebook/dp/B00KY57MCA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403199038&sr=1-1&keywords=the+big+disrupter

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22465598-the-big-disrupter?from_search=true