A slow-burn conspiracy thriller about power, marriage, and who gets to write the redemption story.
He came to the hills to find himself. Someone up there already knew who he was.
Colson Tate built his Silicon Valley empire on groundbreaking technology that promised to revolutionize transportation. But when his QuantumLoop train crashes in a catastrophic test, his business, his reputation, even his identity, vanishes overnight.
Stripped of his CEO title and banished to a remote retreat in the California hills, Cole must convince an enigmatic coach, Justine Hemingway, that he's ready to reclaim his company. But the mountain sanctuary harbors secrets of its own. Fellow guest Noah claims to communicate with the dead. Justine seems to know more about Cole's past than she should. And back home, his wife Kate is handling the corporate crisis with a skill that both impresses and unsettles him. All of it leading him to suspect that his downfall wasn't an accident—and his exile isn't what it seems.
In a world where power shifts like quicksand, who can you trust when everyone has something to hide?
Why readers love it: A corporate thriller in the tradition of Nine Perfect Strangers, Bit Flip, and Anatomy of a Scandal, Terms of Succession follows disgraced Silicon Valley CEO Cole Tate after the catastrophic failure of his QuantumLoop train sends him into forced exile at a remote California retreat run by the enigmatic Justine Hemingway. Told through alternating POVs, this near-future corporate thriller blends realistic tech-industry intrigue, psychological suspense, and slow-burn character drama with brief closed-door romance.