Dead billionaires have piled up in modern pop culture to an almost absurd amount. Surely some Pacific Heights morgue is overflowing by this point.

Well, “Dead Money” adds one more to the examiner’s table: Trevor Canon, the uber-wealthy founder of Journy, an Uber-like startup worth mega billions. His death throws his company’s future into doubt through what debut novelist Jakob Kerr calls a “dead money provision,” some legalese that freezes ownership in the startup until someone stands trial for his murder. A genuine twisty mystery ensues, which Kerr likens to a Russian nesting doll.

“When the reader begins the book, they’re like, ‘This is fun. Who done it?’ And it goes down a layer, and it’s: ‘Oh, this is actually about the levers of power and ruthlessness and ambition.’ And then you go down to the final layer,” which neither he nor I care to spoil.