The Exit Strategy

“Part Ludlum, part Crichton, part Coben, it’s a grabber from page one.” —Christopher Reich, New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Deception “Haven’t we all, at one time or another, wanted to escape into a brand-new, unencumbered existence? … Pettus captures the excitement of waking up in a strange country with a lot of money in your pocket.” —New York Times Book Review Sometimes you just need to escape. For crooked politicians, military brass from third-world nations, and white-collar criminals looking to avoid either prison or a deadlier form of payback, there’s Exit Strategy. With just one call, Exit Strategy helps these wealthy-but-wanted types disappear completely. They can fake your death, give you a new name and face, and launder whatever ill-gotten funds you need to establish a new life on the other side of the world. When Jordan Parrish, the brilliant founder of a medical technology start-up, made the call, he thought he had no other way out. With his marriage in shambles and his company on the brink of financial ruin, it seemed the only way to make things right. But after his exit, he began to wonder about the circumstances that led him to make that momentous decision: was someone, in fact, working against him? To find out, Jordan will have to break the cardinal rule of Exit Strategy: you can never, ever go back. Charlton Pettus’s Exit Strategy is a cutting-edge, globe-trotting thriller about the type of shadowy organization that most of us have long suspected exists behind the scenes.

Silicon Valley investor Ryn Brennan is on the verge of achieving everything she dreamed. She's succeeded in the male-dominated venture capital world, has a supportive husband, and is about to close the deal of her career. Everything is going exactly as planned, until she meets Carly, her husband's mistress, across the negotiating table. Carly clawed her way back from being a teenage runaway to become an accomplished scientist, caring single mom, and co-founder of her startup. Once she marries her loving fiancé, she'll secure the complete family she craves. But she's blindsided to discover her not so perfect fiancé is already married—to Ryn, her company's biggest investor. In an industry full of not-so-subtle sexism, can the two women rise above, and work together to overcome heartbreak, and ensure their success?

Popular fantasy author Kelley Armstrong (Women of the Otherworld series) makes her first foray into crime fiction, with the debut of a series of non-paranormal novels featuring female assassin Nadia Stafford. Nadia Stafford is one of the world’s few female contract killers. A former cop, drummed out of the force because of a scandal, she is an expert at disguise and cool under pressure. But when fellow hitman Jack arrives on the scene, Nadia’s very private existence is seriously challenged. A series of victims are being murdered seemingly at random all over the country—different areas, different walks of life, different MOs. There is nothing to tie them together except a random page torn out of a single book: Helter Skelter. But does the Helter Skelter killer—as the hysterical media now dub him—have a real connection to Charles Manson? Or is there something even more sinister at work? Is this, in fact—as Jack believes—the carefully planned exit strategy of a fellow professional killer, determined to leave the life, but equally determined to clear up an old mistake? And, if so, which is the real victim? Now, the highly suspicious and secretive hitman community will have to break their cover—at least, to each other—and help take down this killer before the cops and the Feds discover his true connection to their own secret, exclusive society…

This book shows the owners of private businesses how to plan for the most important event in their business lives - a successful exit from their businesses. It is unique because it is written from the owner's point of view, bringing together in one place all you need to know about planning for this key event.

Set in the near-future (2008), Exit Strategy is a darkly comic send-up of the dot.com mania of the late 1990s and a modern-day retelling of the story of Joseph. Like Joseph, Jamie Cohen is betrayed by his compadres but unexpectedly finds himself at the right hand of power. He helps a huge venture capitalist build pyramids - except these are investment pyramids based on technology idols. An additional narrative conceit is this: 200 years later, anthropologists find the virtual manuscript of Exit Strategy and begin annotating the text. Hundreds of readers have already contributed footnotes for the book – they are charming, wacky, compelling and Rushkoff has selected one hundred of his favorites for inclusion.

"Explore the universe of potential buyers. Learn how to assemble a team of expert advisors to prepare your business for sale. Walk step by step through a typical investment-banker-led midmarket sale process from start to finish."--

Righteously angry, riotously funny, and wise to the tensions between abstract policy and lived experience, Ike Holter's play Exit Strategy centers on vivid, unforgettable characters struggling to maintain faith in a vocation that is being determinedly undermined. Drawing from the headlines, Exit Strategy is set in Chicago and tells the story of a fictional public high school slated for closure at the end of the year. Despite funding cuts, bureaucrats run amok, apathy, and a rodent infestation, a small, multiracial group of teachers launch a last-minute effort to save the school, and put their careers, futures, and safety in the hands of a fast-talking administrator who may be in over his head. The tenuous situation also raises fears and anxieties among students, and within the volcanic neighborhood that is home to the school. Holter has said that Exit Strategy was inspired by the 2013 mass closure of forty-nine Chicago public schools, which displaced nearly 12,000 children—the majority of directly impacted students were African American and Latinx. Hailed as "riveting," "sharp," and "richly metaphoric" by critics, the play indicts how we educate our children in big American cities, and shows why gaps between haves and have-nots continue to grow. Exit Strategy is one of seven plays in Ike Holter's cycle of works set in Chicago or Chicago-inspired neighborhoods.

This book is for owners of closely-held companies who want to sell their businesses in the next few years. They represent only about 8% of the population in the United States, yet they employ between 60% and 70% of all USA employees.