Start-Up

By: Olen Steinhauer

Narrated by: Jacob York

A young man struggles to find his identity in this short story by the bestselling author of The Tourist.

Olen Steinhauer's crafty story begins as an affectionate recounting by Tom, a down-on-his-luck graduate caring for his sick mother and reconnecting with his awkward friend, Jerry McLaughlin. Jerry lives in a relative's basement in Chicago, and over the intervening months the two young men strategize Jerry's seemingly innocuous plan to become a super-villain in the spirit of Bond greats like Blofeld. Things turn dark, however, when Jerry's plans find success, and he enlists the wayward Tom to help him expand his little start-up to the next level. At turns witty and diabolical, "The Start-Up" is a fiendish take on the spy genre, as well as the dangerous friendships of Highsmith, le Carre, and others.

"Start-Up" by Olen Steinhauer is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books's Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the most legendary authors in the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and read them all!

I should have seen it coming

Animal abuse is such an obvious clue as to who the bad guys are, but I guess, since the speaker was such an incompetent, useless sort of person, it just didn't seem to register. Really, why would anyone hate grackles. They're such entertaining birds. Actually none of the human characters were up to my standards, but Steinhauer is a great author, so what the heck. Maybe he'll have the grackles win next time.