Thomas, Scarlett. PopCo: a novel. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt, Inc., 2005 (originally published by Fourth Estate in 2004). ISBN 0-15-603137-X.

Summary: A cynical young woman with a casual knowledge of cryptography, discrete mathematics, and the construction of British-style crosswords has a job with an even more cynical multinational toy corporation, run by postmodern MBAs who believe that the keys to business success are design by lateral thinking, high-concept presentation, and hyperaggressive marketing. Along with a few dozen other comers, she is summoned to a company retreat and made to engage in brainstorming activities, some faintly plausible, others idiotic. It seems at first as though any “success” that she and her fellow hostages may have will only further the depersonalizing intrusiveness of the corporation, but gradually she discovers that some of her co-workers have a different plan.

A major sub-plot revolves around a cryptic message engraved by the protagonist's grandfather on a necklace that he gave her: 2.14488156Ex48. This turns out not to be a cryptogram, but rather a check on the correctness of the decoding of another, much more valuable document. Her reminiscences about her grandparents are developed at length through this subplot and are the most engaging and well-written parts of the novel.

The protagonist has many of the habits of thought of a science or math geek and might be mistaken for one by some readers. Her deadpan acceptance of homeopathic medicine obviously counts against this identification, though, and her misinterpretation of Gödel's incompleteness theorem (she believes that he proved that, in any axiomatic system for arithmetic, some statements are simultaneously true and false) made it impossible for me to take her mathematical credentials very seriously. Nonetheless, she is an exceptionally well-drawn and interesting character.