>THE ULTIMATE RUSH by Joe Quirk
MEET CHET GRIFFIN, A TWENTYSOME-thing San Francisco slacker who can't remember ever having $1,000 at one time and who ekes out a living delivering packages on Rollerblades to fund his computer hacking habit.
Griffin is the unlikely hero of this gen-X thriller, a fine debut novel. Aptly-named author Joe Quirk, a 32-year-old former nanny and daycare worker, invests his lively tale of Chinese gangs, stock market deceit and murder with a jolly, breakneck style and a fine grasp of skater attitude. Check out some chapter titles, dude: "Hack," "Sell-out," "Tunes," "Uh-oh," "Rip," "Pissed Chick" and "Busted." Or take in Griffin's blue-haired girlfriend, Ho. Hey, skank, make a joke about her do, and she'll brain you with her skateboard. Though the plentiful action sometimes resembles a berserk computer game, Rush has wheels, er, legs. (Rob Weisbach Books/Morrow, $23)
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