Y’know how sometimes you pick up a book because it looks interesting? Out doing some not-quite-last-minute shopping Sunday, I picked up PopCo by Scarlett Thomas. The cover was off-putting at first, but the description on the back seemed interesting:

Alice Butler has been recieving some pretty odd messages - all anonymous, all written in simple code, all errily vague but pointed enough to show that the sender has been watching her closely.

Are the messages from someone at PopCo - the slightly sinister, profit-hungry toy company that has herded Alice and its other top creatives out to a secluded Thought Camp? Are they from Alice’s long-disappeared, treasure-hunting father? Are they from someone who knows that her cryptanalyst grandfather left her the key to finding that treasure? Is quiet Ben, Alice’s new love, hiding something that could help her discover their source? And could it be that these codes will lead Alice to a secret even more carefully guarded then her own?

So I took a chance, bought it, and two hundred and fifty pages later I’m really glad I did. I don’t know if the author worked in the toy industry, but there’s a lot of insight on what goes into making a successful toy line … but if the author didn’t work in the espionage biz at some point, I’d be really surprised. It’s impossible to read this book and not get a crash-course in cryptology.

Toys, secret codes, could it get better? Yep. Pirates. Pirates!

So, PopCo, worth checking out.