Task Lyst

by Scott Hylbert

Overview

Elliott is a struggling musician who is trying to piece together enough cash every month to keep his dream of performing alive while also paying his rent. That’s when he discovered the new app TASK LYST. As a service provider, he sets his own hours, his funds are delivered covertly in bitcoin and the rates continue to grow…but so does his suspicion over the type of tasks that he is being asked to complete. Is the anonymous nature of app-based freelance work enough to abate Elliott’s suspicions…and conscience?

Meanwhile, the glossy new Task Lyst corporation is looking for start-up capital and perhaps an extra way to make the app profitable, by assisting the government in spying on users. Alice Seeger is a smart and beautiful executive who once had a promising future in Silicon Valley, but a few bad investments have put her on the edge of being fired and saddled with a lifestyle that she can no longer afford. At first glance, Task Lyst seemed like an app to pass on…until she discovers it’s dark underbelly which makes it more appealing financially while also being an enormous legal liability. She must test her own professional judgment against her morals in determining at what price she finds her own success.

This gig-economy thriller takes a look at the on-demand service industry, and it’s shady possibilities. Apps have become all-encompassing in our fast-paced modern lives and their utility is undeniable. In this gripping thriller, we follow the many sides, shades and shadows of the app economy and test the question: how far is too far?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684423187
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	07/16/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Scott Hylbert spent most of his youth surfing in San Diego before attending Denison University in Ohio to play soccer. Amidst a stalled-career as a rock-n-roller in San Francisco, he packaged spring break tours and ski trips for students before finding a niche in the alternative newsweekly business. There, he sold advertising to concert promoters and record companies for over a decade before enrolling in a masters program at Vanderbilt University while continuing to work and raise two kids. With a focus on creative writing, he pursued a career-long goal to pivot from the marketing side of the media business to the editorial. Recently, with his photographer wife Ashley, he opened a rental photography studio and boutique event space in Nashville called White Avenue Studio.

Interviews

"The compelling plot of TASK LYST leads one to assume, not the future of, but rather the presence, of mankind’s New Dark Age." —Joe Henry, author of Lime Creek

Editorial Reviews

05/13/2019

In Hylbert’s intriguing and timely debut, the premise of Task Lyst, a new internet app, seems straightforward: jobs—such as dog walking—are offered in exchange for payment in either cash or bitcoin. All transactions can be carried out anonymously, if either party so desires. Elliott Temple, a musician who’s barely making ends meet, takes to the new app with gusto, even when the jobs he accepts start bordering on illegality. Alice Seegar, senior associate of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, is analyzing the potential of Task Lyst with an eye to taking the app to an international level. Tim Middleton lands a job as project manager for the new venture. All three are willing to put aside their initial doubts about the moral and criminal implications the app displays in exchange for substantial monetary gain—until a Task Lyst user kills a Russian dissident. The frequent song references, notably to the works of Bob Dylan and Jerry Garcia, will keep music lovers of a certain age humming along. Hylbert sheds light on the problem of internet privacy while astutely capturing the details that define the lifestyle of the too rich and yet still greedy. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"The compelling plot of TASK LYST leads one to assume, not the future of, but rather the presence, of mankind’s New Dark Age." —Joe Henry, author of Lime Creek

"Intriguing and timely debut..." —Publishers Weekly

“In a thriller start to finish, Hylbert steps up and buries this shot into the net. Task Lyst is a film or binge-watching series in the making.” – James Frey, best-selling author of Million Little Pieces and Katerina

“Task Lyst is a novel of and for our times.”—Dr. John A McCarthy, Professor of German & Comparative Literature emeritus, author of Remapping Reality: Chaos and Creativity in Science and Literature

“The genius of Hylbert’s novel is that its narrative hews so shrewdly to the real and perceived dangers of the online gig economy” – The Nashville Scene

From the Publisher