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Fools Club tells the story of two stepbrothers — Colin Schaefer, the all-American golden boy, and Jacob Miller, the introverted genius — who together made a fortune with an internet startup and then lost it all in the stock market crash. Now Colin has moved on from the implosion of their company, Defiance Corporation. He has the perfect wife, the perfect Palo Alto mansion, the perfect daughter, and he looks to be the perfect candidate for California's U.S. Senate seat — especially now that the U.S. Attorney has announced his decision not to bring securities fraud charges against him. But failure has hit Jacob hard. He has drifted from job to job, floundering in his attempts to start a new company.
The story unfolds over a weekend in December. As Colin meets with his campaign manager, Jacob is getting together with the Fools Club, a bitter and eccentric foursome of former employees who go drinking each month. Membership requirements are depressingly simple. Each Fool must have held a minimum of $10 million in Defiance stock — and never have sold a single share. Jacob, once worth over a billion dollars, holds the dubious title of King of the Fools. What begins as an innocent night of drinking quickly turns ugly. Convinced that Colin embezzled millions and destroyed the company, the outraged and drunken Fools decide a prank is in order. After egging Colin's mansion with a MacGyveresque high-tech slingshot, they sneak inside, where they stumble upon a secret ledger that documents Colin's embezzlement scheme that siphoned off over a $100 million from Defiance. The Fools want to turn it over to the U.S. Attorney, but Jacob still can't bring himself to hurt Colin.
These two stepbrothers suddenly find themselves locked in a dangerous struggle in which all the tensions and jealousies from their childhood will play out. For Colin, everything is on the line. Until now, all of his dreams have come true. But overnight, with the loss of the ledger, his carefully crafted life is on the verge of unraveling. He will stop at nothing — including hiring a professional killer — to keep his dreams alive. Ultimately, Colin's ruthlessness spirals out of control and Jacob becomes the target. To survive, Jacob must overcome his deepest fears, stand up to the one person he had always idolized, and discover strengths he never knew he had. And to triumph, he must enlist the help of the Fools Club.
