Last Night in San Francisco: Tech’s Lost Promise and the Killing of Bob Lee

Journalist Lucas debuts with a bracing work of true crime. CashApp developer Bob Lee (1979–2023) was known to his friends and colleagues as “Crazy Bob,” an indefatigable worker and partier who also managed to be a devoted husband and father. That reputation had waned somewhat by April 2023, when a divorced Lee was stabbed to death underneath the Bay Bridge in the early morning hours. Local news and social media exploded with speculation that spun the tragedy as an indicator of San Francisco’s supposed descent into anarchy, but evidence soon emerged that the culprit was a man named Nima Momeni—a fellow techie who knew Lee personally. In addition to unpacking Momeni’s motives, which involved a relationship between Lee and his sister, Lucas paints a wry portrait of the Golden City (“You can walk past the Zodiac killer and not even know it—they never caught him”) and dives deep into the struggles with drugs like cocaine and ketamine that Bob and his ilk had. The resulting narrative is rigorously reported, well written, and difficult to put down. It’s a memorable depiction of the seamy side of Silicon Valley. Agent: Mark Tauber, Watermark. (Aug.)