Hooked is a conspiracy thriller with an interesting protagonist and chilling idea at its center. Ever wonder why you can't drag yourself away from your e-mail or can't put down your cell phone? As author Matt Richtel will tell you, you're hooked. Unfortunately, a confusing plot, shallow characters, and stupendous ending make the book not quite so compelling.
Nat Idle is passing time, drinking coffee in an Internet cafe, when a woman drops a note on his table as she hurries by. Seized by an impulse, he jumps up to follow her out of the cafe only to see her drive away. He looks at the note, which tells him to get out of the cafe immediately, and is sure he recognizes the deceased love-of-his-life's handwriting. The next moment, the cafe explodes, and Nat is hurled to the ground where he loses the note.
Thus begins Nat's odyssey. Not your average medical journalist, Nat had finished medical school but become disillusioned, never took his boards, and took up freelance writing. This was something his girlfriend, budding venture capitalist Annie Kindle, had liked about him, his freedom from the race to over-achieve.
Nat is obsessed with the cafe note because, even after several years, he is still in mourning for Annie. He is inundated with memories of their perfect time together as he tries to find out who the mysterious woman was who warned him out of the cafe.
Nat tracks down the lone survivor of the blast who was inside the cafe at the time, a waitress named Erin Coultran. Nat and Erin join forces and retrieve the laptop of a cafe regular and friend to Erin, on which they discover a hidden program protected by the strongest encryption. Nat and Erin try to find out the meaning of the hidden program, and things get dangerous. It becomes clear that the laptop has much greater significance than either Erin or Nat suspected, and they are not the only ones interested in it.
Article comments
1 - Jessica
I loved this book!!! I was so hooked that I couldn't put it down and read it in only a few days! The story is unpredictable and suspense keeps you turning every page!! I can't wait for his next book to be published.