Richtel, Matt - HOOKED

[LJ Roberts]

HOOKED (Thriller-Nate Idle-Silicon Valley, CA –Cont) - Poor Richtel, Matt – 1^st book
Twelve, 2007, US Hardcover – ISBN: 9780446580083

First Sentence: I’m guessing that the moment that you life begins to unravel is often unceremonious—heralded by a whimper.

Medical journalist Nat Idle is a sitting in a San Francisco café having a cup of coffee when his dead girlfriend hand him a note telling him to get out of the café, NOW. When he goes after her, the café explodes. Nat’s search takes him into Silicon Valley and venture capitalism.

After an exciting first chapter, the book wanders aimlessly between the present to the past. There is some humorous dialogue but next to no character development. Sense of place is more encyclopedic than evocative. Maybe because I’ve both worked in high-tech and lived in the Bay Area (above Silicon Area) for years, I expected more from this book. The plot is over-the-top implausible with very little actual suspense. Nora Roberts, in her J.D. Robb series, had a plot similar to this and I actually liked that book much better. I read this in one day, but found myself becoming increasingly bored with it and just wanted it to end. I was definitely not hooked on this book.