Hooked: A Thriller about Love and Other Addictions

Matt Richtel
Twelve (2007)
ISBN 9780446580083
Reviewed by AJ Cooper for Reader Views (06/07)


Nat Idle, medical student turned journalist, finds himself in a harrowing situation when he is knocked to the ground by a cafe exploding just after he attempted to follow a woman that had slipped him a note. Just prior to the explosion, he read the note and it had told him to leave the cafe. He searched for the note after the explosion because he could have sworn it was the writing of his long-dead girlfriend.

Nat flashes back and forth to the woman he loved dearly, Annie. He could not understand how this mysterious woman could produce a note written in a dead woman’s handwriting. He searches for an employee of the cafe, Erin, who survived the explosion to help him with the identity of the woman. At first she is reluctant and wants her own answers for another tragedy. Nat doesn’t really want to help her; he wants answers to his questions and a possible confirmation that his beloved Annie is really still alive.

The police do not really believe Nat or Erin that they had no involvement with the explosion at the cafe. They are called back numerous times and questioned how they could have possibly known to leave the cafe. Erin was in the bathroom while Nat was walking out.

Erin wants Nat to access her dead friend’s computer diary to try and figure out why his life ended with a jump off of a bridge. Nat tries to break the code for the password, but is unable and must solicit the help of a friend.

Nat and Erin follow clues and try to outwit and outrun the police while trying to discover the identity of the mystery woman. With each turn it looks like Erin may have been involved and Nat loses confidence in his newfound friend. The company that Annie worked for belongs to her father and it was responsible for some very large companies merging and developing technology prior to competing companies.

Some of the supposed surprises in the book seem very predictable. I did enjoy reading the book and feel that anyone involved with computers will find this very interesting. It does have some very good suspense storylines that I did not expect. The flashbacks helped fill in the storyline and offered insight on Nat’s perceptions, and then, later in the story, the reality of Annie’s true feelings.  “Hooked” was a quick read that I would recommend for the enjoyment of reading and for the novel storyline on addictions and computers.

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