Hooked

April 2, 2007
This oddly flat thriller from first-time novelist Richtel opens with a warning in a dead girlfriend's handwriting, followed by an explosion in a San Francisco cafe. Matt Idle, who barely escapes, is perplexed by the note: his girlfriend Annie—from a very wealthy family involved in various opaque concerns—was swept off her sailboat four years ago and never seen again. Matt tracks down survivors of the blast, including waitress Erin Coultra, whose actions make Matt suspicious; when the home of aspiring novelist Simon Anderson, another survivor, catches on fire, Matt's suspicions intensify. Matt's investigations take him to Strawberry Labs, Annie's family company possibly named after Annie's childhood Labrador retriever that may be doing drug-related business. Despite intentionally short chapters à la The Da Vinci Code
, Richter (who writes the comic strip Rudy Park
under nom de plume Theron Heir) has trouble bringing Matt to life or tension to the plot—in part because of Matt's first-person flashbacks to his relationship with Annie. Richtel's trying to do a brainy update of classic noir, but falls slightly short.

June 1, 2007
This debut novel tries to combine the conspiracy thriller with Silicon Valley and doesn't quite succeed. Nat Idle still mourns the loss of his girlfriend years after her death. Sitting in a café one morning, he receives a note from a mysterious woman warning him to leave the building immediately. As Nat follows her out, the café explodes. Having lost sight of the woman in the chaotic aftermath, Nat discovers that the note is handwritten in his old love's style. Hooking up with a waitress who survived the blast, Nat decides to look for answers. Not able to trust the police or even his new partner, he must make hard choices that will force him to question his life and everything he knows. The technology discussed in the narrative proves interesting (Richtel covers technology and telecommunications for the "New York Times"), but there is not enough of it to justify the publisher's extensive marketing plans. More a quirky, character-driven story than a thriller, the novel bogs down in the sheer obviousness of the tale and lack of legitimate plot twists. A marginal purchase; Richtel writes the humorous daily comic strip "Rudy Park" under the name Theron Heir.Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

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