[4] He is the author of A Deadly Wandering, a New York Times-bestselling nonfiction narrative that intertwines the story of a car crash caused by a texting driver with a study of the science of attention.
Richtel also writes fiction and has authored several mystery/thrillers, including Dead on Arrival (William Morrow, 2017), called by the New York Times Book Review "An intellectual thrill ride that tucks searing social critique into the Trojan horse of a save-the-world page-turner."
His first book, called Hooked, is about a reporter whose life is turned upside down when he escapes a cafe explosion after a stranger hands him a note in his dead fiancée's handwriting warning him to leave.
[8] In the interview, he previewed his current investigation into the idea that "[t]here is some thought that the way kids' brains ... and frontal lobes ... are developing" differently from those of their parents and others of older generations.
[9] His most recent book released in March 2019, titled An Elegant Defense, follows the story of four individuals in a complex narrative that demonstrates the function of the immune system.