A marketing consultant, who has a psychological sensitivity to corporate symbols, is hired to seek the creators of film clips anonymously posted to the internet - before uncovering a larger conspiracy.
Cayce Pollard is a 'Cool Hunter', a consultant who uses her intuition - backed by her phobias - to advise corporates about their brand image. In her spare time she looks for 'footage', strange and evocative linked video images, that have started to appear on the Internet and gaining an underground web following.
Cayce is hired by Hubertus Bigend of Blue Ant, a hip advertising and marketing agency to find the source of the footage so that it can be exploited.
The story becomes one of conspiracy and intrigue embedded in a Gibson stew of social observation, detailed techy trivia, shadowy organisations and inherent comment on globalisation and its outcomes. Pattern Recognition has an inevitable sci-fi feel although it is very much a present day story.
