Product Description

On October 17, eleven years ago, Julie Miller was found brutally strangled in the basement of her house in the township of Livingston, New Jersey. On that day, Will's brother, Ken Klein, became the subject of an international manhunt accused of the crime. He has not been seen since. Will has tried to get on with his life in the intervening years. He has a beautiful new girlfriend, Sheila, and a job working with the homeless. But when his mother reveals on her deathbed that Ken is still alive, and shortly afterwards Sheila disappears, the cracks start to show in his landscape again. But it is only when he finds that Sheila herself is wanted for a savage double-murder that his life actually starts to fall apart...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5691 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-06
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Synopsis
On October 17, eleven years ago, Julie Miller was found brutally strangled in the basement of her house in the township of Livingston, New Jersey. On that day, Will's brother, Ken Klein, became the subject of an international manhunt accused of the crime. He has not been seen since. Will has tried to get on with his life in the intervening years. He has a beautiful new girlfriend, Sheila, and a job working with the homeless. But when his mother reveals on her deathbed that Ken is still alive, and shortly afterwards Sheila disappears, the cracks start to show in his landscape again. But it is only when he finds that Sheila herself is wanted for a savage double-murder that his life actually starts to fall apart...

About the Author
Harlan Coben was the first ever author to win all three major crime awards in the US, and has established a best-selling series of crime novels starring his powerful creation, Myron Bolitar. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and four children.

Customer Reviews

Same Same Same
I wrote in my review of Harlan Coben's previous novel, Tell No One, that I found it a little too similar to his earlier Myron Bolitar offerings, and that the characters in those books had just been renamed and/or reworked for his first attempt at not writing about Myron. For his second attempt here, nothing much has changed. Myron, Win etc have not Gone For Good at all. Here they are again in yet another disguise. Will is Myron, Squares is Win, Pistillo is Dimonte, even Hester Crimstein herself puts in an (albeit brief) appearance.

An earlier reviewer wrote about the Hollywood third act, and he is spot on. In Tell No One, the final-page revelation was, for me, anything but (I'd guessed it near the start), and the same is true here. I was not at all surprised by the truth when it all came out in the final couple of chapters and, once that truth had been established, the epilogue was just too obvious.

As in my previous review, I don't want to criticise TOO much, because Coben IS rather good at what he does. The trouble is, he doesn't do too much! Having bought a pack of ten Coben novels from a rival online book seller, I'm going to see them through and read the final two (No Second Chance and Just One Look), in the hope that one or other of them will provide me with something a little different from the formula. Sadly though, having read the back cover précis of each of them, I suspect not.

How's Your Third Act?
There's an old saying among scriptwriters in Hollywood - "How's your third act?" It acknowledges (and this applies to novels too, especially thrillers) that setting up an intriguing, page-turning situation is one thing. Resolving it in a convincing way is another entirely.
This is perfectly illustrated in Harlan Coben's "Gone For Good." He creates the intriguing opening all right (he nearly always does). It's just that in justifying it, he has to resort to the heaviest, most convoluted and implausible exposition imaginable.
I was prepared to accept this in "Tell No One." Not this time. Over the final chapters, when I was meant to be nail-biting, Im afraid I was laughing out loud.

Almost 400 pages of pure adrenalin!
This was my first Harlan Coben book and I loved it!

The opening chapter begins with Will's mother, Sunny, on her death bed, whispering something incredible about her other son, Ken, who had vanished into thin air 11 years earlier after the brutal murder of their neighbour Julie (who had also been, in the past, Will's much loved girlfriend). Ken had been accused of the murder but Will had always believed in his innocence, despite the evidence against him.
After the funeral, something totally unexpected turnes up in Sunny's bedroom. This starts off a series of mind-boggling events. The tension starts building up immediately, escalating up to the very last page, with twists & turns at every corner.

I liked ALL the characters, no exceptions, well depicted and very credible indeed. Will's and his friend Square's jobs, in particular, working and volunteering for a charity house trying to save young teenagers from the dangers of street life, is well described and conveys the care, understanding and efforts these persons put into their line of work (and not just in fiction). Although pertinent to some of the events, the story is not, however, solely centered on their work at the charity. There's so much more! A real page-turner, where narrative, events and dialogues are fast paced, plausible and convincing.

Just the kind of thriller book I like, where, in the end, every little detail is taken care of, every question is answered to and you are left without any lingering doubts. Great!