Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12360 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-17
• Released on: 2008-04-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Customer Reviews

Nobody care about plot credibility anymore?
Reading a Harlan Coben is a bit like eating a Kentucky Fried Chicken zinger burger; a guilty pleasure, marvellous in the anticipation; a moment of rapture and then a longer period of 'gee,. I wish I hadn't done that.'

Contrary to the gushing reviews on here, it should be pointed out that this book is rubbish! I mean, it's well-written rubbish, sickeningly addictive (back to the KFC) and read at one sitting, but as a piece of fiction, it is utter pants. The number of ludicrous co-incidences needed here; the absurd denouement, the revelation of who is behind all the mayhem - sort of. All of it is nonsense. It's Footballer's wives type nonsense, so bad it's funny.

We have two major crimes - one drugs, the other a really bizarre set of murders - affecting a very small and interwoven group of very rich residents of Newark; both crimes involve serious criminals - including a psychopathic killer. So far, so silly, I mean what are the chances of this two things happening to the same people at the same time, but then it just keeps getting worse. The psycho is killing people for the most ridiculous reason. I got to that bit of plot explanation and just giggled.

Coben has a tendency to over-twist, but this is not that sophisticated. It's just bad; inconsistent and, in it's deification of rather obnoxious, wealthy, middle-class parents who do fairly revolting things, a bit creepy. (But heh, the main guy - heart surgeon - loves his sports.)

However lots of people on a British sales site are giving it five stars. Harlan can keep raking in the cash, writing this tripe when he has a spare day or two (it's a short book with lots of very short paragraphs) and putting recommendation after recommendation on the covers of other people's books that lack even his admittedly breathless style.

I'll read the next one probably because everyone likes a KFC from time to time don't they? But patience with Coben, in my case, is at breaking point. He's never written strong plots, but this takes things from 'not strong' to downright terrible.

Good book let down by the ending
I don't want to spoil the end so can't say too much, but suffice to say this is a gripping and multi layered book until about two thirds of the way through when there is a huge plot hole which makes the ending just too trite and obvious. I get the impression that Coben has got himself onto a treadmill that means that good ideas (and the basic premise of this book is excellent)are just not explored sufficiently and he ends up having to rush us into a satisfying conclusion to meet a publication deadline. If he is happy to churn books out like this then fine, but I would like to think he has a bit more about him, and has enough prestige within the industry to get off said treadmill and take a bit of time to craft a more satisfying piece of work which with his talents should be eminently possible.

Having said all that I still got through it in just about one hit so it is a page turner all right, just not as good as previous works.

Has done better......
Having been fortunate enough to stumble across Harlan Coben a number of years ago, I have enjoyed every single one of his books, whether the standalone stories or the Myron Bolitar series. He has a comfortable way of creating atmosphere, characters and settings, yet is never too far away from smashing that with some form of brutal act of unexpected twist. There is also a pace to his stories that tends to keep you sucked in from start to finish.

This, therefore, is a good example of that pace and has a number of the twists and turns that grab. However in this case, they seem to rather too trite and some rather fortunate occurences, not least of which is someone rather fortuitously being recognised off some CCTV that just happens to have become available which effectively brings the whole ensemble to a conclusion. Too many close coincidences, too many secrets from the past shared out amongst people who are all neighbours means that I found this to be a little too hurriedly put together compared to virtually all of his other books. It is however a compelling read and I support much of the comments that have given more starts; I do not share their shade of rose tinted specs however!