thrillers

This was my first Coben book, so I can't compare it to "Tell No One." I cannot tell you if it's a rerun of his previous plots. I can tell you that this is a superb thriller.

Part thriller, fully a mystery, "Gone for Good" starts with Will Klein's discovery that his older brother is perhaps still alive. The questions mount: How did his brother die? Was he really guilty of murdering a teenage girl? And the answers come only quick enough to lead to other questions.

When you think there are no more questions, you're wrong.

When you think you have all the answers, you're wrong.

Coben writes with a deceptively easy style. He writes with a quick pace, yet never forgets to give his characters heart. I found myself caring for these people, even feeling emotions in my throat once or twice. He paints with a broad brush, showing rage, love, pain, sorrow, twisted violence, and family concern.

If you haven't read Coben, I'm sure you'll enjoy this book as much as I did. If you're already a fan, then why'd you keep this guy secret for so long?

Harlan Coben just keeps getting better and better. In his
latest novel, Will Klein loses his mother to cancer but gets
a glimmer of hope that his supposedly dead big brother, wanted for the murder
of Will's former girlfriend, is alive. Coben weaves characters
in and out of Will's life while he tries to discover the truth
about his brother and the night he ran from a murder scene.
Coben is among the best of authors who can make the reader
feel what the character feels - we are drawn into Will's life
and muddle thru the lies and frustration in his attempt to
clear brother Ken and bring him home.
Having read all of Coben's books thus far, I was able to guess
the truth and ending but marvel at his ability to pull off
so many plot twists and surprises. Only one thing keeps me
from giving this book 5 stars - like every book he has written,
Coben's lead character is a gentle, trusting, likeable guy.
He is also a wimp. A little more testosterone next time!!!

This is the third Harlan Coben novel I've read and it is the best so far. Coben's plots have more twists and turns then a roller coaster. There is a surprise literally every few pages.

And that is the problem. Some of the surprises, many of them in fact, are simply jarring. They are clearly dramatic devices intended to move the story forward and the reader is sometimes forced to deliberately invoke their own sense of credulity.

Fortunately Coben's enough of a storyteller to involve the reader to the point of doing just that.

Coben is a powerful writer. His characters, while lacking depth and believability, are engrossing. The good folks are far and few between, the bad guys and dolls are plentiful and you simply can't be sure of where everyone stands.

The ending of "Gone for Good" is disappointing. Coben has to wrap up too many loose ends and it smacks of a 1930s movie with the detective assembling everyone in the drawing room and lecturing each suspect until revealing the perpetrator. Of course, it doesn't help that the "surprise" at the end is simply too surprising.

All that said, Coben is an immensely gifted writer who clearly has not reached his prime. He's entertaining, pulls you from page to page and is very clearly on the verge of breaking through. I'll be reading his five other novels to see if he's made it there yet.

Jerry