thrillers

Harlan Coben, No Second Chance (Dutton, 2003)

Harlan Coben checks in with his ninth novel, No Second Chance. With all the publicity surrounding his last novel, Coben has become something of a household name in the Internet comunity, but the larger non-hardcore-mystery-reading book community has probably never heard the name. I'd like to say that No Second Chance will be the book that will change all that, but it probably won't. Not to say it isn't a good, solid read.

Marc Seidman, his wife Monica, and their six month old daughter Tara live in New Jersey, not far from New York City. They are not the perfect family, but they get along, like most families do. That is, until one night when Marc is standing at the kitchen sink eating a granola bar and takes two shots. He wakes up twelve days later in the ICU, his bedside flanked with a nurse and a police detective. From the two of them, he learns that his wife is dead, his daughter is missing, and he's been unconscious and presumed a vegetable for the past twelve days. Faced with the knowledge that most kidnapping cases turn very, very cold when the child's been missing for over seventy-two hours, Seidman and his best friend and lawyer, Lenny, set about trying to accomplish the impossible: finding his daughter.

First, the good things about this book. It's an easy read and a compelling one; the kind of book that will lure you in for an hour or two without you realizing any time has passed. The plot is well-done and intricate, and Coben keeps the pages turning nicely with plot twist after plot twist. Just when I thought I had it figured out, it turned tail and went flying in another direction; always a good thing in a mystery novel. And in genre fiction of this stripe, that's usually the most important thing; it is here.

The bad things about it are, in most cases, minor niggles rather than major disasters. The characters seem well drawn enough, but there's something missing from them; they're not as complex as they could be. Seidman's father-in-law, Edgar Portman, is just a little too evil; Lenny plays the sidekick role just a bit too well, etc. They're not exactly stereotypes, but they're only one step removed. This shouldn't be a problem for any Mickey Spillane fans in the audience. Also, Seidman plays the wiseass just a bit too much, as if he were a combination of Spenser and Mike Hammer with a practice in reconstructive surgery on the side. Sometimes, this is a good thing. Coben has an eye for quotidian detail that many other mystery writers leave out; Seidman and others in the novel from whom we see points of view have a knack for describing the kinds of things most of ues see out of the corners of their eyes and quickly forget, giving many scenes an astonishing level of realism. On the other hand, when you've read enough pages of Marc Seidman, he can get exasperating. One of the book's villians tells Seidman during a phone conversation that the villian has noticed Seidman has a tendency to get cute when he's tangling with the opposition. This is all too true, and after a while it can frustrate even the most dedicated person rooting for the underdog. Also, Coben falls into the "we need pages of explanation at the end for the reader" trap that really annoys me.

That said, those are certainly not reasons not to give this one a good going-over once it's released. If you've never tried Coben, this makes as good a starting point as any.

I had heard alot about Harlan Coben, but No Second Chance was my first read, and now I feel foolish for waiting so long. I wish I could divulge some plot elements, for they are brilliant, but let me say simply that this book has a fantastically constructed serpentine plot. Reminds me of being on Space Mountain, a great roller coaster where you always think you know the next exciting twist and turn, never do, and then wonder of course why didnt I think of that.

Dr. Marc Seidman, Coben's lead character, is a good guy with just enough hint of darkness to make him interesting. And the characters surrounding him all seem to be hiding some deep dark secret, though discerning which do and what they are is part of what makes this novel a great read. And I also like Coben's eye for detail and description-it is at the same time vivid yet well researched and accurate. One can actually painlessly learn something from a Harlan Coben book.

This was the best money Ive spent in a long time, and now Im off to order the rest of Coben's book. Read it, you won't regret it. Yeah Harlan!!

This book is a real page turner. Just to wait up from a coma, only to find that you are the prime suspect of the murdered of your wife and possibly of you own child can be dramatic and tramatic. It takes a person that can stand the heat to try and get out of this. I really enjoyed this book. It had action and
drama.

I will be reading Just One Look very soon.
Love this book!!!!!!!