Missing You by Harlan Coben

Kat Donovan is a seasoned NYPD detective whose life lacks closure on two fronts.  Eighteen years ago her father, also a NY policeman, was murdered.  A mob hit man confessed to the murder but Kat has never believed the confession was valid.  She thinks the hit man was instructed to take the fall.  At about the same time as her father’s murder, Kat’s boyfriend and love of her life, Jeff says goodbye and disappears.  Both these events have left Kat wondering for nearly half her life, what really happened.

Kat’s best friend, Stacy encourages Kat to move on by signing her up for an online dating service.  Searching for Mr. Right, Kat finds a picture of her ex-boyfriend Jeff with a different name.  She tries to connect with him but gets rejected… again.  Meanwhile back at the precinct, Brandon, a college student from Connecticut contacts her about his missing mother.  Coincidently, the mother had signed up to the same online dating service as Kat and has disappeared and transferred a large sum of money to a numbered account in a Swiss Bank.  The son approaches Kat because the local Connecticut cops could not prove criminal activity and therefore dismiss the kid.  Brandon reveals that he hacked into the dating service’s website and found Kat’s name, profile and occupation.  He also found conversations among other clients suggesting foul play.  Kat reluctantly follows the illegally attained clues but is intrigued as each clue seems to lead toward conquering the demons in her own life.

I thought this was one of Coben’s better novels… I’ve read several.  He is gifted at building the suspense, inserting many twists and turns, and tying it all together in the end.  However, I most always find his plot a little too contrived… the events too coincidental.  Missing You is no different.  Finding an ex-boyfriend on an online dating service after 18 years under a different name? …hum.  The feeling of, ‘Really? How can that happen?’ just ruins the experience for me.  I become focused on the bizarre coincidence or seemingly manufactured event and that destroys the effect of what is otherwise good writing.  I hate it when that happens.  Airplane book-yes, power rotation-no.