The Stranger by Harlan Coben

The Stranger is Harlan Coben’s latest stand-alone mystery, thriller.  Adam and Corinne Price are a reasonably happy couple in small town Cedarfield, New Jersey.  Adam is a property rights lawyer and Corinne is a school teacher and ‘soccer mom’.  Their two sons are avid lacrosse players who both play on travel teams.  One day while at a lacrosse club organizational meeting, a stranger approaches Adam and tells him his wife has been lying to him.  This sets off a chain of events that change the Price family forever.

The stranger tells Adam that Corinne had not had a miscarriage two years earlier as he thought but that she had faked a pregnancy.  The stranger directs Adam to a website offering fake pregnancy paraphernalia for sale.  Adam checks their credit card receipts and finds that Corinne had indeed purchased sonograms, fake pregnancy tests, and a baby bump, all as novelty items.  When Adam confronts Corinne with his suspicions, she says she needs time to explain and disappears leaving only a text saying she will return in a few days.

Adam takes Corinne at her word and tells their sons that Mom is away on a retreat.  But their oldest son, Thomas tracks her cell phone and finds out it was last pinged in Pittsburg.  Adam knew of no reason for Corinne to visit Pittsburg.  Then the local police chief and officers of the boys’ lacrosse team pay Adam a visit looking for Corinne.  They suspect her of embezzling money from the team’s coffers in her role as treasurer.

Meanwhile, without Adam’s knowledge, the stranger strikes again… this time in Cleveland.  He tells a wealthy suburban housewife that her daughter currently attending NYU is involved in an escort service.  The woman is murdered in her home the following day after speaking with her daughter.  The stranger continues his spree of outing secrets of loved ones but sometimes he blackmails the secret holder instead… no apparent pattern.

Adam grows impatient awaiting Corinne’s return and starts to investigate.  He’s reluctant to go to the police because he fears he would become the prime suspect.  With the help of a former client adept in cyber sleuthing, the stranger and several co-conspirators are identified.  Adam then connects the stranger and his posse to the dead woman in Cleveland.  But it makes no sense… why kill the affected party after the sensitive information is revealed?  Could Corinne be dead too?  Is his life in jeopardy as well?  Is his wife involved with something much more notorious and complex than a fake pregnancy?

In The Stranger, Coben does a great job of slowing revealing the story and thus stimulating your imagination and building suspense.  But for me as in most Harlan Coben novels, he brushes up against the plausibility line a little too closely.  His characters don’t quite react the way you’d expect or wish they had.  It’s like he throws in one too many twists.  The ending lacks closure and leaves you somewhat disappointed.  It seems this has become Coben’s trademark… keep them guessing, never conclude as expected.  But then, that’s what bestselling authors do.   

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.

Fade Away by Harlan Coben

Both East Coast Don and Midwest Dave have previously reviewed books by Harlan Coben with mixed reviews, some laudatory, some just average, but I thought I’d join the parade and check him out. He’s written at least 25 novels since 1995. Fade Away is a 1996 book and the third in his Myron Bolitar series which now numbers 10 books. Fade Away won both the Edgar and Shamus awards in 1997. Bolitar is an appealing character, a former high school and college basketball star who became a first round draft choice of the Boston Celtics. But, Bolitar suffered a severe knee injury during a pre-season game and never got to play a regular season NBA game. He wasted no time going to Harvard Law School and becoming a successful players’ agent. While his knee had mostly recovered after a couple years of dedicated rehabilitation, his playing was now limited to low-level weekly pickup games, until unexpectedly, the owner of the New Jersey Dragons offered him a contract. The story was that his long-time high school and college basketball foe, Greg Downing, had disappeared. Downing, one of two superstars on the Dragons, had also been a first round pick, but he had gone on to NBA greatness. Bolitar and Downing had more in common, including Downing’s wife, who had been Bolitar’s girlfriend until they broke up shortly before the career-ending injury. The owner of the Dragons thought Bolitar was just the right guy to find Downing, and since some intrigue among the Dragon teammates in Downing’s disappearance was possible, it was thought Bolitar’s best chance to find Downing would to be on the inside, as a player.

The reader gets to work his way through the crime novel which has lots of twists and false leads. There are complimentary subplots and enough sex and violence to satisfy the average fan of crime novels. Also, there are some well-written sections on Bolitar’s thoughts and feelings about the game, from his thoughts about what might have been to the nature of the characters who were playing. Overall, I’d rate this book as a classic airplane book – one that would entertain you on a cross country flight, but not one that would interfere with a nap or break your heart if you left it unfinished on the plane. It’s a B to B+ read. I’ll probably try another Coben book, but I have a reading queue right now that is fairly long and does not include another one of his. Maybe it’s hit and miss with Coben, which is why I chose one of his award winning books, so I’m disappointed I did not have a more favorable response.

Six Years by Harlan Coben

Six Years is a diversion from Harlan Coben’s usual formula.  In this stand alone thriller we meet Jake Fisher, a successful professor in a small prestigious New England college.  Six years earlier, Jake had a three month fling with Natalie Avery at a small town retreat several miles from the campus.  He thought he had found his soul mate when suddenly she ends their relationship and announces she is marrying her childhood sweetheart, Todd Sanderson.  She makes Jake promise to never contact them again.

Then six years later Jake sees the obituary of Todd Sanderson on the college website.  Still in love with Natalie, he decides to break his promise and attend Sanderson’s funeral in South Carolina.  Jake learns that Sanderson was brutally murdered and is stunned to find the dead man’s grieving wife is not Natalie.

Jake’s desire to find Natalie turns into an obsession.  He soon learns that Natalie has reason to be hidden and protected from a danger that Jake stumbles across.  He is beaten, kidnapped and shot in an effort to make him reveal Natalie’s whereabouts, something he does not know.  The deeper he digs the more he uncovers clues, secrets and betrayals that put him and Natalie deeper in danger.  Yet all the warnings serve to strengthen his perseverance to find the only woman he has ever loved and to try and save her life.

In Six Years, Coben is at his best, writing a suspense thriller with a creative, complex and compelling plotline. Yet the premise is simple, an ordinary man taking extraordinary measures…the classic definition of a hero.  Coben reveals layer after layer of mystery and intrigue, methodically exposing new information and tying it all together into a believable package…well done.

Just One Look by Harlen Coben

Ordinary day. Grace Lawson drops his kids at school, picks up some art supplies and some pics from a roll of film she dropped off last week. While sitting at a stoplight, she notices a photo of 5 college students from a recent era. She shows the pic to her husband; he sure looks like one of the people in the photo. He looks, makes a call a bit later, walks out the door and disappears.

An assistant US attorney is told the death of his sister in a fire wasn't an accident. The police aren't much help, and a guy skilled at killing with his hands just got out of the joint. A lady whose kids attend the same school has a hobby - flashing her accountant neighbor - but one day sees a stranger ducking out of the accountant's house. And there must be 3 or 4 more strange coincidences that all happen when Grace gets this picture.

About 15 years ago, Grace attended the concert of rocker Johnny X. Gunshots were fired and the resulting stampeded, the so-called Boston Massacre, killed 15 people and left Grace with a huge concussion and a limp. About 2 weeks of Grace's life were summarily erased that night.

Grace doggedly pursues minor clues that eventually seem to tie the disconnected deaths together. But, to rob a line from Lee Corso from GameDay on ESPN, "Not so fast.' Coben does one of the more jaw dropping reveals in the very last couple pages, none of which were expected. Holy cow did most of the reveal come from out of nowhere even if he had been dropping hints for over 300 pages.

And that's what will keep me coming back to more Coben. Can you say Power Rotation? I sure can.

East Coast Don

Long Lost by Harlan Coben

Remember The Boys From Brazil? That 1970s-ish movie with Olivier and Peck about Nazi attempts at cloning to keep Der Furher’s lineage going? This book reminded me of that story . . . sort of.

An old flame of our hero, Myron Bolitar calls from out of the blue asking him to come to Paris because she is desperate for help. Of course, he hops a plane in time for the two of them to find her ex dead and his blood is mixed with blood of . . . a daughter of theirs. Now the problem is that their daughter died in a car wreck in the UK about 10 years earlier.

Thus begins the search to find out about: a) the night of the accident, b) a devious terrorist whose motto is “patience and the sword with kill the sinners”, c) a NYC fertility clinic, and d) a pro life society.

Our hero actually manages to kill said devious terrorist to which the FBI (or the CIA? Interpol? The implausible plot police?) snatches them both and takes claim for killing the nut to protect Myon and his old girlfriend, Therese from the surviving terrorists taking out a jihad on our boy.

Myron has a college chum, Win (that’s short for Windsor Horne Lockwood III) who always seems to have a connection when a clue is needed to push the plot along. Win is not only quick witted, he also is an expert shot and has connections E V E R Y W H E R E. So, needing a clue to move the plot along, Win comes across a clue for Myon and Therese and points them first toward a place in Manhattan, then what appears to be a B&B in rural NYC, and then too many more to mention.

What they find is almost beyond comprehension. Let’s see; Theresa and hubby couldn’t get pregnant and went to this in-vitro fertilization. One took, but dozens of ovum and embryos were kept and stored by our mystery terrorist (he was educated in Europe, med school in the states, fellowship in, guess where” Same city as the pro life group…this guy embezzled people’s embryos and implanted them in surrogate moms who were incubators for the future jihadis that all looked like an awful lot like Therese – thus the opening reference.

I finished the book, but I can’t say I was overwhelmed. This seemed almost formulaic: Myron was a basketball stud (basketball + stud named Myron?) who went to Duke (!!!!!) to play basketball, get drafted first round by the Celtics (naturally) only to blow his knee out in training and now is a wealthy (of course) sports agent . . . long time friend of his Dookie buddy Win, the New England preppie with more money than sense and his legion of foreign friends . . . and Terese of the Class B felony bikini and a world –class derriere… hard ass FBI-types always shows up whenever they feels like.

Now I like good escape, but this one just seemed to step outside the boundary of believability. Each clue seemed to show up at the best time. Myron is tall, extraordinarily handsome,

Enough already. This book was pure summer beach read escape and it is a very quick read. Also reminded me of the books of Stuart Woods. It just doesn’t really take one very far and really doesn’t explore any new ground. While I may try another Coben, I really doubt that the Max Bolitar series will catch my interest enough for any form of consideration for my power list. Coben has a few standalone novels and my next book of his will probably be one of those.

Each Coast Don

Live Wire by Harlan Coben

I’ve read a lot of Harlan Coben. He’s the author I pick when I can’t find one of my favorites to read. Reading Live Wire reminded me again why he is not on my favorites list. Coben has been writing about his lead character, Myron Bolitar since 1995. Myron grew up in a blue collar New Jersey town, won a basketball scholarship to Duke, became an all American, was drafted by the Celtics, then blew out his knee before he could play his first professional game. He then opens a sports agency in New York representing basketball and tennis players primarily but somewhere along the line accepts musical clients as well. Myron’s best friend and owner of the building where Myron’s agency resides is Windsor Horne Lockwood III (aka Win). Win inherited a fortune but is proficient at financially advising Myron’s clients as well as beating the crap out of anyone who crosses Myron. Myron is known for protecting and nurturing his clients with a passion so Win is called to the rescue quite frequently.

In Live Wire Myron’s clients are Suzze Trevantino, a former tennis star and Lex Ryder, an aging rock star who are married to one another. Suzze is pregnant with their first child and an anonymous post on her Face book page, “Not His” brings her to Myron. With her sorted ‘party with the rock stars’ past, Suzze is afraid Lex will leave her and calls upon Myron to intervene. While looking for Lex in a NYC nightclub, Myron spots his sister-in-law, Kitty who is also a former tennis star, client, and drug addict. Myron has not seen her or his brother, Brad in 15 years since his attempts to break up Brad’s relationship with Kitty resulted in his estrangement from the couple. Myron finds that Brad is missing, Kitty is back on heroin, and Myron has a 15 year old nephew he’s never met. Myron’s attempt to help his clients and find his brother uncovers secrets from the past that involve the mob, deceit, extortion and murder. Win’s flair for violence and disrespect for legalities place him square in the middle of helping Myron uncover secrets and right old wrongs.

I like a good mystery with multiple twists and turns that leads you astray and surprises you in the end. Live Wire does that. I guess I just don’t find Coben’s characters real somehow. For example, what independently wealthy thirty something guy do you know that enjoys stirring up the mob for the sport of it? Several of Coben’s characters have this ‘who does that?’ quality. But I’ll probably pick Coben again when none of my favorites are on the shelf.