Harlan Coben's Win

Harlan Coben's runaway success was with the Myron Bolitar Series, which first came out in the mid-nineties. Myron Bolitar, the handsome former Basket Ball Player and superstar sports agent, is now 11 books old. Bolitar's partner and accomplice, Windsor Horne Lockwood III, the eccentric, philandering Millionaire, gets his first stand-alone Novel in Win.

On Newyork's Upper West Side, a hermit is found murdered. The investigating officers have yet to find his identity,but Windor Horne Lockwood (Win) is called to the crime scene, as some of the articles the victim left behind seem to have a personal connection with him. Pretty soon, Win figures out that the crime has a connection with not only him but also his cousin, Patricia. With so much at stake, including his family's reputation and personal fortune, Win decides to solve the mystery in this fast-paced thriller.

True to his style, Coben has delivered a solid thriller with Win. The plot twists keep coming at regular intervals, and there is never a dull moment in this 400+ page long Novel. The fans of the Myron Bolitar series will definitely enjoy reading more about their favorite sidekick's adventures. Those who regularly follow the series might recall that Windsor Lockwood III has always been an anti-hero who doesn't hesitate to give a punch, even at the cost of being politically incorrect. Full credit goes to the writer for not diluting his character trait to make him a bit more likable, as he is the protagonist here. You get Win, as he is! In the intro sequence (with that terrific scene at Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium), Coben establishes his protagonist and his ways with great success.

As mentioned before, this one is a genuine page-turner, and as the secrets of the Windsor Family are revealed one by one, the reader is also aghast along with Win. The climax is also brilliantly done with all the loose ends getting tied up. The supporting characters in the Novel are also etched out well.

On the downside, the pace slackens towards the middle of the story, and some cliffhangers didn't work that well for me.

On the whole, this one is a paisa vasool thriller which is racy and entertaining.

-nikhimenon

 

Ultra Short Review: Harlan Coben's 'Missing You'

 ‘Missing You’ is a stand alone Novel by Harlan Coben which first came out almost eight years back. The protagonist, Kat Donovan is a forty something NYPD detective who has a past. She had to call off her engagement with Jeff, the love of her life almost eighteen years back. Now, she stumbles across his profile in an online dating site only to find out that he is no longer interested in her.

In a parallel track, in the quest to find out the truth behind her father’s homicide, she gets to know that someone very close to her might have had a role to play in his death. As she is battling her own demons, she gets a call from a troubled teenager asking for help. His mother has suddenly disappeared with a man whom he thinks is a scamster. How Kat finds out the mystery behind all these seemingly disconnected events and how it impscts her otherwise troubled life is all this book is about.

Like Coben’s other stand alone works, Missing You is also an absolute page turner. There are twists happening at regular intervals and the moment you think that you have figured it out all, the master story teller pulls the rug from under your feet. The characters are real and relatable and I liked the gentle references to Windsor Lockwood somewhere in the narrative. Kat Donovan is a likeable character and her ambitions and apprehensions feels genuine. The track involving the scamsters was also decently done.

On the whole, Missing You is an intriguing thriller.  

-nikhimenon

Mini Book Review: the Woods by Harlan Coben

 

Harlan Coben is one writer who comes to my rescue whenever I face some reader’s block. So far, his books have been safe bets for me; fast-paced and entertaining! So, when I picked up his 2007 stand-alone thriller (which has also been made as a Netflix series), ‘The Woods,’ I was expecting nothing short of a paisa vasool racy thriller. Did it succeed in entertaining me? Well, read on.

Paul Copeland is a Public Attorney. Almost two decades back, four teenagers and his sister went missing in the woods of a Summer Camp. Paul is raising his daughter alone after the death of his wife. But then a body is found, and the well-buried secrets of the past come back haunting. Is the victim that of the man as claimed by the Police, or has it got something to do with Paul’s history?

At 450+ pages, this one is quite a lengthy read. Though there are many characters, none except the protagonist Paul and his old flame, Lucy, register. A couple of sub-plots involving Paul’s family(his dead wife, sister-in-law, and parents) and KGB (it might have been relevant when this book was first released almost two decades back, though!) are there, which are speed breakers at best!

I was disappointed with this novel by Harlan Coben. Agreed, this is one of his earlier stand-alone works(and a best-seller at the time of its release), and he has since churned out reasonably pacy and twisty thrillers. But to be very frank, this one falls way off the mark, be it in the thrill quotient or the pacing. The book has pacing issues. After a reasonably good start, the plot drags on and on with avoidable scenes and boring dialogues. The subplot around the court trial was interesting initially, but it turned pointless and bland after a point. The innumerable characters in the form of Lorraine and Raya Singh didn’t serve much of a purpose rather than adding pages and pages of dull prose to the narrative.

The novel does pick up pace towards the end with a couple of decent twists and reveals, but by then, I almost got exhausted and stopped caring about what was going on!

On the whole, I am giving a 2.5 out of 5 for this one!

 -nikhimenon

Harlan Coben's Stay Close

 

Whenever I suffer from reader's block or (even writer's block, for that matter), I turn to Harlan Coben! All these years and with so many books under his credit, Coben has never failed to surprise me. Almost all his books have been genuine page-turners for me. (I haven't read his adolescent-friendly Mickey Bolitar series, though). Stay Close was first released almost a decade back, and Netflix has recently made it into a mini web series.

Stay Close has three parallel tracks. In one, there is Ray, a talented photographer with a troubled past. Parallelly, there is the story of Megan, a Suburban Mother who also has her secrets. In the third, young men are disappearing from the city in the most dubious circumstances leaving behind the traces of a serial killer behind the act.

The author succeeds in keeping the audience guessing to a large extent. The language is pretty simple, and Coben has tried to make the proceedings enjoyable by throwing in twists at regular intervals. There aren't many characters in the story, and the reader can easily keep track of each one of them without getting confused. The novel also has surprise appearances by some of the iconic characters from the Coben Universe towards the Climax.

Coming to the negatives, I felt that this one had severe pacing issues, unlike Coben's previous and follow-up works. Suspense and unexpected twists have always been his forte, and In that regard, Stay Close is undoubtedly underwhelming. The regular readers of the author might also find most of the twists underwhelming and even a bit ridiculous. At 350+ pages, the novel is a bit too long, and that subplot involving Megan's mother-in-law could have been quickly done away with.

On the whole, Stay Close is an okay read. If you are a diehard Harlan Coben fan, you can give this one a try!

-nikhimenon

 

Run Away by Harlan Coben

           First things first, I'm a die hard fan of Harlan Coben, whom I believe is one of the most entertaining pulp thriller writers of this generation.Be it his Myron Bolitar series or his stand-alone thrillers, Coben never fails to entertain the reader.
            Run Away is the latest stand alone thriller from Coben and like many of his recent stand alone works, this one is also about the search for a missing child.Simon Greene is a highly successful professional and with his doctor wife Ingrid and his three children he had been leading a peaceful life.But then,his eldest daughter Paige,who had gone to the Uni,turns a drug addict and runs away.Simon can't fathom what made his beloved daughter to become an outcast but he suspects that it has something to do with her boy friend, Aron Cornwall.Run Away is all about Simon's search for his daughter and his efforts to bring her back to the security of their home.
            Like his previous works, in Run Away also Coben has succeeded in keeping the reader hooked to the proceedings to a very large extend.The writing is crisp and twisty enough to keep you guessing till the very last page. Coben is indeed a master of twists that the moment you think the novel is coming to it's finale, he starts throwing twists at you one after the other.The characters are also very well etched out and the reader can easily identify with the mental trauma that Simon Greene is going through with his daughter missing and his wife in coma.

On the whole, I am giving a 4 out of 5 for this work.This one is definitely a fast paced thriller!

-nikhimenon

QBR: Don't Let go by Harlan Coben

                                           

                                                    Crime/Thriller

                                                    386+ pages
                                                     Arrow (2018)
                                                     RT Rating: 3.2/5

The Verdict:'Don't Let Go' is an engaging stand alone thriller from Harlan Coben, one of the most successful crime writers of our times. Definitely worth a read!

 
Synopsis: Nap is a cop who has lost his brother(Leo) and his lover(Diana) after a freak accident 15 years back.The incident forced Maura, Nap's girl-friend to go into a hiding.Now years later, there is a series of killings and Maura has suddenly made an appearance.Nap is convinced that there is some sort of connection between his brother's murder and these recent murders.Will Nap be able to uncover the truth?

 
The Good: As usual, Coben's narrative moves forward at a breakneck speed,there is never a dull moment and the twists happen at regular intervals, the CIA-Military base angle was well done, the 'sleeper-cell' twist was also believably done,the Bolitar cameo was a pleasant surprise. 

The Bad:Nap's characterisation reminded of Myron Bolitar at times,towards the middle portions,the book dragged a bit.

Recommendations: Buy it!

-nikhimenon

Tell No One by Harlan Coben

'Tell No One' reads more like Sidney Sheldon than Harlan Coban . Elizabeth Beck was murdered a good 8 years ago and her husband Dr David Beck has never been able to get over the gruesome incident which happened almost a decade back.Suddenly,a mysterious e-mail lands up in his e-mail and soon, David realizes that his past is back to haunt him once again. With twists and turns happening at regular intervals,'Tell No One' is an absolute page turner!
The 2006 French Thriller was based on this book.

-nikhimenon

Home By Harlan Coben

Home is the latest title in Coben's Myron Bolitar series and re-unites Myron,Win,Big Cyndi,Esperanza once again for a brand new adventure.Also Joining them in the adventure are Mickey,Ema and Spoon.

Two boys go missing and twelve years later,Win and Myron stumbles upon one of them in London and manage to bring him home ,but not everyone is convinced that he is the real person.This is the basic premise of 'Home'.Myron and Win ,in their trademark style try to solve this mystery but I must confess that 'Home' is one of the weakest works to have come out in Bolitar series.The book is not at all racy and nothing much really happens in the first two hundred +pages of this tale.The twists are far and few in between and not of them are indeed convincing.Too much time is spent in unnecessary detailing and by the time the actual mystery is revealed, the reader loses interest in the whole proceedings.The good thing about the climax is that though the twist is predictable,it manages to move you emotionally (the tail-end twist including Brooke and 'the gun' could have been avoided though).The epilogue reveals a positive event in Bolitar's personal life and I am definitely looking forward to the next one in the series.

On the whole,I am giving this one a 2.75 out of 5.

-nikhimenon

Harlan Coben's 'Missing You'

                      'Missing you' is yet another work of Harlan Coben which I have picked up to read.This is another stand alone- domestic thriller from the master crime writer.The premise is typical Coben.There is a past murder, a forgotten boy-friend who is making a re-entry years later, a single mother who has suddenly vanished without a trace and a female investigator accompanied by a teenage boy trying to solve the mystery and the tail-end twist which is happening in the very last page. It's a stand-alone thriller which is totally worth your time and money.
                   Kat is a NYPD detective who is fighting her past demons.She stumbles upon her ex, Jeff who had ditched her almost two decades earlier in a dating website.There is this teenage boy (Brandon) who is seeking Kat's help as his mother(Diana) has gone missing all on a sudden and is potentially linked to Jeff.In the middle of all this, Kat should also to find out who killed her beloved dad.
                'Missing You' tells the story of Kat,Jeff and Diana. It's an absolute page turner.The writing is fast paced,twist laden with never a dull moment.Go for it!

Verdict- I am giving it a 3.5 out of 5.

-nikhimenon

Two Harlan Coben Novels

              I am slowly, but surely becoming a huge fan of Coben. Last week, I finished reading two of his domestic thrillers.Caught (2010) and Hold Tight (2008). I must say that that both the books were gripping, fast paced and truly entertaining. While the former is about a 17 year old girl (who has suddenly gone missing) and a TV sting that has gone horribly wrong , the latter is about the sinister secrets harboured by a teenage boy and also deals with themes like abuse of prescription drugs, teenage suicide topically. While the plotting of Caught is quite similar to Coben's previous works, Hold Tight is a marked departure from his usual style.What make both these works quite different from the usual thrillers is the fact that they both deal with quite relevant issues and that too in a fast paced and quite entertaining manner.

                        'Caught' starts off with an innocent man getting falsely implicated in a crime which he never did ,but the book is a lot more than that.Infact a lot of things happen in this 300+ page tale. A girl mysteriously disappears , a T.V reporter is on the run trying hard to prove a point, and there is also a group of men caught in a very tricky situation.The narrative is fast paced and there is never a dull moment but towards the end ,we get a feeling that the writer tried to pack in a whole lot of things in quick succession.There are twists galore in the end and before the reader can fully assimilate the first one, there comes the second one, the next and so on. On the whole, the work is a pretty good, entertaining read!

                       'Hold tight' follows the pattern of the typical Coben domestic thrillers.There is this family who are happily living the American dream and then suddenly they discover that their son (Adam) is harbouring a sinister secret. He starts behaving in a weird way and the panicked parents (Mike and Tiya) install a spyware in his computer.Soon the boy disappears and 'Hold Tight' is all about their race against time to get their son back.The book also deals with the many unethical practices existing in the field of health care and drug trade. On the whole,a truly gripping thriller!


-nikhimenon