Harlan Coben’s 2005 thriller is as good as any of
the other standalone novels of his I have read. He keeps you turning the pages
as the plot twists and characters interact.
It begins with a flashback of Matt Hunter’s. He was
involved in a brawl and his opponent died. It might have been an accident; Matt
served four years in a penitentiary. When he got out, he joined his brother’s
law firm and met the beautiful Olivia and they married. Everything was better
than he could have hoped – until he received a mysterious phone call and his
life began to spiral out of control.
Besides contending with a local cop who held a
grudge, Matt has to cope with the suspicion that Olivia is having an affair
with a stranger. And it seems that Matt is of considerable interest to two certain
not particularly scrupulous FBI agents…
‘Matt realised that he needed the help of a private
detective at the MVD agency. ‘By and large, Matt was not a fan of PIs. In
fiction they were cool dudes. In reality they were, at best, retired (emphasis
on the ‘tired’) cops, and at worst, guys who couldn’t become cops and thus are
that dangerous creation known as the “cop wannabe”. Matt had seen plenty of
wannabes working as prison guards. The mixture of failure and imagined
testosterone produced volatile and often ugly consequences’ (p69).
However this PI was an exception: ‘the lovely and
controversial Ms Cingle Shaker.' He tasked her with finding out about the
anonymous phone caller… ‘…she wore a black turtleneck that on some women would
be considered clingy but on Cingle could legitimately draw a citation for
indecency’ (p70).
The past catches up in ways we hadn’t guessed at in
our wildest imaginings. A past that tests his love for his wife.
To comment further would require spoilers. So, in
conclusion, this is a complex tale, well told!
If you’ve read Coben already, you know what to
expect – twists and surprises; if you haven’t, this is as good a place as any
to make your acquaintance with his work.
As book covers go, this is atrocious in my opinion.
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