Rating: 
Summary: Almost great
Review: This is the third Harlan Coben novel I've read and it is the best so far. Coben's plots have more twists and turns then a roller coaster. There is a surprise literally every few pages. And that is the problem. Some of the surprises, many of them in fact, are simply jarring. They are clearly dramatic devices intended to move the story forward and the reader is sometimes forced to deliberately invoke their own sense of credulity. Fortunately Coben's enough of a storyteller to involve the reader to the point of doing just that. Coben is a powerful writer. His characters, while lacking depth and believability, are engrossing. The good folks are far and few between, the bad guys and dolls are plentiful and you simply can't be sure of where everyone stands. The ending of "Gone for Good" is disappointing. Coben has to wrap up too many loose ends and it smacks of a 1930s movie with the detective assembling everyone in the drawing room and lecturing each suspect until revealing the perpetrator. Of course, it doesn't help that the "surprise" at the end is simply too surprising. All that said, Coben is an immensely gifted writer who clearly has not reached his prime. He's entertaining, pulls you from page to page and is very clearly on the verge of breaking through. I'll be reading his five other novels to see if he's made it there yet. Jerry
Rating: 
Summary: Review for the best book
Review: This novel is pretty much a regurgitated version of "Tell No One", and all of Coben's subsequent novels have been the same way. I think that Coben, whose Myron Bolitar novels didn't do nearly as well as his new books have been doing, has finally discovered the niche that will get his books sold the fastest, and so he has been rehashing the same plot and characters, putting them into slightly different situations, and cranking out more generic Coben thrillers. If you disagree with me and think that each new Coben book is more original than the last, let me give you a breakdown of the formula he uses and tell me if I'm wrong.
Our hero -- a wimpy, yet intelligent and good-hearted guy -- has lost someone close to him and has never quite gotten over it. Suddenly, he receives a message which leads him to believe that the person he thought he lost is in fact still alive. Coincidently enough, he becomes the target of evil, James Bond-esque bad guys (complete with the typical invincible assassin who is all-knowing and all-powerful) who have some unfinished business involving the hero's lost loved one and believe he can lead them to him/her. The hero enlists the aid of his hard-hitting, invincible partner that acts as the hero's deus ex machina throughout the story (a deus ex machina being a literary plot device that enables the hero to escape from seemingly impossible situations whenever the author can't think of a more original way to get him out of said situations). With the bone-headed FBI agents who believe the hero to be guilty of wrongdoing hot on his trail, the hero eventually manages to save the day and get the bad guys, and in the end is reunited with his loved one. Then, after all is said and done, Coben throws in some bizarre, obtuse and unnecessarily complicated twist that makes the readers go "Ooooh, why didn't I think of that?"
Well, the reason you didn't think of it is because only the author, who knows all the angles of the story he's writing, could have thought of it because he's the one writing it. It just doesn't seem right to have a Harlan Coben novel that doesn't end with a stupid twist. Back when he was writing Myron books, Coben was actually good at the craft of using twist endings, but he eventually lost it after he decided to start writing commercialized, housewife-appealing thrillers with no substance and the same recycled plot over and over again.
If you are a true Harlan Coben fan, stick to his Myron Bolitar books, which didn't try to be cliche so that they would appeal to the mass market of people who don't mind if the books they read are all alike. I find it somewhat ironic, because Coben frequently makes evident the fact that he despises all things cliche, as he always pokes fun at them in his writing. Well, for all his claims, Coben has become the definition of cliche by selling out and cranking out generic Hollywood thrillers again and again and again.
Rating:
Summary: What Could Be Better?
Review: This was my first Coben book, so I can't compare it to "Tell No One." I cannot tell you if it's a rerun of his previous plots. I can tell you that this is a superb thriller. Part thriller, fully a mystery, "Gone for Good" starts with Will Klein's discovery that his older brother is perhaps still alive. The questions mount: How did his brother die? Was he really guilty of murdering a teenage girl? And the answers come only quick enough to lead to other questions. When you think there are no more questions, you're wrong. When you think you have all the answers, you're wrong. Coben writes with a deceptively easy style. He writes with a quick pace, yet never forgets to give his characters heart. I found myself caring for these people, even feeling emotions in my throat once or twice. He paints with a broad brush, showing rage, love, pain, sorrow, twisted violence, and family concern. If you haven't read Coben, I'm sure you'll enjoy this book as much as I did. If you're already a fan, then why'd you keep this guy secret for so long?
Rating:
Summary: Great read!
Review: This was such a fun book to read. My book club at work picked this for our monthly selection and all of us enjoyed it immensely. I must agree with some of the other reviewers that there were not that many likeable characters and it was hard to really care about anyone. However, it was fast-paced, had a lot of twists and turns and kept us all guessing to the end. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: One of Coben's best
Review: Will Klein's mother, on her death bed, insists that Will's older brother, Ken, who had disappeared eleven years before after being charged in the murder of Will's ex-girl friend, is alive. Then the girl who Will expected to marry vanishes without a trace. Little does Will know that sorting out these two developments will be a highly intricate, fast_paced, and confusing journey. Will gets a lot of help from Squares, an ex-Nazi sympathizer, and now yoga guru and counselor for runaways. The book is typical Coben. The action never bogs down and the plot twists are jolting. Is the story line completely plausible? Not really, but it is not totally absurd. Also, one could argue that the characters are not as compelling or as interesting as those in the Myron Bolitar series. Basically, the book is a great read. I'm looking forward to Coben's latest, _no second chance_.
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