…[a] well-tuned new mystery … Coben does his usual professional job on the central mystery, which involves the violent deaths of a detective’s brother and the brother’s girlfriend, but his greater talent lies in his warmhearted descriptions of life in places like Westbridge...That kind of writing is what we call poetry, and it falls on the ear like the sounds of summer.
This is great Coben. Even if we never see the characters again, that's fine. They're fully realized people and he had me guessing who did it until he was ready to reveal it … Maybe Nap does take more of a beating than anyone outside of a robot could endure. Coben weaves in twists and rich characters such as Andy Reeves, a strange melange of a dollar-store Liberace with a despot's appetite for torture. And that's just it with Coben, there are enough fun twists without being gimmicky. It's plotted, logical and incisive.
What could a group of teenagers possibly have stumbled upon that would still put their lives in danger fifteen years later? That’s what Nap sets out to uncover, and the answer is buried deep beneath a winding, hidden trail of shocking secrets and nerve-wracking suspense. The book’s title serves as good advice for readers, who may be so shocked by the ending that the novel will be in serious danger of slipping from their grasp.
The subtitle for Harlan Coben’s Don’t Let Go could be: ‘Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.’ Set in a suburban New Jersey familiar to fans of Coben’s Myron Bolitar series, the tragic events from a night 15 years in the past come back to haunt the present … It all amounts to a Hitchcock-like McGuffin, a plot device that is the premise for the mystery and something for Nap to investigate as he peels back the many layers of deceptions of his high school pals. In addition to the McGuffin, there are red herrings aplenty, and a reader would do well to trust no one.
Harlan Coben vacates the comfortable suburban world he’s often made so uncomfortable for a trip into crime noir with his typically superb Don’t Let Go … Stretching out a bit serves Coben well in crafting this shattering tour de force of a classic mystery wrapped in the fabric of the kind of mind-numbing thriller nobody writes better.
…[an] outstanding standalone … When Nap begins tracking the surviving club members, it gradually becomes clear that someone or something is now trying to eliminate them. Coben keeps Nap and the reader blindly guessing as he peels back layers of deceit reaching back 15 years, revealing nesting dolls of deadly secrets.
A pair of present-day murders bring the past alive for a New Jersey cop still mourning the twin brother he buried 15 years ago … What secret could the Conspiracy Club have discovered that would remain so dangerous for so long? Sadly, the answers are neither as interesting nor even as surprising as the setup. This may be the first time most of perennially bestselling Coben’s readers will beat his hard-used hero to the solution.
