Caught - Harlan Coben

My wife and I spent some time this evening trying to work out whether we enjoyed the latest offering from Harlan Coben - Caught.

There is no question it was a page-turner. I started it earlier today after downloading it to my kindle and it was finished by 4pm. I don't know exactly what it was but this story was more about curiousity than necessarily a cracking plot.

The book starts with local do-gooder Dan Mercer being setup in a sting which would seem to indicate he was having an inappropriate relationship with a 13 year old boy. Mercer's life is wrecked in a very public and humiliating manner on a sleaze TV show and his world falls apart... especially when it later appears that he may be implicated in other cases.

Harlan Coben - The Final Detail

I’m a big Harlan Coben fan, but this latest read was a bit wishy-washy for my liking.

The story kicks off with long running hero Myron Bolitar disappearing to a tropical island after some rather traumatic events in the previous novel.

He’s called back to reality after his best friend and business partner Esperanza is arrested and charged with murder following the death of one of their clients.

With Esperanza refusing to talk to him it makes Myron’s case that much harder to solve.

And so begins a search through dodgy night clubs, a missing persons case which is nearly 20 years old and an assortment of people who have a grudge against Myron which ends with a couple of intriguing twists in the tail.

My problem with the book is that it lacked the “compact” nature of other Coben books. Particularly the last 30% of the book seemed to drift and wind a bit.

You got the sense that the book was going somewhere and you got the surprises you wanted, but too much introspection and I guess “dawdle” in the latter part of the book.

The wife commented that she was disappointed there were fewer fight / action scenes and maybe that was what was different about this book – too much focus on

Myron trying to understand himself as a person and not enough knuckles being cracked!

Still it was fun enough to keep me as the reader interested and pass the time.

Title: The Final Point
Author: Harlan Coben
ISBN: 978-0-7393-4117-9

Rated the book a 3 out of 5.

You can buy it online from Loot for R140 or click on the book cover above and buy it through online retailer Kalahari.Net

Happy reading!

Bestselling Books – 2010/03/28

As usual on a Sunday night we compile a list of the bestselling books at the various online retailers:

There is a new Harlan Coben title climbing the Amazon ranks and the Jon Gabriel title also seems to feature.

Kalahari.net
1. The Struggle: Bks. 1 & 2 – LJ Smith
2. Eclipse – Stephenie Meyer
3. Vampire Diaries: Bks. 3 & 4 – LJ Smith
4. Plaasmoord – Karin Brynard
5. The Gabriel Method: The Revolutionary Diet-Free Way to Totally Transform Your Body – Jon Gabriel
6. Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer
7. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything – Elizabeth Gilbert
8. New Moon – Stephenie Meyer
9. Jesus word gebore – Gloria A. Truitt
10. Moses in die mandjie – Julie Dietrich

Amazon.com
1. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine – Michael Lewis
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
3. Now Eat This!: 150 of America’s Favorite Comfort Foods, All Under 350 Calories – Rocco DiSpirito
4. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Stieg Larsson
5. The Help – Kathryn Stockett
6. Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted – Daniel G. Amen M.D
7. The Girl Who Played with Fire – Stieg Larsson
8. Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda – Sean Hannity
9. Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything – Geneen Roth
10. Caught – Harlan Coben

Take2.co.za
1. Vampire Diaries, Vol. 1, Books 1 & 2 – Smith, L. J.
2. Vampire Diaries, Vol. 2, Books 3 & 4 – Smith, L. J.
3. The Return: Nightfall – Smith, L. J.
4. Black Jack – Leigh, Lora
5. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo -Larsson, Stieg
6. Vampire Diaries Vol 1 Books 3 & 4 TV Tie – Smith, L. J.
7. Born to Be Wild – Warren, Christine
8. Master of Fire- Knight, Angela
9. Eclipse – Meyer, Stephenie
10. The Gabriel Method – Gabriel, Jon

Gone For Good – Harlan Coben

Now THIS was a cracking little read. I really enjoy the easy reading style of Harlan Coben and this book was no exception… In fact I’d go as far as to say that I reckon this was probably the best of his books which I have read.

The story is a curious mix of characters where the good guys are not quite as good as they seem, while the bad guys are both really bad … but with a soft spot. The problem is you can never quite work out who is where until the end of the book.

In a nutshell the story reads a little something like this:

Eleven years ago, Julie Miller was found brutally strangled in the basement of her house New Jersey. On that day, Will’s brother, Ken Klein, became the subject of an international manhunt accused of the crime. He has not been seen since. Will has tried to get on with his life in the intervening years. He has a beautiful new girlfriend, Sheila, and a job working with the homeless. But when his mother reveals on her deathbed that Ken is still alive, and shortly afterwards Sheila disappears, the cracks start to show in his landscape again. But it is only when he finds that Sheila herself is wanted for a savage double-murder that his life actually starts to fall apart…

This book moves at a really nice pace and keeps you interested the whole way through!

Title: Gone for Good

Author: Harlan Coben

ISBN: 978-1-4091-1708-7

This is a really cracking little read and we rated it a 4 out of 5.

You can buy this book online from retailer Loot for R92 in paperback.

Well worth it!

Tell no-one - Harlan Coben

This is a cracking little read from Harlan Coben.

If you like fast-paced crime fiction then this will definately tickle your fancy and it has a nifty little twist at the end of the tale!

The story line is good and reads a little something like this:

8 years ago David Beck and his wife were having a romantic getaway at a cabin in the woods when they were brutally assaulted. His wife’s body was discovered a few days after the assault, battered beyond recognition.

Fast forward 8 years and Beck is still battling to get on with his life and it isn’t helped when he receives a link to a street-cam which mysteriously features an image of his presumed dead wife. Suddenly Becks’ life is turned upside down as he begins to investigate the case again. However the deeper he digs the more people wind up dead or threatened.

The book rollicks along at a great pace and I’d finished reading it inside of two days – a real page turner (if you can use that term when you are reading something on the Kindle?)

Title: Tell no one

Author: Harlan Coben

ISBN: 978-0-440-24590-2

This is a cracking little read and I rated it a 4 out of 5 while my wife threw in her 2c and rated it 3 and a half.

You can buy the book online at Loot for R81 as a paperback. It is definately worth it!

One False Move – Harlan Coben

Myron Bolitar is fast becoming one of my favourite characters. The more I read of Harlan Cobens “hero” the more I want to read.

I say “hero” because quite simply Bolitar can be a dork sometimes. His lame one-liners, his near death experiences and the way he responds to it and his internal struggles all make for a good read. He’s a character that you can’t help but believe in.

This is the fourth of the Myron Bolitar books I have read and the former basketball star turned FBI agent turned sports agent just grows on you.

In this story he is asked to represent the hottest thing in womens basketball. Her father has gone missing, the mob is involved and in between this Myron has to try and work out whether to blow it with his present girlfriend Jessica or chase after this would-be client.

In Myron’s case “represent” may have dual meanings.

Suffice to say you get run around on an action packed adventure that will keep you reading to the last page.

Title: One False Move
Author: Harlan Coben
ISBN: 978-1-4091-1710-0

Loved every minute of it and rated it a four out of five – it’s a goodie.

You can buy this book online at Loot for R110.

Harlan Coben "Three Great Novels"

Had a great weekend with the Harlan Coben "Three Great Novels" trilogy and I'm definately planning to get my hands on more books by this author!

The three stories:

• Deal Breaker
• Drop Shot
• Fade Away

all focus around the Myron Bolitar character, who has quickly become one of the best I have ever come across in the action genre.

Bolitar is a former basketball prodigy whose career was cut short by injury. He got involved with some shady government spy work that allowed him to hook up with a some-time psychopath who also partners with him in his new sports representation business.

He brings a rather unique mix of business and investigative tools to help him get his company off the ground and his clients out of trouble - especially when they get mixed up with the mob and other unsavoury characters.

For me the real standout in this book was the witty dialouge and writing style - it all just flowed really easily and kept me interested the whole way through. It such a pleasure when you keep reading to pick up the next witty one-liner!

The individual titles are available from South African online retailer Loot (see banner right) for as little as R55, but I recommend ordering the trilogy because the stories all tie into one another and there is a GREAT twist at the end of Fade Away which ties the whole thing together.

Title: Three Great Novels
Author: Harlan Coben
ISBN-13: 978-0-7528-4733-7

Rated the whole series as a four out of five and a definate "must-read" for those who love the action thriller genre.