Helpful Score: 5
The twists kept coming in this story and I loved it! It's very current, with the main storyline being about internet identity theft. I could not put this down after the first page!
Helpful Score: 3
I'm always excited to read the newest Harlan Coben book as he is one of my favorite authors and I read every book he wrote. His stand-alone books are my favorite thrillers.
This book is no exception, it is thrilling, exciting, mind boggling and electrifying! As for the end.....never saw it coming!!
This book is no exception, it is thrilling, exciting, mind boggling and electrifying! As for the end.....never saw it coming!!
Not the "typical" thriller in my opinion from Harlan Coben, but filled with twists and turns that you will never see coming. Characters are flawed, realistic and filled with depth. The storyline in my opinion is not an overdone, trite who dunnit but a "thinking man's" mystery. I definitely recommend it.
Would like to give this more than 3 stars and thought about it BUT it is kind of confusing--there are so many characters because there are two storylines going. Kat, the detective, should probably be a good detective but her Dad was a cop and killed years ago but she can't drop the fact the killer was in prison and dying from cancer so she has one more time to 'talk' to him, then it's a shock to hear he only took the blame for the murder of her Dad but he didn't kill him, so that is one storyline going with her now trying to 'solve' the mystery of who killed her Dad. The other storyline is about a 'catfish' using the internet dating sites to kidnap people then using them to steal their money ,etc. and murder them, etc.
What I found to be 'wrong' with this book is that it is too long and there are just too many pages and pages of descriptions that could've been shortened so I ended up skipping and skimming pages that didn't hold any interesting storyline info but just page filler descriptions not needed. So for 400 pages it could've been cut down to 350 or less and maybe made the story move along a little better.
The end result of who murdered her Dad was a surprise to me, I didn't have that one figured out and the end result of the catfish, I thought, was kind of left unfinished by not giving a satisfying result.
I like Coben much much better than Stuart Woods, in fact I don't read Woods books at all anymore, I wouldn't say to not read this one because I think it was okay but it's just a little too long, I read it in a day but it would be easy to put down and do something else, I didn't find it a 'thriller'.
What I found to be 'wrong' with this book is that it is too long and there are just too many pages and pages of descriptions that could've been shortened so I ended up skipping and skimming pages that didn't hold any interesting storyline info but just page filler descriptions not needed. So for 400 pages it could've been cut down to 350 or less and maybe made the story move along a little better.
The end result of who murdered her Dad was a surprise to me, I didn't have that one figured out and the end result of the catfish, I thought, was kind of left unfinished by not giving a satisfying result.
I like Coben much much better than Stuart Woods, in fact I don't read Woods books at all anymore, I wouldn't say to not read this one because I think it was okay but it's just a little too long, I read it in a day but it would be easy to put down and do something else, I didn't find it a 'thriller'.
** spoiler alert ** This is my 2nd Coben book, (The first one was Fool me Once which I hated), and I'm only reading him because he's highly rated. That, and I just lost my precious kitty and I'm missing him terribly, so the title was perfect. Then it seemed like serendipity because the heroine's name is Kat (cat!) and then her mother's name is Hazel (that's my name!) and another character was names Sylvia, which was my dear Mother's name. So, I wanted to read and enjoy it.
This book was better that the 1st one I read, but it also had stunted dialogue and characters who are idiots. I mean, why did Coben pick magic number 18 as the number of years between the murder of her father and her fiance leaving her? It's a looooong time. I don't even remember what I was doing that far back, and I sure don't want to go back to the guy I was dating at that time (just kidding, he's my husband now).
The great love that she had for her father was also alien to me, as I didn't particular get along with my Dad. He was always cool towards me, never showing affection or pride. However, I adored my Mother. But, I think that if I found out that all this stuff had been going on with her and I a. didn't realize it, or b. did see it but I didn't want to acknowledge it, that I would feel differently about her after I'd learned it.
I mean, yeah, it was the times (18 years ago is the 80's?) and her Dad was a cop, plus married with a family in "the neighborhood" of NY. So what? He was a SOB as far as I'm concerned, abusing everyone he met with either his fists or his attitude. So, why was there such a fanatical love for this creep? His wife refused to leave him (because it wasn't done at the time, and where would she go with 3 kids?), his black gay cross-dressing lover (isn't that a mouthful?) refused to leave him (or hate him) even after he beat him up when they first met, then later on as well. What? Oh, it's OK, because he visited him in the hospital, and later brought him flowers. Oh, and he's got this rage, and self-hate, see, so when he's pounding on you, he's really pounding on himself. What??? I've got a psychology degree and that's a load of crap. Sorry, the guy's just a creep and has unresolved gay, anger & probably boundary issues which he needs serious help for. He's a Cop so throw in some abuse of power issues as well. Oh, and I forgot, a mob hit man claims he killed him (it's a lie), the Dad's partner also covers for him, then ultimately, so does the heroine's friend, and her ex-fiance. Sure. Not far-fetched at all.
I suffered my own abusive relationship with an ex and not only did I HATE him for it, but I left his ass and reported him to the police. There are signs of abusiveness and when you see them, you leave. Also, Mr. Coben, generally men who abuse their wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, whatever, also abuse their kids and animals. It's a sick, sad cycle of violence which escalates unless stopped by jail, therapy or something more permanent. Sad but true, look up the stats.
The 2 people I liked in this mish mash was one of the kidnap victims, who I was hoping the whole book would survive, and her son. They were fleshed out a bit more, and at least didn't take 18 years to fight back. I was also pleased in the wrap up that the dog who belonged to the (now dead) bad guy was adopted by them.
I think that so much of the verbiage could be shortened, or skipped entirely. I don't care about the bad guys thoughts, and don't need a "how to" be a bad guy tutoring. I didn't need to know about how much the other bad guy loved his dog, but couldn't wait to saw off the fingers of his victims, or lock them in the underground chambers for days at a time. And speaking about the "coffins" (food bins) that they converted into "holding chambers" for the victims, I didn't need a cringe inducing panic session in Chapter 2 from one of the victims. I though he was going to die there (he didn't). But I almost did. And I almost stopped reading the book at that point. I'm glad I finished it because it was exciting at the end, and I was happy that it had a (relatively) happy ending. That is, I guess Kat and Jeff ended up "together forever" to be cheesy. I just felt like Coben got to the end and was like, hmm, what do I do now to wrap this up? Oh, I know, have the fiance do it because xyz happened. Ugh, what? Sugar, it was too much! (sorry!).
This book was better that the 1st one I read, but it also had stunted dialogue and characters who are idiots. I mean, why did Coben pick magic number 18 as the number of years between the murder of her father and her fiance leaving her? It's a looooong time. I don't even remember what I was doing that far back, and I sure don't want to go back to the guy I was dating at that time (just kidding, he's my husband now).
The great love that she had for her father was also alien to me, as I didn't particular get along with my Dad. He was always cool towards me, never showing affection or pride. However, I adored my Mother. But, I think that if I found out that all this stuff had been going on with her and I a. didn't realize it, or b. did see it but I didn't want to acknowledge it, that I would feel differently about her after I'd learned it.
I mean, yeah, it was the times (18 years ago is the 80's?) and her Dad was a cop, plus married with a family in "the neighborhood" of NY. So what? He was a SOB as far as I'm concerned, abusing everyone he met with either his fists or his attitude. So, why was there such a fanatical love for this creep? His wife refused to leave him (because it wasn't done at the time, and where would she go with 3 kids?), his black gay cross-dressing lover (isn't that a mouthful?) refused to leave him (or hate him) even after he beat him up when they first met, then later on as well. What? Oh, it's OK, because he visited him in the hospital, and later brought him flowers. Oh, and he's got this rage, and self-hate, see, so when he's pounding on you, he's really pounding on himself. What??? I've got a psychology degree and that's a load of crap. Sorry, the guy's just a creep and has unresolved gay, anger & probably boundary issues which he needs serious help for. He's a Cop so throw in some abuse of power issues as well. Oh, and I forgot, a mob hit man claims he killed him (it's a lie), the Dad's partner also covers for him, then ultimately, so does the heroine's friend, and her ex-fiance. Sure. Not far-fetched at all.
I suffered my own abusive relationship with an ex and not only did I HATE him for it, but I left his ass and reported him to the police. There are signs of abusiveness and when you see them, you leave. Also, Mr. Coben, generally men who abuse their wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, whatever, also abuse their kids and animals. It's a sick, sad cycle of violence which escalates unless stopped by jail, therapy or something more permanent. Sad but true, look up the stats.
The 2 people I liked in this mish mash was one of the kidnap victims, who I was hoping the whole book would survive, and her son. They were fleshed out a bit more, and at least didn't take 18 years to fight back. I was also pleased in the wrap up that the dog who belonged to the (now dead) bad guy was adopted by them.
I think that so much of the verbiage could be shortened, or skipped entirely. I don't care about the bad guys thoughts, and don't need a "how to" be a bad guy tutoring. I didn't need to know about how much the other bad guy loved his dog, but couldn't wait to saw off the fingers of his victims, or lock them in the underground chambers for days at a time. And speaking about the "coffins" (food bins) that they converted into "holding chambers" for the victims, I didn't need a cringe inducing panic session in Chapter 2 from one of the victims. I though he was going to die there (he didn't). But I almost did. And I almost stopped reading the book at that point. I'm glad I finished it because it was exciting at the end, and I was happy that it had a (relatively) happy ending. That is, I guess Kat and Jeff ended up "together forever" to be cheesy. I just felt like Coben got to the end and was like, hmm, what do I do now to wrap this up? Oh, I know, have the fiance do it because xyz happened. Ugh, what? Sugar, it was too much! (sorry!).
Readers familiar with Harlan Coben's twisty thrillers, where few things turn out to be exactly what they seem, may be able to figure out one of the mysteries here, just by going with that gut feeling Coben implants and then tries to dissuade you from.
that continues to work well in this entry, but other parts of the book don't.
Surfing on a dating website, NYPD cop Kat Donovan is startled to come across a profile posted by a long-lost boyfriend, apparently using an alias. While she's still puzzling this out, she's contacted by a college student who insists his mother has gone off for a romantic weekend with LLB, but something isn't right.
A suitably scary plot unfolds here, with extortion and murder oozing out of every pore.
The problem is that there's a sub-plot, involving Donovan's search for the truth about the murder of her father, also a cop. And even Coben can't make these two lines mesh, nor can he bring everything to any kind of satisfying conclusion.
that continues to work well in this entry, but other parts of the book don't.
Surfing on a dating website, NYPD cop Kat Donovan is startled to come across a profile posted by a long-lost boyfriend, apparently using an alias. While she's still puzzling this out, she's contacted by a college student who insists his mother has gone off for a romantic weekend with LLB, but something isn't right.
A suitably scary plot unfolds here, with extortion and murder oozing out of every pore.
The problem is that there's a sub-plot, involving Donovan's search for the truth about the murder of her father, also a cop. And even Coben can't make these two lines mesh, nor can he bring everything to any kind of satisfying conclusion.
One of the best from Coben. His books continue in high quality.
Actually, I am just reading it now and find it very good! Can't wait to get more of Harlan Coben's books!
