★ 07/31/2017
New Jersey cop Nap Dumas, the hero of this outstanding standalone from bestseller Coben (Fool Me Once), is shocked to learn that fingerprints at the scene of a crime—the shooting death of a fellow cop and high school classmate during a traffic stop—belong to Maura Wells, Nap’s high school sweetheart, who disappeared 15 years earlier. Maura went missing at the same time that Nap’s twin, Leo, and Leo’s girlfriend, Diana Styles, were hit and killed by a train. Maura’s reappearance sends Nap to see Augie Styles, Diana’s father, a police captain and his mentor. Nap comes to suspect that the deaths of Leo and Diana may not have been an accident and are connected to a secret military base that they and a few other students called the Conspiracy Club were investigating at the time. 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. Five-city author tour. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary Agency (Sept.)
Praise for Harlan Coben and Don't Let Go
“Harlan Coben is a folk poet of the suburbs and his well-tuned new mystery, Don’t Let Go, shows why. Coben does his usual professional job on the central mystery...but his greater talent lies in his warmhearted descriptions of life in places like Westbridge.”—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
“Ernest Hemingway could have learned a tip or two from Coben’s direct and punchy writing style. And Coben deftly intersperses his action sequences with observations about human behavior.”—Steve Forbes, Forbes online
“Harlan Coben is the modern master of the hook-and-twist luring you in on the first page...only to shock you on the last.”—Dan Brown
“Simply one of the all-time greats—pick up any one of his thrillers and you’ll find a riveting, twisty, surprising story with a big, beating heart at its core.”—Gillian Flynn
“Outstanding...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.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Harlan Coben's addictive crime novels keep readers on the edge of their seat. Get ready for twists, turns, reversals, and you'd-never-guess-it plot twists. His thrillers are virtuoso mysteries that expose the dark side of familiar settings. Prepare yourself for relatable characters, crackling prose, and shocking endings.”—Reader's Digest “The Most Binge-Worthy Authors of All Time”
“[Nap] is both endearing and sometimes quite witty. Coben is the master of these types of characters while exposing the hidden layers of suburbia.”—Associated Press
“[A] shattering tour de force of a classic mystery wrapped in the fabric of the kind of...thriller nobody writes better.”—Providence Journal
“Harlan Coben is one of the best suspense novelists out there today.”—The Huffington Post
“Coben knows how to deliver an exciting thriller expertly. His latest novel is no exception.”—Library Journal
“Certain teams (the Yankees), performers (Springsteen), and shows (The Sopranos) exist at such a rarified level of excellence that our expectations become unreasonable...Harlan Coben...belongs in this rarified category.”—Newark Star-Ledger
“You won’t be able to put it down once you open it....Get this book now.”—Bookreporter.com
04/01/2017
Since he's the author of ten consecutive No. 1 New York Times best sellers and a winner of the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony awards to boot, it would be nice to know plot details here. No such luck, but I can report that it's a stand-alone.
2017-07-17
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.The last few weeks of high school often bring out the graduates' appetites for unaccustomed risky behavior. But no one in suburban Westbridge has ever been able to explain what Leo Dumas and his girlfriend, cheerleader Diana Styles, were doing on the railroad tracks that made them get hit by a train or why Maura Wells, the girlfriend of Leo's twin, Napoleon, "Nap," chose that night to disappear. Now, in one of those sudden lightning flashes only Coben (Home, 2016, etc.) could have thought of, that night comes roaring back with the discovery of Maura's fingerprints in a car driven by a murdered Pennsylvania cop. Sgt. Rex Canton was shot during what would have been a routine drunk-driving stop if Rex hadn't been off duty and specifically targeting the man who shot him. Detective Nap Dumas, who still regularly talks to his dead twin, knows he can't work an out-of-state homicide, even one that links Maura, his vanished girlfriend, once again to Rex, one of his high school classmates. In fact the connection is even deeper, for Leo, Diana, Maura, and Rex were all members of Westbrook High's Conspiracy Club, a group evidently designed to nurture the naturally anti-establishment paranoia of adolescents through the ages. When one of the club's two surviving members—Hank Stroud, a math genius who's been wandering the streets of Westbridge for years—is also murdered, Nap resolves to question the other survivor, Beth Lashley, who's now married, living in Ann Arbor, and practicing cardiology. He soon finds that Beth's resolve is equal to his own: she's separated from her husband, announced a professional sabbatical, and gone AWOL. 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.
