Don’t Let Go
Suspense/ Thriller
Setting – New Jersey
Dutton (September 26, 2017)
Hardcover: 368 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0525955115
Kindle ASIN: B01NH7GION
With unmatched suspense and emotional insight, Harlan Coben explores the big secrets and little lies that can destroy a relationship, a family, and even a town in this powerful new thriller.
Suburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas hasn’t been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana were found dead on the railroad tracks—and Maura, the girl Nap considered the love of his life, broke up with him and disappeared without explanation. For fifteen years, Nap has been searching, both for Maura and for the real reason behind his brother’s death. And now, it looks as though he may finally find what he’s been looking for.
When Maura’s fingerprints turn up in the rental car of a suspected murderer, Nap embarks on a quest for answers that only leads to more questions—about the woman he loved, about the childhood friends he thought he knew, about the abandoned military base near where he grew up, and mostly about Leo and Diana—whose deaths are darker and far more sinister than Nap ever dared imagine.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Harlan Coben is my favorite author when it comes to a suspenseful story. This time he uses two common legends of his home town in New Jersey for the story.
Readers are introduced to New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas, a man whose entire life was turned upside down and inside out on one day. That day he lost his twin brother Leo and his girlfriend Maura. Leo and his girlfriend Diana were killed in a horrific way and Maura just disappeared. Now fifteen years later Maura’s fingerprints show up in a murder case making her the prime suspect. Nap has been trying to find her this whole time and this is the first connection but he can’t believe she would kill anyone. He has to find her but the clues keep leading back to an abandoned military base and may even have something to do with his brother’s death.
Hold on tight folks, this is a book you are not going to want to put down.
Coben tells this story in a unique way. From Nap’s point of view but telling his deceased brother Leo and not the reader always what is thinking and doing. These inner dialogues gave the story a different feel. We see that Nap is still clearly traumatized by his brother’s death. At first I had a hard time connecting with him but the connection grew as I got deeper into his story. Nap didn’t know if his brother’s death was an accident or suicide, so I did tap into the pain he was feeling having lost my son to suicide 30 months ago. His relationship, purely platonic, with his best friend Ellie, was the thing that made him feel more real for me.
The plot is very complicated. There are people dying that all attended high school together but motive is hard to define making it difficult to find suspects other than Maura. Nap’s thinking is mostly of the What If? variety. Conspiracy theories arise, he reaches out to his mentor for help trying to bring together his thoughts with what actually could be going on. There are so many twists and turns I had to slow down my reading speed so I could grasp the clues clearly. Still, the final twist was a complete surprise. The story does have a rapid pace and I almost read the entire book in one sitting.
I have enjoyed all the books by this author. I was thrilled to see Myron Bolitar make a cameo appearance.
While not my all time favorite Coben novel it was a very exciting story. I can’t wait for his next one!
Find out more about Harlan Coben and his book on his webpage here.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
