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Topics: novelist, crime drama
Anonymous user Wed Aug 9, 2006 14:22:39 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments When the first bullet hit my chest, I thought of my daughter.
At least that is what I want to believe. I lost consciousness pretty fast. And if you want to get technical about it, I don't even remember being shot ...
Tara, my daughter, is only 6 months.
–– “No Second Chance”

I have become a fan of Harlan Coben's heart-stopping novels. He builds a story with relentless tension, compelling characters and transparent narration. The narrative voice never intrudes –– what counts is the story.
A man awakens in the hospital to discover he has been shot, his wife is dead and his infant daughter is missing. It all happened 12 days ago. In short order he finds himself the prime murder suspect. He also learns….
The characters are distinct, a touching blend of flawed and heroic. They are all too human. Chapter One is filled with questions that get to the most primal fears of any parent: Is my family safe?  My daughter has been taken, and if she's alive, where is she? What happened and why? In every chapter the characters make choices that seem to be the best for them, but all their lives are filled with irony and frustration.
Leslie Garisto Pfaff profiles Harlan Coben in the September issue of The Writer. Coben says that he prefers to describe his brand of writing as “crime drama” rather than mystery. 
He told her, “I prefer the grays; I don't like black and white.” Pfaff notes that his characters are, “Everyday people caught up in extraordinary circumstances…[and] good can suddenly look a lot like evil and evil isn't always what it seems.”
A good example of the grayness is Lydia, an important character, who is involved in a loving relationship that is ripe with irony. She is first introduced when she approaches a woman whose husband had been recently murdered.
 “You see,” Lydia began, offering up a fresh, warm smile and tilting her head to the side, “I'm the one who killed your husband.”
A complex character who can touch the heart strings or chill the bones.
Coben wrote his earliest books featuring a sports agent, Myron Bolitar. This award-winning series is widely acclaimed by many critics, but I have trouble liking the character. The latest Bolitar book is now out, “Promise Me,” and for most of his readers it will be a welcome return to the character he left a few years ago.
I am currently reading “The Innocent,” a book about a guy who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am fully engaged. 
Try a couple of his books: “One False Move” and “Fade Away Star Bolitan.” Pass on “Tell No One” and "Just One Look.”
Take your pick –– either way you are in for a great ride.

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