No Second Chance by
Harlan Coben
hbk out May 03
Published by Orion
at £17.99
Harlan Coben had established a reputation for creating eminently readable crime
yarns with his Myron Bolitar series: stories of a basketball player turned sports agents
who ends up investigating wrongdoings. But Coben's stand alone thriller Tell No
One, where a man receives an e-mail from his dead wife, brought him much wider
attention and acclaim and propelled him into the bestsellers lists. In No Second
Chance, another non-series novel, Dr Marc Seidman survives a shooting which kills
his wife. He regains consciousness only to find their infant daughter, Tara, is missing.
A ransom note comes with a warning: There will be no second chance. When the
exchange goes wrong, money, kidnappers and child disappear. Time passes - then a
second note arrives - want a second chance?
It's easy to why Coben is so popular, there's a twist or jolt at the end of almost every
chapter - you end up reading with one hand covering these final paragraphs to stop
yourself jumping ahead and devouring them. But there's more to it than devilish
plotting and fast action because Coben is also great at drawing characters. He
chooses to write in the first person and so allows us intimate access to the emotional
inner life of his hero. The result is gripping as well as touching. Truly compulsive.
Manchester Evening News 14.2.04
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries set on the mean streets of Manchester)
No Second Chance by
Harlan Coben
