Just One Look by Harlan Coben

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Just One Look
Available from Amazon
Price: $12.95
Updated on 6-30-2008.

Features

Audio CD: 1 pages

Publisher: Penguin Audio; Abridged edition (April 21, 2005)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0143057782

ISBN-13: 978-0143057789

Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches

Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces ()

From Publishers Weekly
Just one look at Coben's latest stand-alone thriller (after No Second Chance) highlights the author's customary strengths (swift pacing, strong lead characters) but also his weaknesses, including limited originality and, in this case, a plot so complicated that many final pages are devoted to sorting it out. The premise is simple enough: suburban housewife Grace Lawson collects some pictures at the local Photomat; inexplicably, one is an old print depicting her husband, Jack, with other college students; when Grace shows the photo to Jack, he drives away-and disappears. Grace's hunt for her missing husband, whom we learn has been kidnapped (but why? and Coben fans will note that the author's last novel also hinged on a kidnapped family member), sweeps her back into a nightmare she thought she'd escaped: the evening years ago when she survived a rock concert rampage, occasioned by a shooting that left many dead. Meanwhile, Eric Wu, a-dare we say?-inscrutable martial-arts killer who has snatched Jack for reasons unknown, menaces assorted folk. Eventually Grace, aided by a Gotti-like mobster whose child was killed in the rampage, gloms on to Wu, as well as on to Jack's sister, a high-powered attorney who, it turns out, is representing the guy who started the rampage by firing his gun. Only he didn't start the rampage after all, and then there's the rock star who vanished after the shooting and resultant mayhem-what's he now doing on Grace's doorstep? This is all as complicated as a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle and about as hard to figure out, although in the midst of the murk there are some wonderful character touches. Coben can write thrillers that lift readers off their seats; this one, alas, will have them slumping.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile
Here is yet another example of Corben's gifted storytelling. Carolyn McCormick expertly expresses the wide range of emotions experienced by Grace Lawson as she attempts to figure out how and why a twenty-year-old picture turns up in her recently developed photos, and why her husband has disappeared after recognizing himself in the old photograph. While the production's subtle sound effects neither enhance nor detract from the story, the listener is most definitely engaged by the rising tension of McCormick's delivery. S.K.P. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Just One Look (Hardcover) Having seen Harlan Coben's name on the covers of novels for years, I finally broke down and decided to read one. Unfortunately, I didn't pick the right one to start with. JOL starts out well enough. There is a good mystery, and it definitely keeps you interesting. Then things start to unravel. The truth starts coming out, and bit by bit the story starts becoming more far-fetched. By the time this one is over, you'll be sitting there scratching your head and wondering why your name was left out of this book...after all, everyone else in the world was apparently in on this deception. The closest I can come to explaining this is a soap opera. As the end was revealed, it was like "Your brother-in-law's second cousin's third wife's stepmother was married to my twice-removed uncle's niece's third child's grandson". It was just too far out to be real. I love a complex story as much as the next guy, but even the most complex plot needs to have SOME grounding in reality--unless it's a Dean Koontz or Stephen King kind of thing. This one just stretchs the believability too far. Comment (1) | Permalink | (Report this)

Just One Look
List Price: $12.95
Available from Amazon
Price: $12.95
Updated on 6-30-2008.