2008-06-06 Same Same Same

I wrote in my review of Harlan Coben's previous novel, Tell No One, that I found it a little too similar to his earlier Myron Bolitar offerings, and that the characters in those books had just been renamed and/or reworked for his first attempt at not writing about Myron. For his second attempt here, nothing much has changed. Myron, Win etc have not Gone For Good at all. Here they are again in yet another disguise. Will is Myron, Squares is Win, Pistillo is Dimonte, even Hester Crimstein herself puts in an (albeit brief) appearance.

An earlier reviewer wrote about the Hollywood third act, and he is spot on. In Tell No One, the final-page revelation was, for me, anything but (I'd guessed it near the start), and the same is true here. I was not at all surprised by the truth when it all came out in the final couple of chapters and, once that truth had been established, the epilogue was just too obvious.

As in my previous review, I don't want to criticise TOO much, because Coben IS rather good at what he does. The trouble is, he doesn't do too much! Having bought a pack of ten Coben novels from a rival online book seller, I'm going to see them through and read the final two (No Second Chance and Just One Look), in the hope that one or other of them will provide me with something a little different from the formula. Sadly though, having read the back cover précis of each of them, I suspect not.