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Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller (2012)Меган е типичната американска майка и домакиня от предградията, макар че навремето в младежките си години е била доста буйна. Рей пък е бил талантлив фотограф документалист, но днес е принуден да си изкарва хляба, доколкото може, като папарак. А Брум е детектив, който продължава да се занимава със случай, отдавна отпратен в забвение и обявен за „студен”. Всеки от тях води живот, какъвто никога не е искал, и крие тайни, за които и най-близките му хора дори не подозират. И докато се изправят лице в лице с тъмната страна на американската мечта – скуката от осигурения живот в предградието, непреодолимото изкушение, отчаянието и неосъществимия копнеж, потулени зад красиви фасади, те ще се сблъскат с нелицеприятната истина и ще прозрат, че разделната черта между един живот и друг е тънка като едва доловим шепот или удар на сърцето.
384 pages, Paperback
First published March 20, 2012
About the author
Harlan Coben
226 books36.7k followersHarlan Coben is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and one of the world's leading storytellers. His suspense novels are published in forty-five languages and have been number one bestsellers in more than a dozen countries with seventy-five million books in print worldwide.
His books have earned the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, and many have been developed into Netflix Original Drama series, including his adaptations of The Stranger, The Innocent, Gone for Good and The Woods. His most recent adaptation for Netflix, Stay Close, premiered on December 31, 2021 and stars Cush Jumbo, James Nesbitt, and Richard Armitage.
His books have earned the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, and many have been developed into Netflix Original Drama series, including his adaptations of The Stranger, The Innocent, Gone for Good and The Woods. His most recent adaptation for Netflix, Stay Close, premiered on December 31, 2021 and stars Cush Jumbo, James Nesbitt, and Richard Armitage.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,477 reviews
January 26, 2024
Rare case where the movie might be better than the book
Megan Pierce is an ordinary soccer mom with an interesting past - one where she had to change her name to escape. Ray, her former love, is also muddling through life as a photographer, pining over the one that got away. And then there is a police detective (who seems to have a lot of free time to hang out with various ladies) who is committed to solving a crime from long ago.
This is one audiobook that I absolutely do NOT recommend. I think the instructions to the narrator were "try to sound cool" which I guess was interpreted as try to sound bored. Even the exciting portions of the book were read off in this sing song kind of way.
This is a classic murder mystery which was pretty interesting, and the dialogue had a bit of humor at times. There were way too many characters though. As I might have mentioned in previous reviews (only about a million times), it is hard to care about a character when there are so many. With so many characters, the author can't really devote any time to character development. The reader is often told versus shown the character's experiences. This makes it really difficult to root for a character when they aren't built up properly.
I read this book because it was the December pick for the Netflix Book Club, but I couldn't find the video. I am wondering if the Netflix Book Club went under after one single episode. Does anyone know?
2024 Reading Schedule
Jan Middlemarch
Feb The Grapes of Wrath
Mar Oliver Twist
Apr Madame Bovary
May A Clockwork Orange
Jun Possession
Jul The Folk of the Faraway Tree Collection
Aug Crime and Punishment
Sep Heart of Darkness
Oct Moby-Dick
Nov Far From the Madding Crowd
Dec A Tale of Two Cities
Connect With Me!
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Megan Pierce is an ordinary soccer mom with an interesting past - one where she had to change her name to escape. Ray, her former love, is also muddling through life as a photographer, pining over the one that got away. And then there is a police detective (who seems to have a lot of free time to hang out with various ladies) who is committed to solving a crime from long ago.
This is one audiobook that I absolutely do NOT recommend. I think the instructions to the narrator were "try to sound cool" which I guess was interpreted as try to sound bored. Even the exciting portions of the book were read off in this sing song kind of way.
This is a classic murder mystery which was pretty interesting, and the dialogue had a bit of humor at times. There were way too many characters though. As I might have mentioned in previous reviews (only about a million times), it is hard to care about a character when there are so many. With so many characters, the author can't really devote any time to character development. The reader is often told versus shown the character's experiences. This makes it really difficult to root for a character when they aren't built up properly.
I read this book because it was the December pick for the Netflix Book Club, but I couldn't find the video. I am wondering if the Netflix Book Club went under after one single episode. Does anyone know?
2024 Reading Schedule
Jan Middlemarch
Feb The Grapes of Wrath
Mar Oliver Twist
Apr Madame Bovary
May A Clockwork Orange
Jun Possession
Jul The Folk of the Faraway Tree Collection
Aug Crime and Punishment
Sep Heart of Darkness
Oct Moby-Dick
Nov Far From the Madding Crowd
Dec A Tale of Two Cities
Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta
May 20, 2016
Mr C at his good, but not best. Still enjoyable though. There were some funny one liners which I did not note down as this was an audio read. This still is not the best format for me, very easily distracted. I found it was not as exciting as many of his others, the ending waned and I was losing interest.
Quite a generic tale of lies, deceit and a missing person or two. Megan has fled from a dangerous scenario and we witness the nearly 20 year finale to the unfolding of the sordid tale.
Loved the character of Ray Levigne, but did not feel much for Megan. Megan's husband Dave was quite bland, and I think the detective character, Broome could have done with some extra flesh (as in oomph). As always though, he's awesome at witty one liners and I love this guy's writing!
I have loads more of Mr C's books to read. Yay! They all can't be out of the park. I liked, not loved.
Quite a generic tale of lies, deceit and a missing person or two. Megan has fled from a dangerous scenario and we witness the nearly 20 year finale to the unfolding of the sordid tale.
Loved the character of Ray Levigne, but did not feel much for Megan. Megan's husband Dave was quite bland, and I think the detective character, Broome could have done with some extra flesh (as in oomph). As always though, he's awesome at witty one liners and I love this guy's writing!
I have loads more of Mr C's books to read. Yay! They all can't be out of the park. I liked, not loved.
January 9, 2022
NOW A MINI-SERIES ON NETFLIX
Seventeen years ago, in Atlantic City, Stewart Green disappeared, an event which profoundly affected the lives of several people: Green's wife was devastated and the lead cop in the investigation, Detective Broom - who befriended Mrs. Green - is still obsessed with the case; Cassie, an entertainer at a club named La Crème who was involved with Green, gave up her old life, changed her name to Megan, and became a suburban wife and mother; and Ray Levine, Cassie's boyfriend at the time, became an alcoholic with a shameful (in his eyes) job as a fake papparazzi.
Now, seventeen years later another man, Carlton Flynn, disappears from Atlantic City in similar circumstances. Unfortunately for Megan she chooses this time to revisit her old haunt, La Crème, where she's recognized by a former friend, the bartender Lorraine. As events unfold this pulls Megan into the police investigation of Carlton's disappearance - and as it turns out - the disappearance of several other men. This upsets Megan life since she's desperate to hide her former identity from her husband.
Meanwhile, Carlton's father, a wealthy developer who distrusts the cops, hires a pair of psychopaths - blonde and beautiful Ken and Barbie - to find out what happened to Carlton. This horrific pair love inflicting pain and go on a torture spree to get information, an endeavor aided by a corrupt cop.
Eventually, using informaton provided by Megan, Ray, and others, the police are able to figure out what's going on, but the solution is not satisfying or believable. Moreover, it was difficult (for me) to reconcile what happened to Green with the very profound changes in the lives of the main characters. Green was an abusive and unpleasant guy and it seemed to me that everyone was better off with him gone.
I'm a Harlen Coben fan but I was disappointed with this book. Ken and Barbie are so over-the-top that they seem like cartoons. Other characters, like Ray and Megan, are so self-involved that they're hard to care about. And the story is overly convoluted and doesn't quite gel. I was actually wondering if Coben had a co-writer since this book seemed so different from his usual style and quality.
You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/
August 18, 2013
I first tumbled to Harlan Coben very early in his career when a friend recommended the first or second book in his Myron Bolitar series. I enjoyed the Bolitar books and found Myron to be an unusual but engaging protagonist who almost always found himself in the midst of an interesting plot.
After writing a number of these books, Coben began writing stand-alone thrillers, and I followed dutifully along. Some of these books I liked a lot; others I thought did not work as well, usually because the author insisted on piling one implausible plot twist on top of another until the reader could no longer suspend disbelief and the entire structure collapsed in ruins.
Stay Close falls into the middle of the pack of Coben's books; it's okay, but it's certainly not his best effort. The book involves three central characters who are united by their ties to a terrifying night seventeen years earlier when a man named Stewart Green disappeared. Two people saw Green in an isolated area, dead or very close to it. But neither reported the discovery; the body was never found, and Green is still officially listed as a missing person.
Ray Levine was once a world-class photographer, but he made a number of bad choices that came to a head that fateful night and now he has spiraled down to rock bottom, drinking heavily, living in a crappy apartment and working as a fake paparazzi. Jack Broome is the police detective who can't let go of the case that has haunted him all these years, and Megan Pierce is the suburban wife who's "living the ultimate soccer-mom fantasy and hating it."
Megan is also a woman with a very dark past that she escaped on that night seventeen years ago. After all this time, she decides to pull the curtain back just a bit for a quick glimpse into her former life. Just as she does, though, another man goes missing in the same way as Stewart Green. Everyone involved in the earlier case will be sucked into the new one, with potentially disastrous consequences for all of them.
As is usually the case in one of Harlan Coben's thrillers, this one moves fairly swiftly along, but I had a hard time moving with it. Unhappily, this is one of those books in which the main protagonist, in this case Megan Pierce, makes one astoundingly stupid decision after another, which is the only thing that allows the plot to advance beyond the first chapter. But after seventy-five pages or so, I simply stopped caring what happened to the woman. My attitude by that point was that a person as stupid as she deserved whatever bad things might happen to befall her. And once you stop caring about a book's central character, you usually stop caring about the book itself.
It doesn't help that at some points the writing seems unusually clunky and that the book contains a couple of villains who are simply unbelievable from the outset. By the last hundred pages or so, the book finally gets some traction and the conclusion is fairly satisfying, but by then it almost seems too little too late. Again, this is not a bad book, but a person new to the work of Harlan Coben would probably want to start with another of his efforts.
After writing a number of these books, Coben began writing stand-alone thrillers, and I followed dutifully along. Some of these books I liked a lot; others I thought did not work as well, usually because the author insisted on piling one implausible plot twist on top of another until the reader could no longer suspend disbelief and the entire structure collapsed in ruins.
Stay Close falls into the middle of the pack of Coben's books; it's okay, but it's certainly not his best effort. The book involves three central characters who are united by their ties to a terrifying night seventeen years earlier when a man named Stewart Green disappeared. Two people saw Green in an isolated area, dead or very close to it. But neither reported the discovery; the body was never found, and Green is still officially listed as a missing person.
Ray Levine was once a world-class photographer, but he made a number of bad choices that came to a head that fateful night and now he has spiraled down to rock bottom, drinking heavily, living in a crappy apartment and working as a fake paparazzi. Jack Broome is the police detective who can't let go of the case that has haunted him all these years, and Megan Pierce is the suburban wife who's "living the ultimate soccer-mom fantasy and hating it."
Megan is also a woman with a very dark past that she escaped on that night seventeen years ago. After all this time, she decides to pull the curtain back just a bit for a quick glimpse into her former life. Just as she does, though, another man goes missing in the same way as Stewart Green. Everyone involved in the earlier case will be sucked into the new one, with potentially disastrous consequences for all of them.
As is usually the case in one of Harlan Coben's thrillers, this one moves fairly swiftly along, but I had a hard time moving with it. Unhappily, this is one of those books in which the main protagonist, in this case Megan Pierce, makes one astoundingly stupid decision after another, which is the only thing that allows the plot to advance beyond the first chapter. But after seventy-five pages or so, I simply stopped caring what happened to the woman. My attitude by that point was that a person as stupid as she deserved whatever bad things might happen to befall her. And once you stop caring about a book's central character, you usually stop caring about the book itself.
It doesn't help that at some points the writing seems unusually clunky and that the book contains a couple of villains who are simply unbelievable from the outset. By the last hundred pages or so, the book finally gets some traction and the conclusion is fairly satisfying, but by then it almost seems too little too late. Again, this is not a bad book, but a person new to the work of Harlan Coben would probably want to start with another of his efforts.
June 5, 2019
This has probably been the weakest of the Coben thrillers that I’ve read, but like all of his other books is the interesting characters that help drive the plot.
The story follows Megan a suburban soccer mum, Ray a talented photographer and Broome a detective that is obsessed with a cold case from Seventeen years ago.
As the story unfolds its apparent that secrets from the past can’t be kept hidden forever...
Out of the three main characters I found Megan’s backstory the most interesting, the mystery itself is interesting but didn’t grip me enough like he��s other stories.
Enjoyably formulaic...
The story follows Megan a suburban soccer mum, Ray a talented photographer and Broome a detective that is obsessed with a cold case from Seventeen years ago.
As the story unfolds its apparent that secrets from the past can’t be kept hidden forever...
Out of the three main characters I found Megan’s backstory the most interesting, the mystery itself is interesting but didn’t grip me enough like he��s other stories.
Enjoyably formulaic...
April 2, 2022
In diesem Buch ist alles drin warum Harlon Coben, meiner Meinung nach, ein richtig guter Schriftsteller ist.😉 Bis zum Ende spannend und mit vielen Richtingswechsel. Das war nicht das letzte was ich von ihm gelesen habe.🙂
April 17, 2012
The worst crime novel I've read in years, and I've read a great many.
First off, the writing is so incredibly cornball that I had a minor following on twitter just tweeting the worst examples of it and making fun of them.*
Secondly, If you think you know who did it like 1/4 of the way in, you're right but the author adds an extra cup of cheesy pathos to the motive that undermines the only thing that was even mildly interesting about the killer.
Thirdly, the characters are flat and somewhat silly. The worst offender is the husband, who pouts and gives the silent treatment and generally acts like a seven year old because his wife was out past 1 a.m. (And yes, she'd told him she would be out late, she's just apparently the only woman in New Jersey with an immaturity-enforced curfew.) I was really, really, hoping he'd get killed off. Also, there's a guy named "Flaire" who wears a purple suit and jokes about S&M and taking bubble baths with Hugh Jackman, because like every woman in this book is incredibly physically attractive and kinda slutty, the gay guy has to be super-duper over the top gay.
Run away. Run FAR AWAY from this book.
*E.g. "the stale stench of hairspray and regret drifted toward him" is not the corniest line in this book. Indeed, the corniest line in this book is so incredibly bad you wouldn't believe me if I wrote it here.
First off, the writing is so incredibly cornball that I had a minor following on twitter just tweeting the worst examples of it and making fun of them.*
Secondly, If you think you know who did it like 1/4 of the way in, you're right but the author adds an extra cup of cheesy pathos to the motive that undermines the only thing that was even mildly interesting about the killer.
Thirdly, the characters are flat and somewhat silly. The worst offender is the husband, who pouts and gives the silent treatment and generally acts like a seven year old because his wife was out past 1 a.m. (And yes, she'd told him she would be out late, she's just apparently the only woman in New Jersey with an immaturity-enforced curfew.) I was really, really, hoping he'd get killed off. Also, there's a guy named "Flaire" who wears a purple suit and jokes about S&M and taking bubble baths with Hugh Jackman, because like every woman in this book is incredibly physically attractive and kinda slutty, the gay guy has to be super-duper over the top gay.
Run away. Run FAR AWAY from this book.
*E.g. "the stale stench of hairspray and regret drifted toward him" is not the corniest line in this book. Indeed, the corniest line in this book is so incredibly bad you wouldn't believe me if I wrote it here.
September 2, 2020
3.5 stars
A bit cornier than Harlan Coben's first three books I've read. Maybe it's because of the seedy personalities of the characters or maybe it's the cliche-ish descriptions and yet it's still very entertaining and yet again, I just couldn't stop reading. I now call it the “Coben Effect”.
I feel like the author can make anything interesting, can make even a lactose intolerant get addicted to milkshakes without any regrets.
And in the end, things still made perfect sense. The plot divulged that the characters are more than who they seem. The irony is not lost on me. The real bad guys are the ones who look perfectly put together.
A bit cornier than Harlan Coben's first three books I've read. Maybe it's because of the seedy personalities of the characters or maybe it's the cliche-ish descriptions and yet it's still very entertaining and yet again, I just couldn't stop reading. I now call it the “Coben Effect”.
I feel like the author can make anything interesting, can make even a lactose intolerant get addicted to milkshakes without any regrets.
And in the end, things still made perfect sense. The plot divulged that the characters are more than who they seem. The irony is not lost on me. The real bad guys are the ones who look perfectly put together.
February 28, 2017
“The past is never where you think you left it.”
----Katherine Anne Porter
Harlan Coben, an international bestselling author, has penned a gripping crime thriller, Stay Close that revolves around three characters, one who has hid her past but now it is threatening to wipe out her perfect life, the other laments on his broken heart and the reasons behind it and barely manages to make his ends meet and the last one has become a maniac upon investigating the case of a missing man that happened 17 years ago, and the future looks bleak for these three characters, as the missing person count begins to rise in the same manner, their pasts come undone.
Synopsis:
Megan is a suburban soccer mom who once upon a time walked on the wild side. Now she’s got two kids, a perfect husband, a picket fence, and a growing sense of dissatisfaction. Ray used to be a talented documentary photographer, but at age forty he finds himself in a dead-end job posing as a paparazzo pandering to celebrity-obsessed rich kids. Jack is a detective who can’t let go of a cold case—a local husband and father disappeared seventeen years ago, and Jack spends the anniversary every year visiting a house frozen in time, the missing man’s family still waiting, his slippers left by the recliner as if he might show up any moment to step into them. Three people living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect, will find that the past doesn’t recede. Even as the terrible consequences of long-ago events crash together in the present and threaten to ruin lives, they will come to the startling realization that they may not want to forget the past at all. And as each confronts the dark side of the American Dream—the boredom of a nice suburban life, the excitement of temptation, the desperation and hunger that can lurk behind even the prettiest facades—they will discover the hard truth that the line between one kind of life and another can be as whisper-thin as a heartbeat. With his trademark combination of page-turning thrills and unrivaled insight into the dark shadows that creep into even the happiest communities, Harlan Coben delivers a thriller that cements his status as the master of domestic suspense.
Megan Pierce, the once-upon-a-time-a-Vegas-stripper, misses her old glittery and glam life a lot, especially in the midst of her hectic yet satisfying daily routine of her current life. Megan is now a mother of two children and wife of an average lawyer living in the suburbs with not much worry about the past life that she has successfully buried on the night of Mardi Gras almost seventeen years ago, when one of her client goes missing suspiciously and unfortunately Megan becomes a prime suspect in her client's disappearance. But her old life comes knocking at her door, when a short visit to the nightclub where she worked as a stripper, turns threatening not only for her but also for her family, and Megan must discreetly come clean about the untold secrets about the night she left behind everything in hope of a clean future.
Ray Levine, the once-upon-a-time-popular-photographer, still holds on to the memory of his runaway girlfriend, Cassie who was a stripper, and broods and sulks his day away by barely keeping hold onto his on-hire-paparazzi-job by a weak thread. Little did Ray knew that a surprise mugging of his camera and his equipment would lead him back to the night of Mardi Gras when Cassie became MIA without a reason and so her client. Detective Broome is still searching for Stewart Green, the man who went missing seventeen years ago on the night of Mardi Gras without a a trace as he has promised Green's wife and his family that somehow he would give them a closure, although now, another high profile man goes missing in the exact same manner on the same night seventeen years later and all the clues lead him back to the stripper who went missing along with Green. Can the three individual characters find one another before they become a pawn to a dangerous game or become a victim on the hit-list of a ruthless contract killer couple?
After reading Fool Me Once, I held high standards for this author and felt that even his previous books too are equally good. Although the plot is pretty tight but the anticipation of the whodunit felt pretty weak. And sadly, this book has failed to intrigue or thrill me in any way possible. Nevertheless, the story line is captivating and the rush of the mystery kept me engaged pretty much the entire length of this novel. For me, this was a satisfying read but not too satisfying for my gray matter, as the challenges and the twists come undone halfway through the story line.
The author's writing is something, as the author has penned in an arresting manner and it felt like the author knows how to lure his readers into the heart of his story. The narrative is both sentimental and appealing enough to make the readers stick to the pages of this book like a moth stuck on a glowing light bulb. The pacing is extremely fast and the whole story unravels at the speed of some unpredictably wild tornado.
The mystery part, like I mentioned before, isn't that well developed. The twists and the predictable turns are extremely foreseeable not only for any seasoned crime-fiction reader but also for a general reader too. There is a bit of action and lots of drama that makes the tale spicy yet something to hold on to, despite the mushiness.
The one thing that makes Coben's books a sure shot winner is the characters, which shine like a gem through their flaws, strength and humanity. The characters are real to their very core and will constantly make the readers comprehend with their behavior, be it bad or positive. The main character, Megan is an excellent character, she has many flaws, but a great wife-cum-mother who is protective towards her family yet dedicated enough to get to the bottom of the stinking mystery behind her missing client. Ray is a sympathetic character and his bad luck follows him like a shadow, but his determination to find Cassie is extraordinary. Broome is a thoughtful homicide cop, whose vow to Green's wife gives him hope to investigate the mystery behind the missing men and the strippers related to them.
In a nutshell, this is an enthralling yet entertaining crime thriller that will better be enjoyed by general readers instead of the dedicated fans of the crime fiction genre.
Verdict: There are better books written by this author! So this one can be easily skipped.
----Katherine Anne Porter
Harlan Coben, an international bestselling author, has penned a gripping crime thriller, Stay Close that revolves around three characters, one who has hid her past but now it is threatening to wipe out her perfect life, the other laments on his broken heart and the reasons behind it and barely manages to make his ends meet and the last one has become a maniac upon investigating the case of a missing man that happened 17 years ago, and the future looks bleak for these three characters, as the missing person count begins to rise in the same manner, their pasts come undone.
Synopsis:
Megan is a suburban soccer mom who once upon a time walked on the wild side. Now she’s got two kids, a perfect husband, a picket fence, and a growing sense of dissatisfaction. Ray used to be a talented documentary photographer, but at age forty he finds himself in a dead-end job posing as a paparazzo pandering to celebrity-obsessed rich kids. Jack is a detective who can’t let go of a cold case—a local husband and father disappeared seventeen years ago, and Jack spends the anniversary every year visiting a house frozen in time, the missing man’s family still waiting, his slippers left by the recliner as if he might show up any moment to step into them. Three people living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect, will find that the past doesn’t recede. Even as the terrible consequences of long-ago events crash together in the present and threaten to ruin lives, they will come to the startling realization that they may not want to forget the past at all. And as each confronts the dark side of the American Dream—the boredom of a nice suburban life, the excitement of temptation, the desperation and hunger that can lurk behind even the prettiest facades—they will discover the hard truth that the line between one kind of life and another can be as whisper-thin as a heartbeat. With his trademark combination of page-turning thrills and unrivaled insight into the dark shadows that creep into even the happiest communities, Harlan Coben delivers a thriller that cements his status as the master of domestic suspense.
Megan Pierce, the once-upon-a-time-a-Vegas-stripper, misses her old glittery and glam life a lot, especially in the midst of her hectic yet satisfying daily routine of her current life. Megan is now a mother of two children and wife of an average lawyer living in the suburbs with not much worry about the past life that she has successfully buried on the night of Mardi Gras almost seventeen years ago, when one of her client goes missing suspiciously and unfortunately Megan becomes a prime suspect in her client's disappearance. But her old life comes knocking at her door, when a short visit to the nightclub where she worked as a stripper, turns threatening not only for her but also for her family, and Megan must discreetly come clean about the untold secrets about the night she left behind everything in hope of a clean future.
Ray Levine, the once-upon-a-time-popular-photographer, still holds on to the memory of his runaway girlfriend, Cassie who was a stripper, and broods and sulks his day away by barely keeping hold onto his on-hire-paparazzi-job by a weak thread. Little did Ray knew that a surprise mugging of his camera and his equipment would lead him back to the night of Mardi Gras when Cassie became MIA without a reason and so her client. Detective Broome is still searching for Stewart Green, the man who went missing seventeen years ago on the night of Mardi Gras without a a trace as he has promised Green's wife and his family that somehow he would give them a closure, although now, another high profile man goes missing in the exact same manner on the same night seventeen years later and all the clues lead him back to the stripper who went missing along with Green. Can the three individual characters find one another before they become a pawn to a dangerous game or become a victim on the hit-list of a ruthless contract killer couple?
After reading Fool Me Once, I held high standards for this author and felt that even his previous books too are equally good. Although the plot is pretty tight but the anticipation of the whodunit felt pretty weak. And sadly, this book has failed to intrigue or thrill me in any way possible. Nevertheless, the story line is captivating and the rush of the mystery kept me engaged pretty much the entire length of this novel. For me, this was a satisfying read but not too satisfying for my gray matter, as the challenges and the twists come undone halfway through the story line.
The author's writing is something, as the author has penned in an arresting manner and it felt like the author knows how to lure his readers into the heart of his story. The narrative is both sentimental and appealing enough to make the readers stick to the pages of this book like a moth stuck on a glowing light bulb. The pacing is extremely fast and the whole story unravels at the speed of some unpredictably wild tornado.
The mystery part, like I mentioned before, isn't that well developed. The twists and the predictable turns are extremely foreseeable not only for any seasoned crime-fiction reader but also for a general reader too. There is a bit of action and lots of drama that makes the tale spicy yet something to hold on to, despite the mushiness.
The one thing that makes Coben's books a sure shot winner is the characters, which shine like a gem through their flaws, strength and humanity. The characters are real to their very core and will constantly make the readers comprehend with their behavior, be it bad or positive. The main character, Megan is an excellent character, she has many flaws, but a great wife-cum-mother who is protective towards her family yet dedicated enough to get to the bottom of the stinking mystery behind her missing client. Ray is a sympathetic character and his bad luck follows him like a shadow, but his determination to find Cassie is extraordinary. Broome is a thoughtful homicide cop, whose vow to Green's wife gives him hope to investigate the mystery behind the missing men and the strippers related to them.
In a nutshell, this is an enthralling yet entertaining crime thriller that will better be enjoyed by general readers instead of the dedicated fans of the crime fiction genre.
Verdict: There are better books written by this author! So this one can be easily skipped.
November 8, 2015
I don’t think that I have read a Harlen Coben before, although I may be wrong, but I am going to make an effort to read more of him, not because I particularly enjoyed this one, I didn’t, but I have a sneaking suspicion this is not him at his best.
The story line itself is not bad at all. Three people all with a hidden past. Megan is the typical suburban mum but used to be a stripper. Ray used to be a respected photographer but is now reduced to posing as a paparazzi for celebrity experience parties. Broome is a detective who is haunted by the fact that he has been unable to solve the 17 year old case of a missing man. For Megan and Ray, secrets of the past are coming back to haunt them in this serial killer story.
It is a story with a lot of characters and action, it wasn’t boring at all to read but it did sometimes feel a little disjointed when going between the different viewpoints, plus there were a couple of strange little plot holes stuck in there which really bugged me. A couple of quite important scenes in the book were not shown either, just told about later and that also really irritated me.
Did I guess who the serial killer was? Yes, about three quarters of the way through but I did keep reading to the end anyway just to make sure I was right and also to get one or two things straight in my mind which just were not making any sense to me. These little niggles were ironed out in the epilogue but I have to say that something just still did not seem right, it all felt just a little tenuous to me.
Finally, I can’t quite get my head around the fact that a woman who had escaped from a life of stripping in the clubs and was now living the affluent American Dream could actually miss her former lifestyle. Just – no!
The story line itself is not bad at all. Three people all with a hidden past. Megan is the typical suburban mum but used to be a stripper. Ray used to be a respected photographer but is now reduced to posing as a paparazzi for celebrity experience parties. Broome is a detective who is haunted by the fact that he has been unable to solve the 17 year old case of a missing man. For Megan and Ray, secrets of the past are coming back to haunt them in this serial killer story.
It is a story with a lot of characters and action, it wasn’t boring at all to read but it did sometimes feel a little disjointed when going between the different viewpoints, plus there were a couple of strange little plot holes stuck in there which really bugged me. A couple of quite important scenes in the book were not shown either, just told about later and that also really irritated me.
Did I guess who the serial killer was? Yes, about three quarters of the way through but I did keep reading to the end anyway just to make sure I was right and also to get one or two things straight in my mind which just were not making any sense to me. These little niggles were ironed out in the epilogue but I have to say that something just still did not seem right, it all felt just a little tenuous to me.
Finally, I can’t quite get my head around the fact that a woman who had escaped from a life of stripping in the clubs and was now living the affluent American Dream could actually miss her former lifestyle. Just – no!
October 24, 2021
Another really good book by Harlan Coben. This was a big mystery with 3 people from different walks of life all involved in some way. It took a lot to figure out "who done it" but by the end after eleminating so many characters, I did figure it out at about the time the story was telling it. A lot of his books take placed in NJ and I lived there at one time so I enjoy reading about places I have visited. this one took place a lot in Atlantic City, a very interesting place, lots of interesting characters. So I enjoyed reading this and definitelyl recommend for a good mystery/thriller.
March 28, 2012
I was disappointed in this book when compared to many of his past books, which I have greatly enjoyed. It felt as if the book had been rushed and put together quickly. I did not feel it had the depth and strong plot as I would expect from this author.
May 29, 2012
According to his website, Harlan Coben has 50 million books in print worldwide, making him the most underappreciated author of our time. If readers truly appreciated the man, he’d have four or five times that many books in print. Until now I was one of those who did not appreciate him. My wife recommended his books to me several times over the years. So did a friend of mine. For one reason or another, I never read one until just now. I’m a convert. I get why he does so well despite having half of his works published as stand-alone books (10 Myron Bolitar books, 2 Mickey Bolitar books, and 11 stand alone.)
There has long been a debate among book snobs about plot-driven versus character-driven novels. The former often being code for ‘commercial’ fiction and the latter being code for ‘literary’. College professors and MFA graduates turn up their noses at commercial fiction and preach the higher arts. Patterson, Child, Grafton, Cussler, Roberts, Deaver, et al, just write to entertain. Guess which one is more exciting to read? Guess which types of authors live well? Shakespeare was considered ‘commercial’ in 1599 (he was not revered until the 19th Century when the Victorians ushered in popularity that George Bernard Shaw called ‘Bardolotry’). However, before we dismiss the beauty and reading pleasure of literary, we should note that character depth gives the reader more emotional investment and heightens the tension of a story. We don’t see it as often as we might because it also slows down the pace of a thriller.
Mr. Coben straddles that fence like a world class tightrope walker. He brings the balance to the highest plain currently available. From the opening page the reader is taken deep inside the character’s head. This is from page one:
That horrible moment—the moment Ray’s life changed completely, transforming him from a man with a future and aspirations into this Grade-A loser you see in front of you—never visited him in his dreams or when he sat alone in the dark. The devastating visions waited until he was wide-awake, surrounded by people, busy at what some might sarcastically dub work.
Sure, that is one of the opening grab-ya statements we mystery/thriller authors are always throwing at you on page one. And it is a great example of just that. However, it keeps going, page after page. You get deeper into the story and find beautiful passages of realism that any parent, having weathered a few teenage years, will tell you rings the ‘yep, been there, said that’ bell:
Out in the backyard, Kaylie, her fifteen-year-old daughter, was picking on her younger brother, Jordan. Megan sighed and opened the window. “Cut it out, Kaylie.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“I’m standing right here watching you.”
Details in the minutia paint a more complete picture that brings us closer to the characters. When we’re closer, we care more. Despite the fact that this story is populated with lower-class people who fought or forged their way out of the strip clubs and seedy side, we care about them and want them to succeed. (Wouldn’t it be great if real life were like that? Where we actually cared about losers? Yeah. Well.)
We even care about the killer, right up, and maybe even through, the end. The killer is a murdering swine of course. But one who, in certain circles, could be viewed as having done the right thing. Only a brilliant writer could have readers scratching their heads at the ending: Was that OK? Was there a certain type of justice in that? Or was that just a sick society creating another celebrity to satisfy our bizarre and conflicted needs?
Definitely worth reading. I’m even going back to read his back list.
See SeeleyJames.com
There has long been a debate among book snobs about plot-driven versus character-driven novels. The former often being code for ‘commercial’ fiction and the latter being code for ‘literary’. College professors and MFA graduates turn up their noses at commercial fiction and preach the higher arts. Patterson, Child, Grafton, Cussler, Roberts, Deaver, et al, just write to entertain. Guess which one is more exciting to read? Guess which types of authors live well? Shakespeare was considered ‘commercial’ in 1599 (he was not revered until the 19th Century when the Victorians ushered in popularity that George Bernard Shaw called ‘Bardolotry’). However, before we dismiss the beauty and reading pleasure of literary, we should note that character depth gives the reader more emotional investment and heightens the tension of a story. We don’t see it as often as we might because it also slows down the pace of a thriller.
Mr. Coben straddles that fence like a world class tightrope walker. He brings the balance to the highest plain currently available. From the opening page the reader is taken deep inside the character’s head. This is from page one:
That horrible moment—the moment Ray’s life changed completely, transforming him from a man with a future and aspirations into this Grade-A loser you see in front of you—never visited him in his dreams or when he sat alone in the dark. The devastating visions waited until he was wide-awake, surrounded by people, busy at what some might sarcastically dub work.
Sure, that is one of the opening grab-ya statements we mystery/thriller authors are always throwing at you on page one. And it is a great example of just that. However, it keeps going, page after page. You get deeper into the story and find beautiful passages of realism that any parent, having weathered a few teenage years, will tell you rings the ‘yep, been there, said that’ bell:
Out in the backyard, Kaylie, her fifteen-year-old daughter, was picking on her younger brother, Jordan. Megan sighed and opened the window. “Cut it out, Kaylie.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“I’m standing right here watching you.”
Details in the minutia paint a more complete picture that brings us closer to the characters. When we’re closer, we care more. Despite the fact that this story is populated with lower-class people who fought or forged their way out of the strip clubs and seedy side, we care about them and want them to succeed. (Wouldn’t it be great if real life were like that? Where we actually cared about losers? Yeah. Well.)
We even care about the killer, right up, and maybe even through, the end. The killer is a murdering swine of course. But one who, in certain circles, could be viewed as having done the right thing. Only a brilliant writer could have readers scratching their heads at the ending: Was that OK? Was there a certain type of justice in that? Or was that just a sick society creating another celebrity to satisfy our bizarre and conflicted needs?
Definitely worth reading. I’m even going back to read his back list.
See SeeleyJames.com
February 19, 2012
Not a surprise to lead off a review by saying this author has done it once again. A truly fascinating tale of suspense that delves into the lives of three people who thought they knew what they wanted. Alas, they just can’t quite seem to find a way to forget the incredibly dark past they’ve left behind.
Ray Levine was once a talented documentary photographer, but upon reaching middle-age he finds himself at a job posing as a paparazzo, chasing celebrity parents and kids around, taking pictures for their albums. Megan Pierce was once a ‘playgirl’ who worked in Vegas, and now she’s a soccer mom with two children, a husband she loves, and a perfect home with a picket fence. Yet even with all of this, she’s beginning to feel very dissatisfied with her lot in life. Jack Broome is a detective who is just not able to let go of a ‘cold case’ regarding a man who disappeared seventeen years ago. Every year Jack spends the anniversary of the man’s death at a house that resides in the past, where the missing man’s family is still waiting for him to come home - his shoes still left by the recliner as if he will walk in the door at any moment.
One awful night, eighteen years ago, the lives of these three people were changed for all time. Now living lives they really don’t want, each one is hiding some very deep, dark secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect. Led by a past that will never go away, the trio return to the place of their trials to find out the truth at long last. As each one faces their own private hell, they soon find a story that has been lurking between the lines of their boring present and their dark, exciting past.
With Mr. Coben’s combination of thrills and intelligence, he leads readers into the ‘dark side’ of life and delivers his trademark style of exhilarating and captivating writing in a true novel of suspense.
Ray Levine was once a talented documentary photographer, but upon reaching middle-age he finds himself at a job posing as a paparazzo, chasing celebrity parents and kids around, taking pictures for their albums. Megan Pierce was once a ‘playgirl’ who worked in Vegas, and now she’s a soccer mom with two children, a husband she loves, and a perfect home with a picket fence. Yet even with all of this, she’s beginning to feel very dissatisfied with her lot in life. Jack Broome is a detective who is just not able to let go of a ‘cold case’ regarding a man who disappeared seventeen years ago. Every year Jack spends the anniversary of the man’s death at a house that resides in the past, where the missing man’s family is still waiting for him to come home - his shoes still left by the recliner as if he will walk in the door at any moment.
One awful night, eighteen years ago, the lives of these three people were changed for all time. Now living lives they really don’t want, each one is hiding some very deep, dark secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect. Led by a past that will never go away, the trio return to the place of their trials to find out the truth at long last. As each one faces their own private hell, they soon find a story that has been lurking between the lines of their boring present and their dark, exciting past.
With Mr. Coben’s combination of thrills and intelligence, he leads readers into the ‘dark side’ of life and delivers his trademark style of exhilarating and captivating writing in a true novel of suspense.
March 28, 2012
I like Harlan Coben's novels, having read nearly all of them. But Stay Close was one of the worst of his books, along the same line as those two earlier novels that he reissued after making it big. I even turned back to the first few pages to see if it was an earlier effort of his, but no, I am sorry to say, he wrote this book after all those other wonderful novels he is known for. Could have fooled me.
Stay Close is about three people who are haunted by the past, both desiring and fearing elements of the lives they used to live, along with the choices they have made in leaving the past behind them. The problem is, I did not care about any of them. Ray, Broome, and Megan were shallow and pathetic people who spent more time mooning over the past than living in the present. It did not help that the author did not take the time to develop them fully. By the end of the book, I did not care if any of them lived or died. I simply did not want any collateral damage along the way as they mucked things up for anyone who cared about them.
As for the writing, it was rather awful compared to what Coben can do when he puts his mind to it. Rather than have believable characters the reader can care about, he has presented us with puppets, and pages and pages of inner dialogue as they justify their stupid choices so that the author can fit things into this unlikely story. There are giant leaps of logic during the investigation so that the detective, Broome, can tie everything together quickly and move the story along. The dialogue was stilted and full of trite phrases.
Am I being too critical? And could I do any better myself? 'No' to both questions. If he were a first time author, I would cut him some slack, but I expect more of this talented author. I will be waiting for his next book, crossing my fingers, hoping that this book was not a taste of things to come.
Stay Close is about three people who are haunted by the past, both desiring and fearing elements of the lives they used to live, along with the choices they have made in leaving the past behind them. The problem is, I did not care about any of them. Ray, Broome, and Megan were shallow and pathetic people who spent more time mooning over the past than living in the present. It did not help that the author did not take the time to develop them fully. By the end of the book, I did not care if any of them lived or died. I simply did not want any collateral damage along the way as they mucked things up for anyone who cared about them.
As for the writing, it was rather awful compared to what Coben can do when he puts his mind to it. Rather than have believable characters the reader can care about, he has presented us with puppets, and pages and pages of inner dialogue as they justify their stupid choices so that the author can fit things into this unlikely story. There are giant leaps of logic during the investigation so that the detective, Broome, can tie everything together quickly and move the story along. The dialogue was stilted and full of trite phrases.
Am I being too critical? And could I do any better myself? 'No' to both questions. If he were a first time author, I would cut him some slack, but I expect more of this talented author. I will be waiting for his next book, crossing my fingers, hoping that this book was not a taste of things to come.
September 5, 2012
Has Coben Formula Gone Stale? I think it has. This book is still enjoyable, but all too familiar.
I fell in love with Harlan Coben after reading NO SECOND CHANCE, GONE FOR GOOD, and THE INNOCENT in the span of a couple of weeks. I loved his characters, his originality, his plot twists, his humor, his villains. Basically, I couldn't get enough of Coben. I still enjoy his novels, still make them a priority, but his latest, STAY CLOSE, seems a little stale. He's gone to the well once too often. The characters are almost always the same. A suburban housewife with a secret past. A stripper with a heart of gold. A Jewish alpha-male lead.
This time, Ray Levine's life is in shambles, and it has been ever since that one day 17 years ago where something horrible happened at that abandoned ore factory. Megan Pierce was at the ore factory that night, but escaped, and now lives in bliss in suburbia with two kids and a doting husband. But, Megan hides a dark past, and that past is calling to her. Detective Broome can't let go of the disappearance of Stewart Green. Every year, on the anniversary of his disappearance, Broome visits his wife. Broome hears that someone recently spotted Stewart Green. What could Ray Levine and Megan Pierce have to do with it.
What happened that night that would change the lives of so many people? That's the question of this novel. All twists and surprises revolve around what happened that night, so while the plot twists and turns throughout, all events point toward that night 17 years ago.
With this novel, Coben seemed to be tackling the theme of regret and holding onto the past, which is what both Ray and Megan are doing. The past destroyed Ray, and Megan wonders if she'd be better off as she was rather than with the husband and kids. I admire Coben going that direction with the novel.
I'm still going to read all of Coben's novels, but STAY CLOSE is just so unoriginal. Plot points and characters seem ripped from earlier novels. I know it is easier to write what you know, but maybe its time Coben set a novel outside of New Jersey and did some research into creating some original characters.
I fell in love with Harlan Coben after reading NO SECOND CHANCE, GONE FOR GOOD, and THE INNOCENT in the span of a couple of weeks. I loved his characters, his originality, his plot twists, his humor, his villains. Basically, I couldn't get enough of Coben. I still enjoy his novels, still make them a priority, but his latest, STAY CLOSE, seems a little stale. He's gone to the well once too often. The characters are almost always the same. A suburban housewife with a secret past. A stripper with a heart of gold. A Jewish alpha-male lead.
This time, Ray Levine's life is in shambles, and it has been ever since that one day 17 years ago where something horrible happened at that abandoned ore factory. Megan Pierce was at the ore factory that night, but escaped, and now lives in bliss in suburbia with two kids and a doting husband. But, Megan hides a dark past, and that past is calling to her. Detective Broome can't let go of the disappearance of Stewart Green. Every year, on the anniversary of his disappearance, Broome visits his wife. Broome hears that someone recently spotted Stewart Green. What could Ray Levine and Megan Pierce have to do with it.
What happened that night that would change the lives of so many people? That's the question of this novel. All twists and surprises revolve around what happened that night, so while the plot twists and turns throughout, all events point toward that night 17 years ago.
With this novel, Coben seemed to be tackling the theme of regret and holding onto the past, which is what both Ray and Megan are doing. The past destroyed Ray, and Megan wonders if she'd be better off as she was rather than with the husband and kids. I admire Coben going that direction with the novel.
I'm still going to read all of Coben's novels, but STAY CLOSE is just so unoriginal. Plot points and characters seem ripped from earlier novels. I know it is easier to write what you know, but maybe its time Coben set a novel outside of New Jersey and did some research into creating some original characters.
November 19, 2012
Harlan Coben is one of my all time favourite authors and I wasn’t disappointed by Stay Close.
We have the usual mix of damaged characters, who are never quite what they seem, and an ending that I simply didn’t see coming at all.
One of the damaged is Megan, seemingly happily married with a loving husband and family. But seventeen years ago Megan used to live on the wild side and is now finding her longed for domesticity stifling. Taking a trip into her past connects her with a series of unsolved murders, threatening her life and present day happiness.
The other main character, Ray Levine, is a photographer who used to be at the top of his field. Haunted by a blood-soaked crime scene seventeen years earlier, his career nosedived and he now takes on sleazy faux paparazzi assignments to keep a roof over his head.
Detective Broome is still determined to solve a seventeen year old case. When another man disappears, the paths of Megan, Ray and Broome cross, with devastating consequences.
As the death-toll rises the plot twists and turns in completely unexpected ways. Just when the reader thinks they know what is going to happen next, Coben takes them off in a new direction.
I can usually work out who did what and why – but not in this case. It is, quite simply, a wonderful read and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
We have the usual mix of damaged characters, who are never quite what they seem, and an ending that I simply didn’t see coming at all.
One of the damaged is Megan, seemingly happily married with a loving husband and family. But seventeen years ago Megan used to live on the wild side and is now finding her longed for domesticity stifling. Taking a trip into her past connects her with a series of unsolved murders, threatening her life and present day happiness.
The other main character, Ray Levine, is a photographer who used to be at the top of his field. Haunted by a blood-soaked crime scene seventeen years earlier, his career nosedived and he now takes on sleazy faux paparazzi assignments to keep a roof over his head.
Detective Broome is still determined to solve a seventeen year old case. When another man disappears, the paths of Megan, Ray and Broome cross, with devastating consequences.
As the death-toll rises the plot twists and turns in completely unexpected ways. Just when the reader thinks they know what is going to happen next, Coben takes them off in a new direction.
I can usually work out who did what and why – but not in this case. It is, quite simply, a wonderful read and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
August 29, 2017
*1.5 stars
This was my third book by Harlan Coben, and will likely be my last. While he is undeniably a deft plotter, even when dealing with various strings and many characters to tie together, the characters are what really fall flat in my opinion. I am one of those readers who can be won over by compelling characters even if the plot is slightly weak, but decent plot AND weak characters leave no impression on me (except this negative one I am writing now, though the book as a whole is enormously forgettable. In fact, I cannot remember the plot of the other two I read by him either, except that in the end, the person with the gun won. Not particularly elegant...)
Anyway, the story doesn't need to be summarized, as that is done so well already. My points are simply that the story is formulaic to the extreme, the characters are bland and unbelievable (Coben likes to bring in former prostitutes and strippers who yearn for the "good old days"?!?), and the setting is so bleak and blah I just want to forget all about it.
I can't bring myself to give only one star to a book I actually finished, but as I said, the plot is the one thing it has going for it and I wanted to know the ending.
All in all, I'd say give it a miss.
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
This was my third book by Harlan Coben, and will likely be my last. While he is undeniably a deft plotter, even when dealing with various strings and many characters to tie together, the characters are what really fall flat in my opinion. I am one of those readers who can be won over by compelling characters even if the plot is slightly weak, but decent plot AND weak characters leave no impression on me (except this negative one I am writing now, though the book as a whole is enormously forgettable. In fact, I cannot remember the plot of the other two I read by him either, except that in the end, the person with the gun won. Not particularly elegant...)
Anyway, the story doesn't need to be summarized, as that is done so well already. My points are simply that the story is formulaic to the extreme, the characters are bland and unbelievable (Coben likes to bring in former prostitutes and strippers who yearn for the "good old days"?!?), and the setting is so bleak and blah I just want to forget all about it.
I can't bring myself to give only one star to a book I actually finished, but as I said, the plot is the one thing it has going for it and I wanted to know the ending.
All in all, I'd say give it a miss.
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
April 16, 2015
I came across this author only a couple of years ago and have since enjoyed quite a few of his books.
While this one wasn't my favorite it was an enjoyable read.
This book is about three people with huge secrets that no one knows or would suspect. Megan is a soccer mom with a secret wild past. Ray was once talented documentary photographer, but now poses as a paparazzo. Lastly Detective Broome with an obsession to a cold case.
This book definitely shows that no matter how we try to hide and bury our secrets from our past they will always in some way influence our present. Everyone has secrets and some of the people you would never guess can have the most disturbing ones of all.
I read this book in a little over two days. It was an exciting story with lots of twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end.
While this one wasn't my favorite it was an enjoyable read.
This book is about three people with huge secrets that no one knows or would suspect. Megan is a soccer mom with a secret wild past. Ray was once talented documentary photographer, but now poses as a paparazzo. Lastly Detective Broome with an obsession to a cold case.
This book definitely shows that no matter how we try to hide and bury our secrets from our past they will always in some way influence our present. Everyone has secrets and some of the people you would never guess can have the most disturbing ones of all.
I read this book in a little over two days. It was an exciting story with lots of twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end.
April 13, 2024
Малка, динамична книга, която те въвлича в история изпълнена с тайни, неизказани думи и скрити между редовете истини.
Началото ми бе малко трудно, трябваше ми малко време, за да свикна с динамиката и стилът на писане, но след около 20-30 страници не можех да спра да чета.
Историята те увлича, тръпнеш да научиш всяка малка подробност около героите и техните истории.
Авторът обхваща гледните точки на няколко персонажа, оплитайки ги по интересен начин, давайки възможност на читателя на изследва различни перспективи на дадени събития.
Особено интересни (и бих казала малко плашещи) ми бяха частите от Кен и Барби, които бих определила частично като антагонисти в романа, макар и да не се явяваха точно такива.
Ако си търсите нещо вдигащо пулса и раздвижвайки съзнанието, то определено е тази малка книга.
Началото ми бе малко трудно, трябваше ми малко време, за да свикна с динамиката и стилът на писане, но след около 20-30 страници не можех да спра да чета.
Историята те увлича, тръпнеш да научиш всяка малка подробност около героите и техните истории.
Авторът обхваща гледните точки на няколко персонажа, оплитайки ги по интересен начин, давайки възможност на читателя на изследва различни перспективи на дадени събития.
Особено интересни (и бих казала малко плашещи) ми бяха частите от Кен и Барби, които бих определила частично като антагонисти в романа, макар и да не се явяваха точно такива.
Ако си търсите нещо вдигащо пулса и раздвижвайки съзнанието, то определено е тази малка книга.
May 12, 2012
On the surface Megan is the typical suburban wife and mother. Living in a beautiful house with her loving husband and two children, her life behind the picket fence appears picture perfect. But Megan has a secret. Seventeen years ago she fled Atlantic City and her old life. A life in which she was called Cassie and worked as a dancer in a seedy place called La Crème. And although she knows she should be grateful that she had a chance to leave her old life behind and start a fresh one, part of her still misses the excitement of the those days.
Ray Levine is a photographer. He used to be very successful in that career but for the past seventeen years he’s been haunted by visions of blood, too much blood, and incapable to keep himself together enough to do more than sleazy and cheap assignments.
Broome is a police detective who has never been able to let go of a seventeen year old, unsolved case. Back than, on the eighteenth of March a man disappeared never to be seen or heard from again. And although the general consensus is that the man had run of with his stripper girlfriend, Broome never was and still isn’t convinced of that.
When, on the eighteenth of March, seventeen years later, another man disappears, Megan, Ray and Broome are all drawn back to the events that altered their lives in such substantial ways.
Three people are given the opportunity to revisit the past and maybe right old wrongs. But they are not the only ones taking an interest in the new disappearance. And those others who are trying to find answers have no scruples or qualms about their methods.
When it appears that this may be more than just a case of two missing men, when the death-toll rises and the solution appears no clearer than it was in the past, lives, sanity and happiness may fall victim to a very clever and manipulative mind.
Harlan Coben has long been one of my favourite authors. I may not have read every single one of his books, but I haven’t missed many of them because he writes damn good thrillers.
Coben has to be one of the masters of this genre. He takes seemingly normal, every day people and puts them in situations out of their control, puts them through their paces and facing near impossible dilemmas. And just when it seems impossible that they might resolve their situation he will throw them a life-line or they will exceed their own and the reader’s expectations and the story continues.
To call this book a page-turner would be an understatement. I dare anyone to start this book and linger on it. These pages are filled with twists and turns, heart-stopping scenes and cliff-hangers. Just when the reader thinks they know where the story is going and pride themselves on having it all figured out, Coben throws them on another loop and nothing is the way it seemed just a few pages before.
These days, I often pride myself on being able to figure out what exactly is going on before the moment in the story when the writer wants me to know the answers. That was not the case in this book. The resolution of this story took me by surprise as much as it did the characters in the book, which for me only added to the reading enjoyment.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good thriller, but I guess those people have probably been reading Coben’s books for years. Therefore, I would also tell people who don’t usually read thrillers but would like to try one, to pick up Stay Close. I would be surprised if they didn’t turn around and stay with the genre. Because this is one terrific read.
Ray Levine is a photographer. He used to be very successful in that career but for the past seventeen years he’s been haunted by visions of blood, too much blood, and incapable to keep himself together enough to do more than sleazy and cheap assignments.
Broome is a police detective who has never been able to let go of a seventeen year old, unsolved case. Back than, on the eighteenth of March a man disappeared never to be seen or heard from again. And although the general consensus is that the man had run of with his stripper girlfriend, Broome never was and still isn’t convinced of that.
When, on the eighteenth of March, seventeen years later, another man disappears, Megan, Ray and Broome are all drawn back to the events that altered their lives in such substantial ways.
Three people are given the opportunity to revisit the past and maybe right old wrongs. But they are not the only ones taking an interest in the new disappearance. And those others who are trying to find answers have no scruples or qualms about their methods.
When it appears that this may be more than just a case of two missing men, when the death-toll rises and the solution appears no clearer than it was in the past, lives, sanity and happiness may fall victim to a very clever and manipulative mind.
Harlan Coben has long been one of my favourite authors. I may not have read every single one of his books, but I haven’t missed many of them because he writes damn good thrillers.
Coben has to be one of the masters of this genre. He takes seemingly normal, every day people and puts them in situations out of their control, puts them through their paces and facing near impossible dilemmas. And just when it seems impossible that they might resolve their situation he will throw them a life-line or they will exceed their own and the reader’s expectations and the story continues.
To call this book a page-turner would be an understatement. I dare anyone to start this book and linger on it. These pages are filled with twists and turns, heart-stopping scenes and cliff-hangers. Just when the reader thinks they know where the story is going and pride themselves on having it all figured out, Coben throws them on another loop and nothing is the way it seemed just a few pages before.
These days, I often pride myself on being able to figure out what exactly is going on before the moment in the story when the writer wants me to know the answers. That was not the case in this book. The resolution of this story took me by surprise as much as it did the characters in the book, which for me only added to the reading enjoyment.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good thriller, but I guess those people have probably been reading Coben’s books for years. Therefore, I would also tell people who don’t usually read thrillers but would like to try one, to pick up Stay Close. I would be surprised if they didn’t turn around and stay with the genre. Because this is one terrific read.
July 8, 2012
Stay Close is the latest of Harlan Coben's standalone thrillers. It thrilled me slightly less than The Little Mermaid ride at Disneyland.
A lot of people get killed. Nobody really cares. Least of all this reader.
The "twist" is obvious. The killer is neither here nor there. And the "freaky" terror couple are as scary as those gay hitmen from that old Bond movie. They remind me of nothing so much as rejects from an old Modesty Blaise novel.
If you told me Harlan Coben dictated Stay Close over the telephone while stuck in New Jersey traffic, I wouldn't be surprised. It reads like a lazy mishmash of leftover characters and plot.
A lot of people get killed. Nobody really cares. Least of all this reader.
The "twist" is obvious. The killer is neither here nor there. And the "freaky" terror couple are as scary as those gay hitmen from that old Bond movie. They remind me of nothing so much as rejects from an old Modesty Blaise novel.
If you told me Harlan Coben dictated Stay Close over the telephone while stuck in New Jersey traffic, I wouldn't be surprised. It reads like a lazy mishmash of leftover characters and plot.
April 25, 2022
Bila bi nula da nije detektiva koji je mega car i simpatičnog preokreta na kraju.
March 31, 2022
3.5 ⭐
Nije loše. Htjela sam gledati seriju, a onda sam otkrila da je snimljena po knjizi i eto...
Nije loše. Htjela sam gledati seriju, a onda sam otkrila da je snimljena po knjizi i eto...
June 30, 2023
"Everyone's a WiseAss"
- One of the characters says in this book. There cannot be a better assessment of this book. Every character, including the supporting ones, speaks the same way, dripping sarcasm and corny one-liners. There are no other differentiating traits. Yes, everyone is a wiseass, not just an ass.
And every character says 'You are kidding, right?' at least once. What else do you expect from wise-asses?
The book was too long, going into the backstory of each and every character, the police detective, the manager of the strip joint, the barmaid, the victim's father, the bouncer/ Ray's boss. I don't understand why writers find it mandatory to fill pages, without adding any value. What was the need for Megan's mother-in-law's story? Even the caricature villains, Ken and Barbie have a backstory and very interesting relationship goals. Don't know if HC wanted us to feel sympathy for their victims by describing their methods of torture (not too graphic, but implied). But I found it ridiculous.
Every character has too many inner conflicts and they go on and on, spouting philosophy of love, life and death. I could have picked up a self-help book instead. (the genre that I hate, BTW). Grown-up muscular men (like the bouncer, Fester) giving sugary cheesy quotes about romance, gave me diabetes. (I am ok if women do the same. Call me sexist, I am fine)
The plot, which HC recycles in every book of his, has nothing new to offer. If anyone doesn't understand the meaning of Deja Vu, please read books by Harlan Coben.
I don't know why Broome felt so compelled to find the missing Steward Greene. Everyone assumed he had run away with the stripper. There was apparently no crime, as he was an adult and could go wherever he wanted.
The heroine keeps reminiscing how great her life as a stripper was! I guess she should put that in her LinkedIn profile.
I kinda knew how this would turn out to be, after reading the blurb which sounded exactly like the 10 other books of HC that I have read. Then why did I pick up this book? OCD I guess, I am always drawn to HC books, as I had really enjoyed the first 6-7 of his books that I read :-( I have a few other physical books on my shelf. I should probably hide them behind the shelves and pretend that they were never there.
And every character says 'You are kidding, right?' at least once. What else do you expect from wise-asses?
The book was too long, going into the backstory of each and every character, the police detective, the manager of the strip joint, the barmaid, the victim's father, the bouncer/ Ray's boss. I don't understand why writers find it mandatory to fill pages, without adding any value. What was the need for Megan's mother-in-law's story? Even the caricature villains, Ken and Barbie have a backstory and very interesting relationship goals. Don't know if HC wanted us to feel sympathy for their victims by describing their methods of torture (not too graphic, but implied). But I found it ridiculous.
Every character has too many inner conflicts and they go on and on, spouting philosophy of love, life and death. I could have picked up a self-help book instead. (the genre that I hate, BTW). Grown-up muscular men (like the bouncer, Fester) giving sugary cheesy quotes about romance, gave me diabetes. (I am ok if women do the same. Call me sexist, I am fine)
The plot, which HC recycles in every book of his, has nothing new to offer. If anyone doesn't understand the meaning of Deja Vu, please read books by Harlan Coben.
I don't know why Broome felt so compelled to find the missing Steward Greene. Everyone assumed he had run away with the stripper. There was apparently no crime, as he was an adult and could go wherever he wanted.
The heroine keeps reminiscing how great her life as a stripper was! I guess she should put that in her LinkedIn profile.
I kinda knew how this would turn out to be, after reading the blurb which sounded exactly like the 10 other books of HC that I have read. Then why did I pick up this book? OCD I guess, I am always drawn to HC books, as I had really enjoyed the first 6-7 of his books that I read :-( I have a few other physical books on my shelf. I should probably hide them behind the shelves and pretend that they were never there.
April 3, 2022
A compelling and undemanding crime novel. I’ll admit that this was a little less domestic than I’d anticipated and the context threw me a little initially. But it’s action-packed and propulsive. It asked for little from me and kept me entertained during a busy week. Looking forward to watching the Netflix adaption now.
March 5, 2017
17 years ago, Stuart Green disappeared. The one thing detective Broom understands is Stuart visited La Crem, a strip club, on a continual basis. He's had this case since day 1 and will not give up on finding Stuart. Meghan, formerly Cassie's, used to strip iat La Crem and date Stuart. The night Stuart disappeared, Cassie found him in the park, badly beaten and near death. She left the life of a stripper and made a new one where she's married with two kids but missing her old life in comparison to her boring life as a housewife. One night she returns to La Crem and everything is forever changed and now she's fighting to save her life, her family and her new lifestyle.
This author was a surprise for me. I think someone recommended this book to me and I'm glad I read it. The storyline never focused on the killer but each person and how their involvement will lead to getting to the truth. The narration was exceptional and kept the story lively and visible to me. Who the killer is will surprise you.
This author was a surprise for me. I think someone recommended this book to me and I'm glad I read it. The storyline never focused on the killer but each person and how their involvement will lead to getting to the truth. The narration was exceptional and kept the story lively and visible to me. Who the killer is will surprise you.
February 16, 2022
Coben puts his usual twists and turns into this book- just as I thought I figured out what was going on, he would throw a plot twist in there that totally surprised me, By the end of the book, I had a hard time putting it down.
March 6, 2023
Can't wait to never watch the Netflix adaptation. Suppose its nice to read a shit book every now and then as a palette cleanser
March 5, 2023
Un thriller parfait. Sobre, efficace, aucune longueur, rythme du début à la fin.
Un personnage central, "Cassie", d'une apparente grande banalité: serveuse-entraîneuse dans un bar à strip tease reconvertie dans une vie peinarde de bourgeoise banale. Mais elle va, sur une petite envie fantaisiste qui devrait être sans lendemain, ranimer une enquête vieille de quasi vingt ans. Le thriller parfait, captivant.
Un personnage central, "Cassie", d'une apparente grande banalité: serveuse-entraîneuse dans un bar à strip tease reconvertie dans une vie peinarde de bourgeoise banale. Mais elle va, sur une petite envie fantaisiste qui devrait être sans lendemain, ranimer une enquête vieille de quasi vingt ans. Le thriller parfait, captivant.
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