My Rating: 4 stars
I don’t read a whole lot of police procedural books and I
had actually never heard of Harlan Coben before – however I had heard some good
things about this book from a few Goodreads friends and the summary sounded
interesting so when I saw it available for download on Edelweiss, I decided to
try this book out. I’m glad I did so
because this one ended up being a really good book that was immensely readable
and entertaining.
Napoleon Dumas (“Nap” for short) is no ordinary police detective. Sure, he’s got good instincts and a keen eye
for detail and he absolutely excels at what he does – that is, investigating
cases. But he is also a vigilante of
sorts, a guy who is not afraid to put his career and reputation at risk in the
name of justice. The first time we meet
Nap, he is beating up some guy named Trey, hitting him repeatedly with a
baseball bat, eventually breaking his leg and landing him in the hospital. We find out a few chapters later why Nap beat
up this random guy he had no connection with and it turns out to be for a “noble”
cause, but still, as a cop, it isn’t something he should be doing. But Nap
doesn’t really care, as he knows that the beating can’t be traced back to him,
since he covered his tracks well, plus the punk he beat up wouldn’t want to
make a big stink out of it anyway for fear of incriminating himself. Ever since his twin brother Leo’s tragic
death during their senior year in high school 15 years ago, Nap has been an
emotional wreck, exacerbated by the fact that his girlfriend Maura, the love of
his life, also disappeared around the same time. From the day the cops found Leo and his
girlfriend Diana lying dead on the railroad tracks, apparently run over by a
train, Nap refused to believe that the deaths were merely an “accident,” the tragic
result of two reckless teenagers stoked up on alcohol and drugs doing something
careless. For 15 years, Nap is
relentless in his search for the true reason why his brother died and also why
his own girlfriend ran away. When a fellow
cop with a connection to Nap and his brother’s past is gunned down in another
district, Nap is pulled into the investigation and finally has a chance to find
out the truth – but at what expense?
This book drew me in from the opening scene and I found
it difficult to stop reading. From the
beginning, it was already obvious that Nap would be an interesting character,
an anti-hero of sorts -- he was unconventional, irreverent, and had no qualms
about blurring the lines between right and wrong, a guy with more faults than
anyone cared to count…yet you couldn’t bring yourself to dislike him. I actually liked Nap from the beginning,
despite his many flaws, and was rooting for him the entire time that I was
immersed in his story. I also liked Nap’s
sarcastic sense of humor, which had me giggling at times, especially during the
scenes when he would face off against an adversary. The rest of the characters were also
well-drawn, supported by a story with substance and the right amount of mystery
and intrigue to keep readers engaged.
Coben definitely knows how to write a good crime thriller, as there was
a fair amount of twists and turns in this one but nothing too over the
top. Even though I was able to figure
out the “whodunnit” piece relatively early, that did not affect my enjoyment of
this book at all -- perhaps I am just weird, but when it comes to thrillers and
suspense novels, I try to take the “going along for the ride” approach and not
get too caught up in trying to figure out the plot or getting too ahead of
myself.
One of the things that made this book different from
other crime novels is the emotional element, which Coben did a great job of
working into the plot. This was a story
that packed an emotional punch, but wasn’t overdone to the point of
overshadowing the plot. There’s a
certain balance that needs to be had between the characters, plot, the writing,
the suspense elements, the emotional pull, etc. when it comes to books in the thriller /
suspense genre and not all writers are able to bring all the elements together in
a way that still allows the overall story to flow naturally – Coben was able to
do this and do it well! Seeing how much
I enjoyed this book, no doubt that I will be reading more of this author’s
works sometime in the near future. Oh
and even though I am not a fan of book series, I absolutely wouldn’t mind
seeing more of Nap in the future if Coben decides at some point to turn this
stand-alone novel into a series.
Received ARC from
Dutton / Penguin Publishing Group via Edelweiss.
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