Review: Gone Before Goodbye (by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Before I go into my thoughts on this book, one thing I feel compelled to start with is that I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to books written by celebrities and/or other famous public figures who are very much “not” authors.  Part of this could be because I’m a writer myself and understand how much work (blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice) goes into writing something worth reading – in a sense, writing is an activity bordering on “sacred” for me, so I can’t help feeling disappointed when I see celebrities attach their names onto books that they didn’t actually write themselves, but they are given all the credit for it (yes, I’m looking at you, ghostwritten celebrity memoirs).  Now before I get attacked by any fans, I need to make it clear that I am not saying that’s what happened here, since, to Reese’s credit, she has been very forthcoming from the getgo about the fact that she did not write this book herself, rather it is a “collaboration” with established author Harlan Coben. Further, Reese has said in interviews (as well as in the Acknowledgements pages at the back of the book) that she provided the “seed of an idea” for the story and Coben was the one who turned it into “a fully fleshed-out, page-turning thriller” – so yes, I acknowledge that this situation is not on the same level as those ghostwritten books where the “real” author is given little to no recognition.

With that said however, I will be honest in saying that, after finishing this book, I can’t help but wonder about Reese’s involvement in its writing – specifically, did she write some of it or none at all?  The reason I say this is because the entire novel felt very “Coben-esque” in the sense that it read very much like a plotty action thriller with too many macho male characters, too few underdeveloped female characters, and tons of action scenes involving gun fights, helicopters, car and motorcycle chases, death-defying stunts, etc.  In other words, the book seems to be geared more toward Coben’s fans than Reese’s.  I also can’t help but be reminded of a question that had come up back when the Reese Witherspoon/Harlan Coben collaboration was first announced:  given that Reese’s Hello Sunshine media brand “puts women at the center of every story across all platforms” (this is from the blurb on the book’s back cover) and the books she chooses for her Book Club are all written by female authors, why would she choose a male author to collaborate with for her debut novel?  Doesn’t this contradict what Reese tries to do with her brand?  Indeed, judging from her book club picks (for the record, I’m not a Reese fan, but I do follow her book club because majority of the books she chooses to feature happen to fit my reading tastes), I was expecting Reese’s debut novel to be a collaboration with a female author (perhaps one she has featured in her book club) and more in the vein of a high concept literary suspense / thriller with a strong female protagonist at its center.  Turns out I had the wrong expectations.

Don’t get me wrong – this book had an interesting premise and I would say that I did “enjoy” it overall, but it didn’t blow me away.  There were the expected twists and turns (Coben is a seasoned suspense / thriller writer after all), though as usual, I was able to figure most of the plot points out early on, so the suspense portion was a little lacking.  Also, the ending kind of left me scratching my head -- it felt anti-climactic to me given how “action-packed” the rest of the story was (though it could be that I just didn’t “get” the ending).

In any case, this was an overall entertaining read that I’m sure fans of action thrillers will love, but if, like me, you’re not keen on action thrillers, then you might want to temper your expectations if you decide to pick this one up.  Also, one last thing to note is that, given the premise, there are a lot of details related to the medical and technology fields throughout the book – personally, I felt it was a bit much and at times, the technical jargon kind of bogged down parts of the plot, but again, this could just be me not being into the “science-y” stuff…my guess is that this won’t be  a problem for most folks who decide to read this one.

Review: Don't Let Go (by Harlan Coben)

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.