A review by d_sebek
Missing You by Harlan Coben
2.0
You've read this novel before. Cliche ridden cop tropes and ridiculous dialogue riddle this story that tries to tie together a cops love life with her investigation of a terrifying serial killer who disguises his murders as mere "confidence schemes."
NYPD Kat Donovan lives in the shadows of her father's murder and the break up with her fiance a scant 18 years ago. A friend sets her up with a profile on an online dating service to help Kat get back in the game. Of course, scrolling through the profiles, Kat finds her former fiance but his name is changed.
Caught in the turmoil of her old love life Kat still wants to find the truth about her father's murder at the hands of a hit-man. As she digs deeper into the loose ends of her fathers death she is visited by an eighteen year old college student whose mother is missing. The last time she was seen was with a man she had just met on the same dating site Kat recently started visiting.
Needless to say these events attempt to merge together to form a page turning mystery that keeps you guessing until the end. Unfortunately Coben tries to delve into the world of cross-dressing yoga instructors and psychopathic murderers. The characters are hollow, cliche and predictable. Coben does create one memorable scene at the beginning of the novel when a man wakes up buried in a box. Anyone with claustrophobia issues will cringe reading this chapter, creeeeepy. Unfortunately Coben leaves that feeling of confinement and forces us to endure pages of explanation to how the serial killer scam works, it reads like a instruction manual for a wireless printer.
It will be a while before I put a Coben novel back into my too read stack. Too many other good books out there!
NYPD Kat Donovan lives in the shadows of her father's murder and the break up with her fiance a scant 18 years ago. A friend sets her up with a profile on an online dating service to help Kat get back in the game. Of course, scrolling through the profiles, Kat finds her former fiance but his name is changed.
Caught in the turmoil of her old love life Kat still wants to find the truth about her father's murder at the hands of a hit-man. As she digs deeper into the loose ends of her fathers death she is visited by an eighteen year old college student whose mother is missing. The last time she was seen was with a man she had just met on the same dating site Kat recently started visiting.
Needless to say these events attempt to merge together to form a page turning mystery that keeps you guessing until the end. Unfortunately Coben tries to delve into the world of cross-dressing yoga instructors and psychopathic murderers. The characters are hollow, cliche and predictable. Coben does create one memorable scene at the beginning of the novel when a man wakes up buried in a box. Anyone with claustrophobia issues will cringe reading this chapter, creeeeepy. Unfortunately Coben leaves that feeling of confinement and forces us to endure pages of explanation to how the serial killer scam works, it reads like a instruction manual for a wireless printer.
It will be a while before I put a Coben novel back into my too read stack. Too many other good books out there!