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Harlan Coben is a nice guy. I had the chance to interview him a few years ago, while he was still writing his successful and wildly entertaining Myron Bolitar series. That conversation, as well as the email chatter we exchanged before and after the interview, had the same comfortable, effortless humor one might encounter over beers with a buddy. Coben exudes nice-guy-ness in his personality and in his prose, a fact that is all the more interesting since he has built a career on making up stories about people killing each other.
But then, Coben's protagonists are nice guys, too. That may be one of the qualities that draw fans to Coben's work in ever increasing droves. Harlan Coben writes about nasty things happening to nice people, who then find a way to overcome --- and get some major payback.
NO SECOND CHANCE is a prime example. The third stand-alone novel in what loyal Coben fans hope is nothing more than an extended intermission in the Myron Bolitar series, NO SECOND CHANCE jumps out of the blocks with an opening sentence that is a bit like a trapdoor. Get anywhere near that sentence and suddenly --- WHOA! --- you've fallen in, chapters whizzing by as you sink deeper and deeper into the story.
Dr. Marc Seidman is a plastic surgeon specializing in reconstructive surgery. He's also a nice guy --- not a boy scout, but a decent human being. One day Marc wakes up in a hospital bed he has been laying in for twelve days to the realization that he and Monica, his wife, have been shot while standing in their own kitchen. Monica was killed in the shooting and Tara, the couple's infant daughter, is missing.
A ransom message soon restores Marc's hope that Tara is alive. But in a decision no one should have to make, Marc ignores the kidnapper's warning and alerts the police. It's a move that Marc lives to regret, as the bad guys make off with the ransom money --- supplied by Marc's wealthy but cold-hearted father-in-law --- and with Tara. Marc is left to bear the unthinkable burden of the loss of his daughter, clinging against hope that she is somehow still alive, despite evidence to the contrary.
But then, eighteen months later, another ransom message is delivered, along with evidence that Tara is alive. With each step Marc makes to recover his daughter, the mystery of the shootings, his wife's death and Tara's kidnapping seems to recede into darker and darker shadows.
While Coben's fans may miss the Myron Bolitar series, there is little to complain about. Like it's predecessors, NO SECOND CHANCE is a taught thriller, peppered generously with often-funny dialogue. It's the combination that made the Bolitar series so readable and so popular and earned the author a shelf-straining string of awards. But by sending Myron off for a bit of "R and R", Coben has given himself a chance to stretch out beyond the bounds of established characters and fan expectations to try his hand at material that is a bit darker, a shade more ominous. Familiar elements remain, however.
Family is a strong theme in all of Coben's work and NO SECOND CHANCE is no exception. While Marc Seidman attempts to unravel the tragic events in his own life, he continues to deal with the everyday burden of love, duty and guilt that define his less than comfortable relationship with his parents, who live in the same neighborhood, only blocks away. The very house Marc lives in was once the home of another family, whose secrets, once whispered in schoolyards, are the reality for the troubled Dina Levinsky, an old schoolmate of Mark's who materializes with new secrets that may unlock the mystery at hand.
NO SECOND CHANCE is the latest addition to a body of work by a writer whose skills continue to evolve. Readers, even die-hard Myron Bolitar fans, should be grateful. Coben's work reflects the spark and enthusiasm of someone who truly enjoys what he is doing. Harlan Coben is a nice guy having fun concocting what-ifs rooted in the nightmares of nice guys everywhere. But don't read NO SECOND CHANCE because he's a nice guy. Read it because he's very good at what he does.
--- Reviewed by Bob Rhubart
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