Harlan Coben is a popular American thriller writer, an author you consistently see on the bestseller list or at the airport book shop. He was the first writer to win all three top mystery writing awards - the Edgar, the Shamus, and the Anthony.
Tell No One has a great premise. A man and his wife are swimming one night at a lake. As he relaxes on a raft, she goes to the shore - and he hears her scream. She disappears that night, her body found months later and identified. The killer is put away.
We find Dr. David Beck eight years later, haunted by her memory, when he receives a string of emails containing secrets that only his wife would know, his suspicions grow that she may still be alive! Investigating with his college friend - a plus sized model who is dating his sister - and helped by a neighbourhood drug dealer he has befriended, he uncovers a web of conspiracy that goes back several years and includes several other murders. On the run, one step ahead of the police, he doesn't know if it's his wife leading him on or her killer leading him into a trap. Is he crazy? Is she alive? I'll tell no one.
The French thriller film they made - Ne le dis a Personne in 2006 - won the Cesar for Best Direction, Acting, Music, and Editing. They did change Cobens' unique 'plus-sized model best friend' character into Kristen Scott Thomas, but they did a great job.
It's a compelling read, the kind "you can't put down" - I read it in a day. I was impressed that he could hold the tension so long, rolling on like a juggernaut until the final twist on the last pages. It was the first novel of Harlan Coben's I had read, avoiding him mainly because I thought he was too populist to be any good (it is a touch heavy on the generic American on-the-run-from-the-police theme), but it's a compelling enough of a mystery to over look that, and he did pay off. A solid read.
2001 / Paperback / 370 pages
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