Missing You

Starred review from January 27, 2014
An unlikely bond develops between NYPD detective Kat Donovan and 19-year-old Brandon Phelps in this page-turning, stomach-churning standalone from bestseller Coben (Six Years). While exploring a dating site called YouAreJustMyType.com, Kat discovers the photo of Jeff Raynes, her ex-fiancé, who dumped her 18 years earlier. Brandon’s widowed mother, Dana Phelps, has also met someone from that site and is now missing. Several puzzles emerge. What happened to Jeff? What is happening to Dana? What is the real story behind the murder of Kat’s cop father, Henry Donovan, years before? Who is Titus Monroe, the man pulling the strings on the dating site? Coben orchestrates his story perfectly as Kat begins to sense the magnitude of horror at work and Titus becomes aware of her investigation. Once again, Coben has brilliantly used a current trend, in this case Internet dating, to create a can’t-put-it-down thriller. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary Agency.

March 15, 2014
Eighteen years after her fiance dumped her, a New York City police detective runs into him again online, with results that make her head spin and leave several people dead. Given a one-year subscription to YouAreJustMyType.com, Kat Donovan browses languidly through the photos of eligible men looking for love until she sees the face of Jeff Raynes. Although she's not exactly carrying a torch for her ex, she can't resist dropping him a line. His reactions are puzzling. First he doesn't seem to remember her, then he greets her with warm affection, then he says they'd better not continue to be in touch. Jeff's not the only one acting oddly. Brandon Phelps, a college student from Connecticut, comes all the way to New York to ask for Kat's help in finding his missing mother, Dana. Even though he's asked for Kat by name--how does he even know her name?--it's obvious that he's hiding something from the detective whose help he begs. And there's more. When Kat goes to visit Monte Leburne, the dying contract killer who was convicted years ago of shooting her father, another NYPD detective, and the prison nurse puts Leburne into twilight sedation, he denies killing Henry Donovan. No matter where she turns, Kat can't figure out what's going on or whom she can trust. Jeff, who's vanished once more? The unreliable Brandon Phelps? Her partner, Charles "Chaz" Faircloth, who's convinced he's God's gift to Kat? Her father's ex-partner, Capt. Thomas Stagger, who's clearly not telling everything he knows about Donovan's death? Her judo instructor, Aqua, a schizophrenic, homeless sometime transvestite? Her defensive mother, Hazel, who seems determined to protect Donovan's reputation? Her own cherished memories of her father? The setup is irresistible, the twists generously piled on and the climax suitably pulse-pounding, even though best-selling Coben (Six Years, 2013, etc.) is hard-pressed to tie all those complications together or produce a payoff that rises to their deliciously suspenseful levels.

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March 1, 2014
Coben never met a technological device he couldn't turn into a riveting plot element. His latest thriller is no exception. The story examines what can happen to people who use online dating sites, and his hypothesis builds to a truly frightening conclusion. Coben's meticulous plotting and his incorporation of the technology are first-rate. His characterization and dialogue? Not so much. All of Coben's characters, regardless of age, sound like entrants in a Damon Runyon dialogue contest. (The reader keeps waiting for some guy to pull a gat on some doll.) The relentless onslaught of one-liners doesn't help, and the characters themselves, while caught up in the beautifully crafted plot, tend toward cardboard. What sets the plot in motion is when a friend of NYPD detective Kat Donovan enters Kat on an online dating site. She discovers her old boyfriend, now a widower, and tries to contact him; the complications multiply from there. Once again, Coben has expertly constructed and then dismantled a time bomb of a plot. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Perennial best-seller Coben isn't quite hitting on all cylinders this time, but fans of his plot-driven, technologically-fueled thrillers won't have time to notice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2013

Another stand-alone from Coben, after six consecutive No. 1 New York Times best sellers and altogether 24 snash-hit thrillers.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.